This article is aimed at players whose fault is Early Releasing, sometimes described as Casting or Scooping. Scooping will result in the club shaft leaning away from the target at impact, adding loft to the club, creating a high weak ball flight that

---

This article is aimed at players whose fault is Early Releasing, sometimes described as Casting or Scooping. Scooping will result in the club shaft leaning away from the target at impact, adding loft to the club, creating a high weak ball flight that loses distance.

What you want to learn to do is increase the angle between your left arm and club shaft in the transition, often referred to as increasing the Lag Angle.  If you do, your hands will get to impact before the clubhead, leaning the shaft forward, reducing the loft of the club slightly, creating a lower ball flight and  increasing  distance.

As I have talked about in another video, Lagging is very much a function of the correct lower body movement.

As the lower body moves, first with a push into the left foot and rotation from the left hip, the clubhead gets left behind, increasing the Lag Angle.   The concept is simple to understand, but as always, sometimes more difficult to do. The following drill is designed to give you the feel for Lagging the club.

Drag to Lag

The drill’s name is called Drag to Lag.  It is aimed at the player who Early Releases or Scoops because of too much tension in their hands and arms.

• After taking your normal address, I want you to drag the clubhead away from the ball, as the name of the drill suggests.  The hands will move in front of the clubhead, which will be impossible if you have too much tension in your hands.
• As you change direction with your lower body, the wrists will re-cock, again this would be impossible with tension.  This re-cocking adds angle to the wrists, increasing the Lag.
• The movement simply continues with the lower body pulling the shoulders, arms and lastly the club head through to impact.
• A great feedback point, if you are doing it correctly, is that you will feel an increase in pressure on the inside of your right index finger (right handed).
• Practice this with small swings.
• Do not overdo the exercise, as I do not want you to create a habit of dragging the club at the start of the swing.
• Once you have the feeling for keeping the tension out of your hands and lagging the club, go ahead and make normal swings, feeling the same transition from backswing to downswing, as in the exercise.
• Watch a video HERE.