When asked does lag increase distance in the golf swing the short answer is yes. Basically if you can create an increased amount of lag in the downswing, angles are created which allow for increased clubhead speed. Increased clubhead speed + increased ball speed = increased distance.
Unfortunately if you’ve ever tried to hold lag, you have to get timing such that your body is in a good position when striking the golf ball. Otherwise your body may have cleared and the clubface could be wide open at impact. That is initially what I ran into. And why?
Do You Cast The Club?
Well, a number of years ago I went in for a club fitting. My swing was recorded as I went through a number of woods and hybrids. I wanted a club or clubs which would hit between 180 to 210 yards. In the end a 3 hybrid and 3 wood were recommended but the pro mentioned one more thing. He wanted me to watch the video. The very first thing he mentioned was that I was casting the club. I asked him to explain it to me.
He said to think of it this way. You have the maximum amount of angle between the left arm and shaft at the top of the backswing. Casting results with the loss of that angle. I was losing (casting) that angle almost immediately in the downswing and as a result was losing clubhead speed. He mentioned that the clubface was moving away from my body as soon as the downswing started and that was a big no-no.
I was told to think of what it takes to snap a towel. Maximum wrist angle. Then try to snap that same towel without the wrist angle. The towel would just float through the air.
Steps To Use Lag To Increase Distance In The Golf Swing
- Your wrists must be fully hinged half way into the downswing (think left arm parallel). This is in contrast to having fully hinged wrists at the top of the backswing.
- Keep shoulders lagging behind the movement of hips when you start the downswing
- Pretend there is a wall behind you and drag your clubhead down that wall
Many amateur golfers start the downswing with a movement of the right shoulder and throwing the clubhead immediately at the golf ball. Instead of that, move the hips to the left (don’t immediately rotate) and then drop the arms while maintaining lag.
Drop The Ball Test
Speed can absolutely come from the wrists. You might want to put a hockey helmet on for this drill. Take a golf ball and drop it from your chest height onto a concrete surface. Just drop the ball. Nothing more than that. See how far the ball bounces up. Now without incorporating any body movement or wrist movement, drop/push the ball down to the concrete floor with your hand, arms, and shoulders but do not use any body or wrist action. How far does the ball fly up? Further than the first time. Finally, use a combination of wrist, arm, and shoulder action (again no body turn or movement) and see how high the ball flies.
For my own safety sake, I did this exercise using my golf mat. I prefer to keep my teeth.
No Lag Equals Lack Of Clubhead Speed
Now lets hit a golf ball. Take a normal swing using your body but no setting of the wrist. No wrist angles. You are only hitting the ball with your body. You will find the ball won’t go very far. A similar thing will happen if you cast the club. You lose clubhead speed along with distance and unfortunately if that is your go-to swing, it makes the game of golf that much more difficult.
Hinge – Unhinge – Rehinge
You want the lag but you don’t want to hold on to the lag. Make sense? What I mean is that it does absolutely no good if you have maximum lag when the left arm is at parallel (hinge) and then don’t release that lag (unhinge) as you are going through the golf ball. In fact, I’ll take it a step further. Hitting to 1 o’clock is sort of a push and will reduce clubhead speed.
What is necessary is for the clubhead to release and close (rehinge) after it hits the ball. I call this butt to butt.
When the butt of the club is pointing towards the target in the downswing, the goal is to get that butt to move very quickly in the opposite direction. If you look at the picture above with the red X on it, there was never any release. This drastically reduces clubhead speed.
Does Lag Increase Distance?
Now contrast the casting of the club to this picture below. Not left arm parallel but plenty of lag.
Bottom line. Does lag increase distance in the golf swing? Yes. How does the ability to have lag and release lag equate to distance? It is said that when it comes to driver, you can add 20 to 30 yards by properly incorporating lag in the golf swing. Combine this with a swing speed trainer and you can really see some distance gains in your golf swing.