Clubhead lag

Hi golfers,

I would like to know what lag FEELS like to you. I am working on my hands being ahead of the ball at impact, and when I feel I have it, I view my swing and it's not quite there. I am hitting down on the ball however, but I am having trouble feeling my hips open 30* at impact position. It looks very square.

My setup is good, and my swingplane is good. Perhaps too much grip and arm pressure?? Divots are in front of ball also. Any drills for feeling proper extension after impact?

Thanks

Hi Shooter,

You have two questions here,

The 1st point, Lag, I find the best way to feel lag is to seperate the hands on the grip(about 4 inches apart) and swing normally you should feel the lag and the wrist rotation, also this can help with the correct follow through.

Your 2nd point drills for the follow through extention, if you tee the ball a few inches past your left foot and swing normally you will have to extent to reach the ball.

If you are finding it difficult to feel the extention it may be because you are trying to feel it during the swing, extention is natural if you are relaxed.
Try swinging the club first then evaluate the swing after, not at the same time.

A good tip for practice is to hit every shot with a clear mind then assess what you did or didn't do after, everyone can remember what they did a few second ago.

Hope this helps


Ian.

Don't get too technical is my advice.

If you analyze your swing on video, the hands should be marginally ahead of the golf ball at impact. When I say marginal, the tour pro's I work with have an angle of 6 degrees or so. Vijay Singh, Tiger, Ernie ... all about the same. Good amateurs have 2 or 3 degrees and the average amateur is either square and slightly behind by 2 or 3 degrees.

You shouldn't be WAY ahead of the ball because then you will be delofting the club and then the engineering of the club gets out of kilter. The loft, offset, weight, centre of gravity - they are all designed and manufactured with a zero-degree of forward lean at impact.

Really the lag should feel like the club is behind the hands towards impact from the right hip forwards to impact (that last few feet) and not really at impact exactly ... it is a swing motion, not an impact position.

Don't be too stressed about the hips either being 30* open at impact. Every golfer develops their own position at impact, but provided your hips are not closed you're fine. If you're a seriously technical-orientated low handicap golfer and you need to work towards 'ideal' then sure, have a look at the degrees ...

If you like, I'll send a copy of an article I have from Golf Digest that deals with this.

__________________
Golf is easy ... once you know how.
Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
Class 'A' PGA Member
Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

Thanks for the input folks. My journey continues...