Note to self: Lag

First, let me say, I love golf.

Now that the groundwork is laid, every so often, I have one of those moments where a light bulb goes off in my head. Some light bulbs are brighter than others, but nevertheless, a light bulb is a light bulb, and having one go off is awesome. This particular light bulb was about a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, and it only relates to golf, which makes me happy.

So, when I'm talking about lag in a golf swing all I"m talking about is the right wrist is slightly bent back at impact instead of bent forward. I know, big deal, right? Well, Johnny Miller was making this point as he was analyzing Sergio Garcia's swing. If you ever watch Sergio's swing, he's got quite a bit of lag in it, which is something I noticed, but I didn't know what to call it.

So, if you don't know, golf is a game of basics. Keep your left arm straight. Keep your eye on the ball. Follow through... anyway, there's a million little things in the golf swing, which your supposed to remember until they become second nature.

Supposedly, at some point, once a golfer has mastered all the little details, you become a scratch golfer, which means, you can make every shot in the bag over and over again and walk away from the course with a scorecard in your pocket that reads 72, or better. So, when I'm writing about golf, I'm writing about golf in the manner where I'm actually trying to figure out how to become a master at walking away from the golf course with a scorecard in my pocket that reads 72, or better.

On a more personal level, one thing I've noticed when I play, whenever I start really swinging good I've noticed I've got just a little bit of lag in my swing. My confidence starts going up. I'm making a lot of shots. My score card starts reflecting that. Then, foolishly, possibly due to greed (I guess), I decide to start taking lag out of my swing because I get this idea "I'll start playing even better," with as little lag as possible. Naively, I'm believing I can actually start getting even better, instead of improving within the confines of how I'm already playing with lag. I'm thinking, if I could just take a little bit more lag out, and it's at this point, when I start to lose what accuracy I am having, and I actually start sucking. Then, I start back down a road of trying to figure out "how to play good," again. Sometimes, it may be years before I'm playing well enough again to ponder "how much lag should be in my swing" because literally, my swing falls apart completely after the lag is gone.

From playing good to playing bad in a matter of a single thought about changing the swing by taking all the lag out of it. I have no idea why this happens, but it has happened several times, and I have begun a huge circle of thinking until I miraculously arrive back at pondering lag, and it cycle starts all over again.

Having lag was working, then I started thinking about the lag, and then, I tried to change the natural lag to something that's an impossibility--an absolute perfectly timed swing every time.

Apparently, you can draw or fade a ball with a lag in your swing, it's something I need to work on. The problem my be, this idea of lag seems contrarian, but it's not. It's simply operating within the confines of doing what the human body is already trying to do in the course of a golf swing.

In other words, I'm simply talking about understanding the subtle nuances of a proper golf swing.

Playing "miraculous golf," which is what I call Par Golf, has been one my life long goals. It only comes about after understanding with certainty the various facets of the golf swing. Therefore, shooting par will always be a magical mysterious goal until I actually accomplish it repeatedly.

On a related note: I've watched Sergio Garcia lead in tournaments twice this year where he ended up in playoffs. It was pretty phenomenal. He's good. He makes it look easy. He's getting his putting together. Sooner or later, Sergio is going to win a major. Most likely, sooner.