Lesson: The Lag

Jeff was originally from Eau Claire and the head professional at a golf course where I ended up being the teaching pro for 7 years. He was extremely friendly and as we became friends I learned that he lifted weights religiously 4 to 5 days a week. As a result Jeff was powerfully built, and if he ever had the inclination to punch someone, he would have knocked him into next week. At the time I could not find a driver that I liked. I was teeing off with a 14.5 degree Hogan metal 3 wood. When Jeff & I would play together I would consistently hit my 3 wood ten to fifteen yards past his best drive. "Is that my 3 wood up there? Gosh, how can a little guy like me hit his 3 wood past your driver? Good thing you lift all the time." Jeff being good-natured took my ribbing quite well, but I could see below the surface he was bothered by his lack of distance. My point here is not to toot my own horn, but that I knew exactly why Jeff was not hitting it farther and showed him why on camera.

Towards the end of our second season Jeff started driving it past me as I had predicted he would. I certainly deserved it when Jeff would say, "Hey Rink is that my drive past yours? How did that happen?"

Jeff's problem was that he was losing his "club head lag" or "angle" on the downswing. The angle between the left arm & the shaft on the downswing, as viewed from the side (right handed golfer), must be at least 90 degrees. The smaller the angle is between the left arm & the shaft on the downswing the better. The smaller the angle or the more acute it is the more club head speed there will be at the ball. The longer the 90-degree angle is maintained on the downswing the better. When this angle opens up to soon a tremendous amount of speed is lost. When we started working on this, Jeff's angle was significantly larger than mine on the downswing. As his angle kept getting smaller or closer to 90 degrees he started hitting it further eventually past me.

Take a look at the pictures on this page and look at the angle between their left arms & the shaft. It is obvious once you see it and know what to look for. Go through some of the golf magazines you have at home and look at all the pictures of the swing when the golfer is somewhere about half way down on the downswing. Some golfer's angles may be less than 90 degrees, which is even better, but I cannot think of one picture I have seen where it is greater than 90 degrees.