LAG IT LIKE BROOKS

Three-time major champion and PGA Tour Player of the Year, Brooks Koepka, is one of the most powerful players in the world. Learn why here.

By far the most common fault of the average golfer – particularly those who hit most of their shots short with a fade or slice – is they cast the club from the top of the backswing.

Casting refers to the clubhead being thrown out, like a fly fisherman would cast a rod, at the top of the backswing and the angle created between your hands and the club shaft is lost. Losing this angle is costing you distance as you cannot generate good clubhead speed in the downswing, while accuracy is also compromised because the ‘caster’ usually swings into the ball on an outside-to-inside the target line swing path creating a fade or slice.

As you can see here with big-hitting Brooks Koepka, there is a significant angle between his hands and the club shaft as the hands lead the clubhead throughout the downswing.

With the hands in line with Koepka’s right hip, the clubhead is still above head height. From here, the hands only need to travel a short distance before moving in line with the ball at impact but the clubhead has to travel much further to catch up to achieve that perfect impact position.

With the clubhead lagging behind and then catching up to the hands in the last split second before contact, this is where great power comes from as the clubhead speed is at its fastest at impact.

Ideally, the hands should be slightly ahead of the clubhead at impact. A good golfer will ensure the club lags throughout the entire downswing and he will never let the clubhead flip past the hands before impact.