Get Power from Your Driver (part1)

  In previous articles in the Golf School section we have covered the basic requirements of what a Plane is and how to stay upon it, as well as a brief look at Clubface Control. In this article we will examine one of the critical power areas, that is lag, and what it does for us.

  I recently played a casual 9 holes around a WA public golf course with a good mate and student of mine. We lined up at the 1st tee wishing we had slipped the starter a few bucks to bump us to the front, when my student grinned and said, “That guy lost his entire lag with his fishing rod. He was cooked before he even started.”

  It is a common fault, players trying so hard from the top of their swing with pivots all akimbo but the loss of club head lag early in the swing means even, and if, they make it back to the ball, it is hit with a powder puff. If Fig 1 and or Fig 2 look familiar then read on carefully. Figure 3 is where we need to get to. So let us work backward from the ball so that we know what we have to do to have a hammer rather than cosmetics.

  From previous articles we know that we must arrive at the ball with the right forearm on plane so that the shaft is best supported by our bent right wrist and the forearm can deliver the mass of our driving right shoulder most efficiently. A side on view of a golfer (Fig 3) who plays with lag even at impact shows the hands lead the PING G15 Driver head until after the ball has left the building.

  Many would head to the dictionary but I took a detour to a Thesaurus which held some interesting analogies for lag. “Be late, slowness and amongst others, follow.” In terms of our golf swing these verbal definitions are the most visually profound. Our hands have to be in a position for the entire golf stroke to produce, load and maintain lag. So first of all we need to work out how to produce this lag from the beginning of a swing.

  So where does lag come from? First of all we need to load the club shaft, meaning we need to get some power into the PING G15 Driver shaft and our body machine. As we take the club away in the backswing, you will notice that some small level of force is required to shift the PING G15 Driver head from its resting place. This feeling of inertia is normally dealt with by most golfers by bending the right wrist a little more to ’flick’ it into motion and from there the plane is then sought, as shown in Fig 4. The feeling of inertia can also be termed as drag as illustrated in Fig 5 with a towel. In effect we wish to lift the golf shaft up plane with our right arm bending thus lifting the club up. Drag is still felt as we lift the PING G15 Driver but it is much more gradual than the flick lift as in Fig 6.