Introduction:

When you watch the best golfers in the world—Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els, Jack Nicklaus—what do you see? Effortless power, smooth rhythm, and the ability to hit the ball seemingly without trying. These golfers don’t look like they’re exerting themselves to their limits, yet their shots fly long, straight, and with incredible consistency.

What is their secret?

The answer: Lag.

While amateurs are often struggling to understand how to generate speed and consistency, professional golfers have mastered the art of creating and releasing lag in their swings. Understanding lag is essential for any golfer looking to improve their ball striking, add distance, and increase consistency.

In this blog, we’re going to dive deep into the concept of lag, why it’s critical to a powerful golf swing, and how you can master it with some simple yet effective drills. From PGA Tour players like Sergio Garcia to legends like Jack Nicklaus, the greats have all harnessed the power of lag to elevate their games to new heights. Let's break it down.

What Is Lag in the Golf Swing?

At its core, lag refers to the angle between your club shaft and your lead arm during the downswing. This angle allows you to store energy in the club, which you then release at the precise moment of impact, resulting in explosive power and speed.

If you’re a beginner, you may think that generating distance comes from swinging harder or faster. In fact, the real secret to generating power is creating lag, which allows for maximum clubhead speed at the moment of impact, without needing to force or muscle the swing.

Why Is Lag So Important?

1. Increased Clubhead Speed: By storing energy in the club and releasing it at the right time, lag increases your clubhead speed without requiring additional effort.

2. Consistency: Maintaining lag throughout your swing leads to more consistent ball striking. With lag, you’re more likely to square the clubface at impact, which results in straighter, more accurate shots.

3. Better Timing: When lag is created properly, it helps you develop better rhythm and timing, making it easier to repeat your swings with consistency.

4. More Distance: The increased clubhead speed produced by lag translates directly into longer drives and more powerful iron shots. With lag, you can unleash power while maintaining control over your shots.

5. Effortless Power: Lag allows you to create more power with less effort, which is why professional golfers often look like they are swinging at half-speed, but the ball still travels long distances.

How Do Professional Golfers Create Lag?

To understand how to create lag in your swing, it’s essential to break down the movements of top players. Every professional golfer who generates massive clubhead speed and powerful shots is using lag to their advantage. But how do they create it?

The Role of the Hips

The key to creating lag begins with the hips. One of the most significant movements in the downswing is a slight forward bump of the hips. This move shifts the weight to the lead side and sets the arms up for a smooth, efficient release. When the hips initiate the downswing, they create a chain reaction that leads to the arms dropping naturally into position.

The Lower Body Movement

The sequence of the downswing is essential for creating lag. Sergio Garcia, one of the best ball strikers in the world, has been praised for his lag. What makes Sergio’s swing stand out is his ability to initiate the downswing with the lower body, which leads to his arms dropping smoothly into the correct position, all while maintaining lag.

It’s the hip rotation and the bump forward that create the space and time needed for the arms and club to lag behind the body. Without this lower body movement, there’s no lag. Your arms and club would simply release prematurely, and the power would be lost.

How to Create Lag: The "One-Two Punch"

Creating lag can be boiled down to two things: storing energy and releasing energy.

Most amatuer golfers think about so many things throughout their swing, which makes it easy to become stiff and tense over the golf ball. Once this happens, it’s hard to create any speed let alone flexibility.

Loosening your grip, and relieving the tension from your arms, will make it incredibly easy for you to lead with your hands and leave the club head behind, creating lag.

Before our amazing training aid, a great way to get this feeling would be with a golf towel. As you swing a golf towel, you’re able to feel the end of it stay behind you, which in turn creates a whip-like effect at the bottom of the swing.

Now with the Lag Shot, you’re able to make full golf swings while experiencing the same feels. And best of all, you’re able to actually hit golf balls with it.

The Key Move to Copy if You Want to Create Perfect Lag

One of the best examples of lag, is looking at the swing of Sergio Garcia.

For years, Sergio has been one the the premium ball-strikers on the planet, and that can be attributed to the amount of lag he creates during his down swing. What he does that’s so important, is starting his downswing with a slight movement of his lower body.

More importantly, his hips.

His hips bump forward, creating a change of direction that influences his arms to drop.

This combination of moves leaves the club head behind his hands, creating lag.

The most important thing Sergio does extremely well, is keeping his left arm connected to his body during the initial part of his downswing, another valuable benefit of using, and hitting balls with Lag Shot.

The Secret to Lag: The Wrists

During your golf swing, you can do everything right. Start with your hips, drop the arms, and release at the bottom.

But if you don’t do one key aspect correctly, none of these things will matter.

That key aspect is removing all tension from your wrists. You still need to keep grip pressure on the club, but allowing your wrists to move freely during the entire swing is what’s going to allow you to store energy.

A great way to engrave this feeling into your mind, is making half swings. Bring the club to just about parallel to the ground, then with soft wrists, bring your hands to the ball and make half shots.One of the most important parts of creating lag is allowing your wrists to be relaxed and free throughout the swing. When you hold the club too tightly or with too much tension in the wrists, the club can’t lag properly.

Your wrists must act like a spring, storing energy during the backswing and then releasing that energy at the right moment. If you can master this wrist action, it will become automatic, and you won’t have to think about it during your swing.

Step 1: Storing Energy

The first part of creating lag involves loading the club by hinging your wrists properly during the backswing. When you load the club, you’re storing energy that will be released at impact. The more effectively you load the club, the more potential power you can generate.

The key to loading is to maintain a wide arc with your arms during the backswing. The further you can extend your arms without losing connection to your body, the more energy you can store. As you reach the top of your swing, your wrists should be fully hinged, with the club shaft forming an angle with your lead arm. This angle is what we call lag.

Step 2: Releasing the Energy

The second part of creating lag is the release. This occurs when you drop your hands and release the stored energy at the bottom of the downswing, sending the clubhead flying through the ball with maximum speed and power.

To create a smooth release, you need to keep your wrists relaxed and loose. Tension in the wrists is the enemy of lag. If your wrists are tight, the club won’t be able to lag properly, and you’ll lose power. A relaxed grip and wrist action will allow the club to whip through the ball, creating lag effortlessly.

How to Improve Golf Lag Drill

All great golf minds emphasize how important lag is. Lag creates speed. Lag creates distance. Lag makes you a better player. Creating and maintaining lag is one of the things that PGA TOUR players do better than all other golfers on the planet.

But how do they do it?

Creating lag in your golf swing may sound difficult to do, and don’t get me wrong it’s going to feel like a change, but I have a few drills that will have you creating some SERIOUS lag.

1 Exaggerate the Feel

We need to get you feeling what it is like to have lag stored at the bottom of the swing. In this drill, all you need is an alignment stick, or another club. What you are going to do is lay the alignment stick on the ground to your left, as you’re addressed to the golf ball.

The alignment stick needs to be pointed down the range, and aligned on the heel line of your stance. You will not be taking full swings while doing this drill, but only taking your arms to about waist height. Make sure your wrist is hinged, and a decent angle is being created between your lead wrist and the club.

Now, while holding that angle, drag the handle through the hitting area, and keep the angle until it’s aligned over the alignment stick on the ground.

What this is doing, is forcing you to maintain lag through the hitting area, as well as getting you used to the feeling of it. This is an exaggerated move, but it will translate over to your swing in a less exaggerated way.

While you are hitting balls during this drill, expect them to be very low shots, with a tendency to be pulled. This is because you have extreme forward press at impact, as well as a strong clubface.

2 Stop Casting

Most players lose the angles they create during their backswing as soon as they start their downswing. They unhinge the wrists, and try to “help” the ball get in the air instead of hitting down on the golf ball.

For this drill, I want you to hold the club out directly in front of you, with your arms completely extended. Now, move your hands back, then pull them forward.

What you are going to see, if you keep your wrists loose, is the angle between your hands and the club is going to become very small.

So the club head is going to get behind your hands, then whip forward as you finish pulling through. What this drill is showing you is what it feels like to create lag at the start of the downswing.

The wrists need to be loose while performing this drill, as that’s the only way to witness the lag being created.

If this is done right during your swing, it should feel as though your club shaft is getting closer to your body during the downswing, compared to being “casted” away from you.

3 Stop Helping the Ball in the Air

Many players have the wrong idea when it comes to contacting the golf ball. They will try to help the ball in the air, when in reality that’s the last thing you want to do.

Swinging like this will result in weak ball flights, loss of distance, and very inconsistent contact. We need to start hitting down on the golf ball, as a result of shifting our weight to the lead side, which in return will create lag for us.

In this drill, all you are going to need is a golf towel. Fold the towel a few times so it’s a bit thicker, and lay it on the ground about a club head away from the golf ball.

Having the towel behind the ball does two things: One, it will give you immediate feedback to whether or not you are hitting shots fast/helping the ball in the air, and 2, it will force you to get your hands in front of the ball at impact as a result of lag.

This drill will give you the feeling of proper contact and hitting down on the ball.

Another variation of this drill, if you don’t have a golf towel, is to place a tee a few inches in front of the golf ball. Instead of focusing on hitting the ball, focus on hitting the tee. This will have the same benefits for your swing as the towel drill has.

Lag creates SPEED. Lag creates POWER. Take these drills to the range, and in no time, you will be producing SERIOUS lag.

Golf Lag Swing Trainer

Want a Club That Guarantees You’ll Increase Lag, Stop Casting, and Hit Higher, Longer, & Straighter Golf Shots?

Lag Shot is being used by thousands of golfers to generate more lag, improve their ball-striking, hit more greens in regulation, and ultimately shoot lower scores.

It’s even being recommended by top golf instructors like Adam Bazalgette (3-Time PGA Teacher of the Year), Andrew Rice (Golf Digest Top 50), and Mark Durland (Golf Magazine Top 100)

How the Lag Shot Can Help You

One of the best tools for improving lag is the Lag Shot, a training aid specifically designed to help golfers build lag naturally. The Lag Shot is a unique club that allows you to feel the correct wrist hinge and the proper angle between your club and arm, making it easier to store and release energy during your swing.

The Lag Shot has a flexible shaft that helps you feel the lag as you swing. It also forces you to keep the clubhead behind your hands, giving you immediate feedback on your wrist action. Using the Lag Shot regularly will help you develop muscle memory and create a more powerful, consistent swing.

Want the PGA Endorsed Training Aid that’s Guaranteed to Create Lag for You, in as Little as 12 Swings?

Lag Shot is a brand new training aid that is being praised by some of the leading PGA instructors (as well as countless amateur golfers) across the globe as a true game-changer.

It practically forces you to “load the club” perfectly, generate tremendous lag automatically, and make confident swings with ideal tempo and rhythm.

The Benefits of Mastering Lag

By mastering lag in your golf swing, you will:

• Generate more distance with less effort

• Hit the ball straighter with more consistent ball striking

• Improve your timing and rhythm, leading to smoother, more efficient swings

• Add power to your shots, making it easier to get the ball in the air and on target

• Feel more relaxed during your swing, as you won’t have to force shots to get distance

Conclusion:

Lag is not just a secret of the pros; it’s a critical element for golfers of all skill levels. Whether you're trying to hit longer drives, more accurate irons, or just improve your consistency, learning how to create lag is the key to unlocking your full potential as a golfer.

With the right drills, a focus on relaxing your wrists, and a commitment to building proper timing, you can start generating effortless speed and power in your golf swing. By incorporating lag into your swing, you’ll find that your game reaches new heights, just like the pros.

Take these drills to the range and practice them consistently, and you’ll be well on your way to creating powerful, lag-driven swings that will improve your golf game—and your scores—immediately.