You’ve probably heard the term “lag the club” as a move you should make on the downswing. But lag can be a tough concept because many golfers naturally do the opposite—they “throw” or “cast” the club from the top. Lagging is important because it will almost always lead to better ball-striking and more distance.

Ah, now I’ve got your attention.

The king of lag for the past 25 years has been Sergio Garcia. He does it so well, it has made him one of the longest drivers in professional golf at just 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds. His key move comes at the start of the downswing where he turns forward but keeps the club back. It’s one of the coolest swings to watch. See why in my video below.

We ran Sergio’s driver swing through the Mustard Golf app. Mustard measures moves like body rotation and hand path and tracks the clubhead from start to finish, then identifies strengths and weaknesses and assigns personalized coaching on the spot. The same AI-driven swing analysis is available to you, too.

Here’s what we saw in Sergio’s swing:

-He creates a very wide swing arc on the backswing.-On the forward swing, his body rotation drags his hands and arms down.-The clubhead lags behind and whips through last.

RELATED: How a week of AI golf lessons helped one of my biggest swing faults

 

First, let’s talk backswing. Sergio makes a wide move off the ball by keeping his right arm extended. This width gives him space to drop the club to the inside on the downswing, with the clubhead staying back—that’s lag. Many average golfers make a narrow backswing, pulling the club quickly to the inside, so they don’t have the space needed to create lag coming down.

Next, Sergio makes the transition from backswing to downswing by driving his lower body toward the target. It starts with a shift to his front foot and then his legs, hips and torso—in that order—begin turning forward. As I said, many golfers start the downswing by throwing the club with their hands and arms, which is the opposite of lag.

Now we get to Sergio’s master move: He lets his hands and arms simply fall from the top as his body drives forward. His right elbow drops to his ribcage and stays ahead of his right wrist. This move flattens the shaft and keeps the clubhead back as everything else is moving forward (below). That’s pretty much the definition of lagging the club.

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2025/1/top_of_swing.png

So how can you learn to lag it like Sergio and start crushing your drives?

The best image I can give you is sidearm pitching. Pitchers wind up and then shift forward and start to rotate the upper body toward home plate. The elbow of the throwing arm leads the wrist, with the hand trailing. This allows them to store—in fact, multiply—power for maximum velocity when they release the ball.

The downswing in golf is very similar. From the top of the swing, there are two ways to get the clubhead back to the ball: by pulling the club down with your hands and arms or by turning your body. High-handicappers tend to use the hands and arms, while good players lead with the body, which literally drags the club into impact.

So shift forward and keep your trail elbow in front of your trail wrist for as long as possible. You’ll lag the club beautifully and have stored-up energy to whip the clubhead into the ball. Practice these moves slowly at first to get the feel, then add speed. I know you’ll see better strikes and a lot more power. Sergio-style.

Michael Breed is Golf Digest’s Chief Digital Instructor.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com