Is Too Much Lag Killing Your Swing?

Adding lag in your backswing by opening your trailing hand FINGERS may be killing your swing. Two days after I played an amazing low round of golf, I returned with every expectation of a wonderful repeat performance. Unfortunately, the harder I tried the worst my drives, woods and hybrids got. For some reason, I was salvaging my game by hitting wonderful short iron shots. Why were the long clubs all spraying to the right and killing my game?

My flexibility, straight arm swing rotation and transition were allowing me to hit longer than I normally hit but my direction control was some how messed up.

Fortunately, after a few bad rounds of golf, I saw a swing control video by Martin Chuck (Revolution Golf Tips) where he was trying to demonstrate the importance of limiting the arm separation at the top of the back swing. His demonstration using a ball was NOT a good one because your arms must separate as the trailing elbow bends to pull the club into the lag position. When I saw this video, I realized that I was opening the grip of my trailing hand at the top of the backswing to create EXTRA LAG. This loose grip with my trailing hand was causing extra arm separation and creating TOO MUCH LAG.

A great image of Sam Snead with his trailing arm bent to his side and creating lag with both hands gripping for control.  [Unfortunately I could not find the Arnold Palmer example.]

A great image of Sam Snead with his trailing arm bent to his side and creating lag with both hands gripping for control. [Unfortunately I could not find the Arnold Palmer example.]

I then recalled one of  Arnold Palmer SWING TIPS: For control of your club NEVER loosen your hands off the grip during the backswing.  [I never understood why until now.]  I had been keeping my leading arm straight through out the backswing but I was adding extra wrist cock by opening my fingers on my trailing hand. I never regained control of my grip with the trailing hand which left the club face open at impact.

My mind was forcing a greater lag and wrist hinge in order to get more distance with each of my longer clubs.  That was a big mistake. Don’t kill the benefit of lag in your backswing by loosening your hands and losing control of your club. You need a continuous grip on your club through impact. Your trailing hand needs to drive your club head through impact to finish your swing.  You need a square club face at impact.  A weak trailing hand grip at impact will allow an open face and your ball will spray to the right.

I’m glad I sorted this little change out. Paying attention to the right grip and right swing will only reinforce your mind and your game. When you swing correctly you will have more control and lower scores. To help practice every Swing in YOUR Game check out GOLFSTR+: www.golfstr.com

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2 Comments

  • Jason says:

    Had the same exact issue this weekend at a golf outing. Had a big weekend of 3 rounds of golf ending with the tournament. First round was fantastic, the second round I had some shanks, and third round couldn’t accidentally hit a long iron. Glad to hear it wasn’t just me.

    • Will Curry says:

      It’s difficult to tell exactly why we are on or why we are off our game. Are we too loose or too tight? I often find that as my game progresses I need to cut out the practice swing and just let my mind take over. Thanks for the feedback. Got to love this game.