Beginner golf tips 13 Jul 2026 13 min read

Stop Trying to Hold Lag in the Golf Swing

If you are trying to hold lag in your golf swing, there is a good chance you are working on the wrong end of the problem.

Lag looks like something you should preserve. The hands are ahead, the shaft is leaning, the ball compresses, and the strike sounds solid. But when golfers try to freeze those angles, they often add tension, leave the clubface in trouble, and throw the club away even earlier.

The better fix is usually more practical: sort out the clubface, learn how the club should release through the ball, and let the body respond. That is what creates better delivery.

Quick Answer: Stop Trying to Hold Lag

Do not try to hold lag by locking your wrists or dragging the handle. If you cast, flip, or struggle with heavy iron shots, start by checking the clubface and your release through the ball.

For many golfers, the useful feel is not hold the angle. It is set the club, release it freely, and let the toe pass the heel through the strike. When the face and release improve, shaft lean can improve without you trying to force it.

Watch the coaching session that supports this article:

Why Holding Lag Is Usually the Wrong Fix

Lag is the angle between the lead arm and the club shaft on the way down. Early release, casting, flipping, and scooping are all ways that angle can disappear too soon.

The mistake is thinking the fix is to simply hold the angle for longer.

When you try to hold lag, you can easily make your hands tight, stall the release, and leave the clubface in a position your body has to rescue. Then the club gets thrown at the ball late or early, contact gets heavy, and the handle is not where you want it at impact.

The key is this: lag is usually the result of better conditions, not the thing you should chase directly. Better clubface control, better hand release, and better body motion give you a chance to deliver the shaft with more control.

That is why a golfer who is struggling with a flip or scoop should not immediately chase a frozen wrist position. First, find out why the club is being released that way.

Start By Diagnosing the Real Pattern

Before you work on lag, check what the ball and club are telling you.

Look for these clues:

• Heavy or fat contact, especially with irons.
• Divots starting too far behind the ball.
• A high, weak flight that lacks compression.
• A pattern where the handle looks back and the clubhead has overtaken the hands.
• Aim that has quietly changed to manage a left or right miss.

In Roger’s starting pattern, the face-on feedback showed the shaft leaning back by 10. That is not a small detail. It explains why the strike can get heavy and why the player feels the need to help the ball up.

The down-the-line view also mattered. The clubface was closed early, and the aim had moved right to manage the ball wanting to go left. That combination can be confusing because the golfer may still lose lag even though the face is not obviously open at the first checkpoint.

This is where feel vs real matters. A player can feel as if the face is neutral, the wrists are held, or the body is moving well, while the actual delivery shows something different. If your practice swing looks better than your real swing, use that as feedback rather than a reason to hit more balls with the same thought.

Use Swing Coach feedback or a simple face-on/down-the-line recording to check strike, start direction, curve, handle position, and what the clubface is doing.

Fix the Clubface Before You Chase Lag

Clubface comes first because the clubface influences almost every compensation that follows.

If the face is open, many golfers hang back, throw the angles away, and scoop to square it. If the face is too shut early, they may move the hands in a way that opens it again or aim away from the target to manage the shot.

So the first checkpoint is not “hold lag.” It is can you get the face in a playable place without over-manipulating your wrists?

For Roger, that meant allowing a little cup in the lead wrist. That is an important caveat. With his neutral-to-strong lead-hand grip, a slightly cupped wrist could still leave the face strong enough. It did not mean every golfer should copy that exact wrist look.

Use this simple check:

1. Set up with your normal grip.
2. Take the club back to the early takeaway.
3. Check that the face is not excessively shut or wide open.
4. Let the wrists set naturally from there.
5. Keep your hands soft enough that the club can still move.

The goal is a square clubface at impact, but that starts earlier than impact. If the face is in trouble halfway back or at the top, your body will usually find a way to compensate on the way down.

Use a Simple Takeaway Check Before You Hit

Once the grip and clubface look more neutral, add a quick rehearsal before you hit.

A useful version is a small Y-style rehearsal:

1. Start in your normal address.
2. Move the club back with your chest and arms together.
3. Let the wrists begin to set without forcing a bow or a hold.
4. Stop early enough that you can see the clubface.
5. Repeat until the face and wrist position feel familiar.

The danger is overcorrecting. If you have spent time fixing an open face, you might go too far the other way and shut the face down. If you have tried to bow the wrist hard, you might remove the room you need to release the club later.

Keep the checkpoint simple: soft hands, face in a playable place, body turning with the club.

Give Your Body a Reason to Move

Golfers often try to fix the body first. They try to shift more, rotate harder, or hold their posture longer. Those pieces matter, but the body will not move freely if the face and release are asking for a rescue move.

If the clubface is open and the ball wants to go right, your body may hang back to give the hands time to save it. If the face is closing in the wrong way, you may aim away from the target and make another compensation.

That is why chasing positions can backfire. It is similar to trying to shallow the golf club with your hands when the real issue is the sequence and the face. You may create a look, but not a motion you can trust.

For this drill, a left miss can be useful feedback. It does not mean your final goal is to hook the ball. It means the clubface is finally learning to close from a better release pattern, which then gives your body a reason to keep moving.

Do not turn this into a hook drill without checking your grip and clubface first. The release cue is powerful, but it is not universal for every player.

Try the Catching Raindrops Release Drill

Now move the attention past the ball.

The feel is simple: let the lead hand work as if it is catching raindrops after impact. That helps the club turn over instead of being held open or dragged through with tension.

Try it like this:

1. Take your normal golf posture.
2. Put your lead hand on the club and let the trail hand relax.
3. Make a small through-swing and feel the lead palm change orientation.
4. Add the trail hand back on with soft grip pressure.
5. Swing halfway back, then halfway through.
6. Let the hands roll through so the toe can pass the heel.
7. Hit short shots before you make fuller swings.

The word “roll” can scare golfers because they think it means flipping. It does not have to. The problem is not that the clubface closes. The problem is when it closes from the wrong conditions, with too much tension, or with the body stuck behind the ball.

For this drill, keep the swing short enough that you can feel the release. If you go straight to full speed, the old pattern will probably take over.

If you want structured feedback and a clearer practice plan, explore Me and My Golf Swing Coach:

Let the Club Release So the Shaft Can Lean Better

This is the counterintuitive part: releasing the club better can help the shaft lean better.

That does not mean throwing the club from the top. It means improving how the club releases through and after impact so the delivery before impact has a better chance of organizing itself.

In the lesson source, the starting measurement showed shaft back by 10. Later swings improved to back by 4, back by 1 in a short-swing check, and back by 2 in the final comparison. That is meaningful improvement, but it is also a measurement caveat: do not call that perfect forward shaft lean on every swing.

The coaching point is more useful than the number. Roger improved the pattern by releasing the club more through the ball, not by trying to hold lag.

Use these checkpoints:

• The hands stay soft enough for the club to release.
• The toe of the club can pass the heel through the ball.
• The glove hand starts to work more underneath after impact.
• The ball may start left during the drill.
• The strike should begin to sound more compressed as the pattern improves.

Also, do not replace a flip with a lunge. Getting your body ahead of the ball might lower the flight for a while, but it is not the same as improving the face, release, and sequence.

Blend the Drill Into Fuller Swings

Once the half swing works, use one simple cue: set and roll.

Set the club on the way back. Roll it through on the way through. Keep it small at first.

A good practice progression looks like this:

1. Two rehearsals with no ball.
2. One short shot with the set-and-roll feel.
3. One normal setup with the same release feel.
4. Check strike, start direction, and curve.
5. Repeat only if the feedback matches the goal.

Do not judge the drill by one shot. Practice is a process. You are trying to move the clubface and release pattern into a new place, and that can produce a few exaggerated ball flights while the body catches up.

The big checkpoint is mental: when you make the swing, how much are you thinking about retaining lag? Ideally, nothing. Your attention is on the release and the ball flight feedback.

Check the Before-and-After Pattern

The before-and-after pattern is the whole lesson.

Before, the face was moving from closed to open, the shaft was leaning back by 10, and the release through the ball did not show enough club turnover. After the changes, the wrist angles were better, the shaft measurement improved to back by 2 in the final review, and the club began to turn over more through impact.

That is the lesson for most golfers trying to hold lag. If you only chase the angle, you may miss the reason the angle is disappearing. If you improve the face and release, the body has a better chance to move, the strike has a better chance to compress, and the shaft has a better chance to arrive in a stronger position.

Ready to find the next priority in your own swing?

FAQs

Should I try to hold lag in my golf swing?

Usually, no. If you are casting or flipping, trying to hold lag often adds tension and makes the release worse. Work on clubface control, release, and body motion first.

Why do I cast the golf club even when I try to hold the angle?

You may be casting because the clubface is in trouble, your grip and wrist conditions do not match, or your body is hanging back to help square the face. Holding the wrist angle does not solve those causes.

Can releasing the club earlier help shaft lean?

The useful release happens through and after the ball, not as a throw from the top. When the through-swing release improves, the club can arrive with better conditions before impact.

What is the catching raindrops drill?

It is a lead-hand release feel. The lead hand works through the ball as if the palm is turning upward to catch raindrops, helping the clubface release without tight hands.

What ball flight should I expect when practicing this release?

Some left shots can be useful during the drill, especially if your old pattern was a weak open-face strike. The final goal is not a hook. The goal is better contact, better face control, and a release you can blend into normal shots.

How do I know if this lag drill is right for me?

Check your grip, clubface, strike, start direction, curve, and impact pattern first. If you have a very strong grip or an already-shut face, get feedback before exaggerating the release.