Shot Scope Has Women Gaining 8 Yards Off the Tee. Arccos Has Them Losing 3.5 Since 2018.

Two datasets, two directions

Golf Monthly reports the average female club golfer at 185 yards in 2026, up from 177 the year before, with scratch-or-better women averaging 237 yards and 25-handicappers 167. The Arccos report, based on nearly 10 million driver tee shots recorded during the 2025 calendar year, has the women's aggregate at 175.7 yards, down from 179.2 in 2018 — a three-and-a-half yard loss over eight years. Both are large, real-world samples. They are not the same sample, they are not measured the same way, and the user bases behind them differ in age and skill mix, which is the most likely explanation for a nine-yard gap in the headline number. MyGolfSpy's reading of the Arccos figures is blunter still: it argues the recreational distance crisis is essentially fiction, for men and women alike.

Verified Data

185 yds

Average female handicap golfer, 2026 Shot Scope data via Golf Monthly — up 8 yards on 177 last year

175.7 yds

Women's aggregate average in the 2026 Arccos report, down from 179.2 yards in 2018

2 pts

Fairways-hit difference between women's best and worst handicap groups in the Arccos data

Source: Golf Monthly.

Handicap moves the needle, not the calendar

Where the two datasets do agree is that skill dominates. In the Arccos numbers, women from scratch to 4.9 average 220 yards while 30-plus handicaps average 145 — a 75-yard spread, wider in percentage terms than the equivalent men's gap. A low-handicap woman in her forties out-drives a high-handicap woman in her twenties by a comfortable margin. Women & Golf also flags the finding that most directly contradicts received wisdom: across women's handicap groups, the difference in fairways hit is about two percentage points. Hitting it shorter is not buying you accuracy.

Why we don't fit anyone to an average

This is the case against fitting off a table. Two reputable sources cannot agree within nine yards on what an average woman hits her driver, and the honest spread inside either dataset is 70 yards or more. An average built from other people's rounds is not a specification for your golf ball. What matters for ball selection is your own delivered numbers — speed, launch, spin, and how much wedge spin you actually keep — not a benchmark you happen to sit above or below. BallFIT is free and brand-agnostic for that reason: we have nothing to sell you at the end of it, so there is no incentive to talk you into a ball built for a golfer who doesn't exist.