Question:
People here are too quick to condemn this suggestion. Most golfers lose clubhead speed because they start to release their hands much to early. While I think that most folks would agree that creating this lag will help your clubhead speed and distance, it’s questionable in my mind whether this is good advice for most golfers … especially when it’s presented in the form of a general "tip". Actually, I don’t think it’s a general tip.
No argument from me that it’s a prime contributor to distance, but the poster called it a "tip" … says so right in the subject line. I think it’s what Jack Nicklaus was getting at when he said that beginning golfers should be taught to hit the ball far, and then taught how to be more accurate.
I don’t get that at all … seems like a real reach. I’ve read the same comment attributed to Greg Norman too, and I assumed that they just meant to take a good healthy cut at the ball, try to generate good club head speed and don’t "baby" the shot in hopes of hitting it straight. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I find also that when I’m lagging properly, I’m innately more accurate because I tend not to come across the ball, and because the clubhead rotation has been better decoupled from my hands. The past two times at the range I’ve been working specifically on hip-derived power and clubhead lag, and I’m amazed at how tight my shot pattern is with the 5-PW. (The longer clubs need work. I could always blame the R flex.) I often even feel like I just pushed the ball, but when I look up the it’s suspended directly over the pin. It’s going to take a while to get used to that. –Blair "I can wait."
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – While I think that most folks would agree that creating this lag will help your clubhead speed and distance, it’s questionable in my mind whether this is good advice for most golfers … especially when it’s presented in the form of a general "tip". IMHO this is one of the potentially hardest and probably *last* things you want any high or even mid handicapper thinking about. The latest issue of Golf Digest has a teacher in it’s "Breaking 80, 90, 100" section who has this as No. 2 in his "bad advice" list. Yeah I read that and shook my head. It may be true for some high handicappers, but it’s improved my swing quite a lot. If there’s such a thing as a progression of milestones in learning the golf swing, I’d put allowing a proper lag at about the 70% mark. At least for me. I first started noticing a lag in my swing last year when I was practicing my wedges a lot during the winter. I’d take a half swing and "damn," the ball would go a lot further without a whole lot of effort. Since then I’ve been trying to implement it with my other clubs. Seems the lighter and longer the club, the harder it is to do for me. Most likely, a lot of other things have to be set up correctly prior to consciously creating wrist lag, so perhaps that’s why a teaching pro would say hold off. But if you’ve got your posture correct, a good shoulder turn, a proper on plane takeaway, then keeping your wrist angle until centrifigual force whips the clubhead around seems a logical next step to me.
Sounds like we’re vehemently in agreement 8^). It’s a good thing … just a question of when and how important in the learning curve. Just as a point of reference, what’s your handicap … or maybe more inportantly, what was it last year when you first noticed the lag and how much has it improved since? I’m currently at 12.7 and it’s something I occasionally work on at the range but not at the top of my to-do list. Rob
Response:
People here are too quick to condemn this suggestion. Most golfers lose clubhead speed because they start to release their hands much to early. While I think that most folks would agree that creating this lag will help your clubhead speed and distance, it’s questionable in my mind whether this is good advice for most golfers … especially when it’s presented in the form of a general "tip".
Actually, I don’t think it’s a general tip. I think it’s what Jack Nicklaus was getting at when he said that beginning golfers should be taught to hit the ball far, and then taught how to be more accurate. I find also that when I’m lagging properly, I’m innately more accurate because I tend not to come across the ball, and because the clubhead rotation has been better decoupled from my hands. The past two times at the range I’ve been working specifically on hip-derived power and clubhead lag, and I’m amazed at how tight my shot pattern is with the 5-PW. (The longer clubs need work. I could always blame the R flex.) I often even feel like I just pushed the ball, but when I look up the it’s suspended directly over the pin. It’s going to take a while to get used to that. –Blair "I can wait."
Response:
While I think that most folks would agree that creating this lag will help your clubhead speed and distance, it’s questionable in my mind whether this is good advice for most golfers … especially when it’s presented in the form of a general "tip". IMHO this is one of the potentially hardest and probably *last* things you want any high or even mid handicapper thinking about. The latest issue of Golf Digest has a teacher in it’s "Breaking 80, 90, 100" section who has this as No. 2 in his "bad advice" list.
Yeah I read that and shook my head. It may be true for some high handicappers, but it’s improved my swing quite a lot. If there’s such a thing as a progression of milestones in learning the golf swing, I’d put allowing a proper lag at about the 70% mark. At least for me. I first started noticing a lag in my swing last year when I was practicing my wedges a lot during the winter. I’d take a half swing and "damn," the ball would go a lot further without a whole lot of effort. Since then I’ve been trying to implement it with my other clubs. Seems the lighter and longer the club, the harder it is to do for me. Most likely, a lot of other things have to be set up correctly prior to consciously creating wrist lag, so perhaps that’s why a teaching pro would say hold off. But if you’ve got your posture correct, a good shoulder turn, a proper on plane takeaway, then keeping your wrist angle until centrifigual force whips the clubhead around seems a logical next step to me.
Response:
Have noticed one of the top lpga players has a noticeable lag, whose drive tops out at 250 yards. There must be some advantage to this feature, or it wouldn’t be used to the extent it is. v