Velocity of a Tiger Woods Drive, Energy Lost During Impact and Force to Drive Golf Ball

Kim³ suggests that Tiger Woods swings his golf clubs so that the club head has a speed of 130 mph, which is ~ 58.1 m/s

Using equation 5 and the values that a typical club head has a mass of 200g, ball has a mass of 46g, and elasticity of a ball is 0.70.
5) vf = [MVi(1 + e)] / (M + m)

vf = (0.2 kg)(58.1 m/s)(1.7) / 0.246 kg

Tiger woods sends the golf ball flying at a speed of 80.3 m/s which is ~ 180 mph

Using equation 6 to find his club head speed after impact
6) Vf = Vi(M - me) / (M + m)

Vf = 58.1 m/s(0.2kg - 0.046kg•0.7) / 0.246kg

Vf = 39.6 m/s

To calculate the energy lost during the impact use equation 7

7) W = -(0.5MVf² + 0.5mvf² - 0.5MVi²)

=-(0.5•0.200kg•39.6m/s² + 0.5•0.046kg•80.3m/s² - 0.5•0.200kg•58.1m/s²)
= 32.6 J

Daish² shows through flash photographs that the impact lasts for 0.5ms, thus to calculate the average force of his drive we use Newton's second law F = ma
where a = change in velocity / change in time

F = 0.046kg•80.3m/s / 0.0005s or
F = 7390 N

Since this is an average force, the maximum force put on the golf ball is twice this amount, therefore:

F_max = 14780 N

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