'It Couldn't Be More Different' - The Chase For Distance Is Almost Exclusive To Men's Golf, But One Leading College Coach We Spoke To Says A Simple Change Could Help Women Join In

The chase for distance and speed in professional golf has become increasingly prevalent over recent years, particularly in the men's game, as players search for any minute advantage over their monster-hitting peers.

Ball speeds are more regularly reaching 190mph and club-head speed with driver in hand is topping 120mph. As a result, golf balls are sailing well past 300 yards as a matter of habit and no one is really batting an eyelid.

Compared to 20 years ago, the average driving distance of the 50th-place PGA Tour player has increased by 14 yards - from 292 in 2004 to 306 last season.

In terms of average driving distance on the LPGA Tour, there has been a similar level of increase with the 50th-place player going from 254 to 263 yards. Equivalent ball speeds are roughly 145mph and club-head speeds are hovering around 105mph.

Developments from equipment manufacturers and greater attention to strength and conditioning training programs have helped both sides of the pro game push the boundaries of what is possible, distance-wise.

But, according to University of Southern California's women's golf head coach, Justin Silverstein, there will always be limitations on how much progress the women's game can make in terms of distance as long as girls and instructors negate speed training in their teenage years.

On the subject of chasing distance in golf, the long-time USC boss said: "It couldn't be more different, men versus women, as far as chasing distance is concerned. And having coached both sides, I think it goes back to young instruction or maybe like teenage instruction.

"There are very few instructors - and our players work with awesome instructors, like top-100 guys, elite instructors - only a couple of them care about it and try to do something about it.

"I'm very close with Dana Dahlquist who obviously works with Bryson DeChambeau and Jake Knapp now. He's worked with some of the best players in the world. He knows how important it is.

"He coaches the men's side at a high level and we've got three players on our roster right now working with him, two others who just graduated that work with him, and in every lesson it's a 'hey, this is what we're doing long term to try to get more distance.' That is so rare on the women's side as far as dynamically trying to adjust to do it."

Silverstein's current crop of talent at USC includes Jasmine Koo, Bailey Shoemaker and Catherine Park, with previous graduates such as Amari Avery and Amelia Garvey joining Park as some of the bigger hitters the University of Arizona almuni has worked with.

But Silverstein admitted the trio - who were capable of swinging at circa 110mph in college - were already long when they arrived and significant gains were difficult to come by, even with the elite program's incredible attention to detail.

Silverstein said: "Every college golfer trains and some of them have their own individual trainers to do extra stuff, but it's less than the men's side. And it starts way before they get here. I mean, the max speed window from the people I've talked to is, you're looking like 13 to 18 years old, maybe, is when you can probably pick up the most amount of speed.

"You can get stronger in college and pick up a significant amount, but if you really really want to maximize, you've got to get after it a little younger, especially if you play golf at a high level.

"It's something we talked to our strength and conditioning coach about and he's working on it. We're doing everything functionally that we can to get these kids stronger, but really a lot of them on the women's side have unfortunately missed their window for biggest gains, especially because their bodies develop a little bit earlier. That's another factor as well, guys have been developing later than women have, forever.

"I think the more that junior golfers can get with an instructor that maybe isn't so high into positional instructing and more into functionality and speed, especially at a young age, maybe the better off they'll be because the players that we've had were long when they got here.

"We've had people gain distance, but I haven't had anyone go from short to long. I feel like on the guys side, more people grow into that top end speed in college and even young pros than they do on the women's side."