Sergio Garcia has been one of the best and most consistent ball strikers on the PGA Tour since his debut in 1999.
Sergio’s swing may look a little bit unusual at first. But this is because of the tremendous lag Sergio generates on the downswing, not because of anything unsound in his swing.
Sergio can show the Occasional Golfer some very solid swing elements. Let’s have a look and see what we can glean.
Sergio Looks Rock Solid on the Backswing
Have a look at this slow-motion video of Sergio hitting a mid-iron:
Notice how his head stays over the ball throughout the backswing. Pay attention to his shadow on the ground — it stays almost perfectly still throughout the swing.
(Pro-tip — you can use the “watch your shadow trick” too, anywhere on the course, as a quick check-up).
Sergio has absolutely no lateral sway on the backswing. He has a solid position at the top, as expected. Please also note that he has a very good shoulder turn, but not he does not have an excessively long backswing.
We don’t like to see long backswings here at Golf Tip Reviews.
Sergio Shows Some Serious Lag From the Side
Sergio Garcia shows tremendous lag on the downswing. The yellow lines show the arm and club at the top of the backswing.
The difference between Sergio and most other players comes on the downswing. Notice how his wrist cock increases during the downswing.
Compare the wrist cock at the top of the swing (0:10, shown in yellow) to the wrist cock on the downswing (0:12, see picture at right). You see that his wrist cock has increased on the downswing, as it should.
To pull this off, there can be very little tension in his wrist or left shoulder. This gives him tremendous lag and power in his downswing, and allows him to attack the ball from the inside.
You can see the effect better from the side — let’s let Peter Kostis take us through the swing and illustrate Sergio’s tremendous lag:
It’s this extra wrist cock and lag that Sergio generates on his downswing that makes his swing look a little different than most. But it sure does work for him! Maybe it can work for you too.
At least, knowing just how much lag is possible at the top, you will feel confident to experiment on the range with your own downswing, and channel some inner Sergio.
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