The Pursuit of Scratch · Performance Log

Quest for 180

Nine months, five training pillars, one number. Tracking clubhead speed, ball speed and every session that moves the needle between now and March 2027.

Connecting…
169 mph ball speed
Days to March 2027
mph to go
Current phase
Best speed-session mph
Smash factor
Months logged
The point of the number

The objective is not to swing at maximum effort on the golf course. It is to raise my speed ceiling high enough that a 116 mph driver swing feels smooth, balanced and repeatable, producing 165 to 170 mph ball speed under playing conditions.

180 mph is the training ceiling, not the required playing speed — the higher the ceiling, the easier a comfortable swing becomes.

Targets

Two different jobs, two sets of numbers

Training targets push the ceiling as high as it will go. On-course targets describe what a comfortable, repeatable playing swing should look like once that ceiling has risen.

Training targets — March 2027

Maximum ball speed180 mph
Maximum club speed122–124 mph
Best five ball-speed average175 mph+
High-speed strike efficiency1.45+

On-course targets — next season

Comfortable club speed114–116 mph
Normal ball speed165–170 mph
Smash factor1.43–1.47
Spin2,000–2,800 rpm
Expected carry window275–290 yds
Shot shapePredictable one-way pattern
Starting position

Where this began

The evidence collected so far — the July session gives the current training baseline; earlier TrackMan data shows what's already been achieved.

Absolute ball-speed PB170.4 mph
Absolute club-speed PB on TrackMan114.9 mph
On-course ball-speed PB168.0 mph
On-course club-speed PB114.0 mph
Current session average club speed110.2 mph
Current session peak ball speed164.1 mph
Current average ball speed155.3 mph

The progression from here: restore 170 mph → make 165 mph routine → raise maximum speed beyond 175 mph → transfer 116 mph smoothly to the course → peak at 180 mph in training.

Periodisation

Four phases, one target

Each phase has its own job — build the engine, convert it to golf speed, sharpen it, then peak for competition.

Trend

Ball speed and on-course club speed over time

Plotted from the monthly log below, against the same benchmark path from the training programme.

Monthly log

Testing days

Recorded every four weeks: ten drivers on the launch monitor plus the strength and power markers. Speed reserve is the gap between speed-session max and on-course club speed — the smaller it gets, the more of the ceiling is becoming usable on course.

Month Speed-session max On-course club speed Speed reserve Ball speed Best 5 avg ball speed Smash Carry avg Carry peak Trap bar DL Broad jump Med ball throw Notes
Personal bests

Best on record

Explore

Rest of the hub

The scorecard lives here. The session-by-session detail lives next door.

How this page updates
  1. This page now updates itself. Log a testing session on Baseline Testing — the gauge, hero stats, chart, monthly log and personal bests below all pull live from that data.
  2. The mapping: speedSessionMax ← SpeedStick maximum club speed, onCourseClubSpeed and ballSpeed ← the driver + launch monitor session, trapBarDeadlift, broadJump and medBallThrow ← the matching baseline tests.
  3. Smash factor is calculated automatically from the driver session's average club speed and ball speed.
  4. bestFiveBallSpeed, carryAvg and carryPeak aren't captured by the baseline tool yet, so those columns stay blank unless entered directly in the QUEST_DATA block below as before.
  5. The July 2026 entry below is the historical starting point recorded before this tool existed — it's kept as a fixed first row, with everything logged on Baseline Testing appearing after it in date order.