Get an in-depth look at Gary Woodland’s swing in this swing analysis. Learn how he became ‘The King of Lag’ and the mechanics in his golf swing that create maximum power and control, and allowed him to become a four-time winner on the PGA TOUR, and US Open Champion!
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when you think of the professional golf swing with the most lag a lot of people would think about Sergio Garcia maybe Tiger Woods or even someone newer like walking nean but when it comes to the very fundamentals that create lag and create really great distance in the golf swing I think Gary Woodland is the absolute king of it so let’s talk a little bit about Gary and his golf swing what we can learn in order to create some more lag in the golf swing and hit that ball just a little bit further so let’s start off real quick by addressing what exactly lag is in a more technical term what lag would be considered is the angle between the shaft of your club and the forearm or the edge of your hand in the golf swing what lag essentially does is it creates what a lot of people would refer to as it’s kind of like cracking a whip and and letting th those hands fall down and then if the club is just kind of lagging behind where your hands are that’s essentially what lag is in a more quantitative way just looking at it uh it’s something that you can definitely notice in a lot of these Real Time videos of Gary Woodland’s golf swing so obviously because that club head is lagging behind the hands especially with driver you are going to just inherently be increasing your Club head speed and because of that increasing your distance so the real Genesis of why so many people want lag in their Golf String is just to hit the ball further so let’s look at how Gary Woodland who is a four-time PJ tour winner obviously won the major the 2019 Us open at Pebble let’s look at how Woodland can establish lag in his golf swing many golfers use wrist hinge and Gary does use wrist hinge in his golf swing but as he’s taken the club away he has fairly passive wrists up through that ball or up through the takeaway rather and then those wrists really start to do some cocking right in the transitionary move and then from there W has a really interesting shallowing move where actually you can kind of see that the his swing is beginning the down swing is beginning before that takeaway ends and this is something that you can see very well in a slow motion video like this so again nice outside takeaway that the club face is a little bit outside the hands wrist stay passive maybe a little bit of flex right there the hinge and then that hip rotation really creates a lot of energy and then the hands and the club head lag behind that so really it’s a very it’s a mixture of not only that wrist hinge right in that transitionary move right here where that wrist start and then it comes back in but it’s also just a level of potential energy and inertia that’s created between starting the down swing before that back swing is completed because those hands come down and they shallow across his body with such great force but at the very beginning of that move the club head is still back there so that dichotomy between the two energy forces I apologize for getting too scientific here but lag is certainly a scientific aspect of the golf swing so very interesting there now another thing I want to draw anyone’s attention to is the left hip so you see that left hip really clearing out wonderfully in the downswing so much of Woodland’s power comes from those hips and you can actually see that a lot of that power is being transferred onto the front foot David lead better who’s done some analysis and some work with Gary Woodland wants a lot of people to feel a lot of pressure on that front foot and then feel that pressure go into the heel when that pressure goes into the heel you’re opening up those hips a little bit more in order to create some more energy and you can see that pressure go into the heel and Woodland swing so much so that especially with driver that foot will almost entirely leave the ground and you can see that weight really on the outside and the back of that left foot that’s just a great demonstration of a great visual of how effective weight transfer can affect the footwork you you see his toe moves so close to the to the start line that he wants to go on and that’s really not something unusual we see a lot of great golfers who hit the ball a mile you need to create a ton of energy to do that and that energy has to course its way through the body one thing that I do want everyone to know about lag is that simply put it’s not easy it takes a really really great deal of practice and understanding of your own mechanics to properly Implement and leverage lag in your golf swing so what I would say from an instructional standpoint is that if you’re a 20 handicap you know you’re shooting mid to high 90s maybe in the hundreds turning to lag as a way to improve your golf game that’s not where I would start personally even if you need some more distance there are more efficient ways to do it now if you’re say a a two handicapper and you don’t hit the ball too far but you’re you’re a very good ball strike or lag could be something to turn to if you’re willing to put in the practice in time but by and large an amateur golfer trying to implement lag may have a very tough time because it’s such a succinct motion and it requires such Precision that a lot of just casual weekend golfers it would probably do them worse to try and implement it and force it and maybe uh lack some synchronization in their golf swing so so just a little word to the wise there for anyone who’s really considering lag just to know the potential drawbacks as well as the benefits and how to properly implement it in your own golf swing if you have any other questions or comments on Gary Woodland’s golf swing or the concept of lag and how it can play a role in your golf game please leave them in the comment section down below as always thank you all very much for watching play well and take care
1 Comment
So close to the right explanation. For nearly every golf coach (or at least those on YT) lag is to do with wrist angles which as the video hints at but does not explain fully is fundamentally about inertia at the transition between backswing and downswing.
That should lead to the obvious questions which are what is the inertia in the swing and how is it created.
The scientific definition of Inertia is the tendency of objects in motion to stay in motion and objects at rest to stay at rest, unless a force causes its speed or direction to change.
What that means in the context of a golf swing is that the club head will continue to move in the direction imparted by the backswing until enough force is applied to the club grip end in the downswing to stop and then reverse that momentum.
The critical point is that we do not create lag by changing wrist angles, the change in wrist angles is a consequence of the lag.
The inertia definition also shows 2 ways to increase lag: swing harder in the backswing so that the club head has more momentum when you get to transition (the Bryson method) or be gentler in transition to the point of having a pause at the top of the backswing (Hideki method) so it takes longer to generate a force in the downswing the overrides the momentum of the club head in the backswing direction. Personally I prefer the second method.
Two final and important points: if you grip the club hard enough to strangle it you will also severely strangle the creation of lag, grip it lightly and let inertia create the wrist angles for you; and if you have limited wrist movement because of injuries be gentle!