I recently discovered that I was behind the curve in terms of the average 3-wood distances for amateur golfers at my age, which surprised me as I am currently performing above average for 3-wood distance for amateur golfers by handicap.
According to the latest Shot Scope data, the average amateur golfer in their 30s hits their 3-wood 226 yards, a whopping 20 yards further than my typical efforts.
That figure has actually improved from my 2025 average of around 180 yards, after eight weeks of a personalised winter golf rebuild, perhaps due to a boost in my clubhead speed.
This could also be the result of the 5 fitness exercises that have helped me become a better golfer, but either way I was confident that the trajectory of my game was on the rise.
After all, I was now occasionally hitting my driver over 240 yards as a 22-handicapper, which left me considering what I needed to do to bridge a pretty sizeable distance gap between the big stick and my 3-wood.
I'd be very interested to know if this gulf exists for other amateur golfers, and how you compare to the 3-wood distance averages for your age, so drop me a comment at the bottom of this article to help me feel a little better (or worse) as I scratch my head...
Average 3-Wood Distance (By Age): I'm Still Behind The Curve
Before we go any further, let's take a look at the data for amateur golfers so that you can compare your distance with 3-wood against the average.
Age Group |
Average Distance |
20 |
218 |
30 |
226 |
40 |
222 |
50 |
214 |
60 |
201 |
Similarly to the average driving distance with driver for male amateurs, we see a clear correlation between distance and age.
Golfers in their 20s and 30s tend to hit the ball further than those in their 40s, 50s and 60s (on average), and distance tends to decline with age.
An amateur golfer in their 20s hits their 3-wood 218-yards on average, which is marginally shorter than an amateur in their 30s - who sends it 226 yards on average (as eluded to earlier).
A golfer in their 40s (222 yards), 50s (214 yards) and 60s (201 yards) all have a shorter hit on average with their 3-wood than the 20s and 30s age range, but the numbers at this end of the spectrum are not dissimilar to what I am seeing on the course.
As part of my exploration into how I can ramp up these numbers and close the distance gap between my woods and my driver, I asked my winter rebuild coach Alex James for some advice in my most recent lesson.
We checked 3-wood ball position and other recent themes such as my swing plane and hip rotation in the golf swing, but despite seeing a more consistently centred strike with irons, I was not achieving this with my woods.
My colleague Johnny Percival also recently lost 20 yards with every club and his game fell apart, further outlining the importance of distance in the modern game, but a pro setup tweak helped to fix his problem.
Rather than focusing on the negatives, I am going to take the positives from my recent improvement and appreciate the power that golf lessons have in driving progress (as evidenced by Johnny's experience).
Syncing up the clubhead speed improvements with the swing changes to create the perfect distance storm is a personal target of mine moving forwards, with a clear plan for the range as I look to chase down those average numbers and strive for a handicap cut in 2026.
