Instruction blog: Explaining Sabbatini's powerful lag

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Rory Sabbatini's steep downswing leads to flushed iron shots -- and deep divots.

Rory Sabbatini took advantage of some home cooking, as the 33-year-old South African won this week's HP Byron Nelson Championship. Sabbatini, who lives nearby, broke the tournament scoring record by one, finishing at 19 under TPC Four Seasons Resort in Las Colinas.

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PGA TOUR Golf Academy's Travis Fulton analyzes Rory Sabbatini's victory in the HP Byron Nelson Championship on the the PGA TOUR Network (XM 146, SIRIUS 209). Click to listen The Student Manual will walk you through the "Building Block Approach" as taught at all TOUR Academies. Learn the proper steps on building an efficient full swing and short game. Buy the manual

Sabbatini had everything going on Sunday, posting a 64 that saw a variety of great shots down the stretch. This is now Sabbatini's fifth career PGA TOUR win which breaks a two-year drought with his last win coming just up the street at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial two years ago. (I wasn't kidding about his taking advantage of home cooking!).

One would only think it was a matter of time until the fiery and always-entertaining Sabbatini got back into the winner's circle. Currently, Sabbatini is ranked an impressive third in putting average, leading to just over four birdies a round. These birdies came in bunches this week, including on Sunday, where he improved on his 2009 final round scoring average of 68.67.

What Can You Learn
When you think of the best golf swings on the PGA TOUR, Rory Sabbatini's is probably not one that would come to mind. Sabbatini's swing is another good example that things don't have to have an esthetically perfect look in order to hit a golf ball at a very high level. Sabbatini is one of a handful of players who doesn't have a registered instructor with him on the PGA TOUR. Over the years, he has made reference to tightening up his golf swing, but one would have to think Sabbatini is very much a feel player.

Like five-time winner Zach Johnson, Sabbatini has a very strong grip, which leads to a closed clubface at the top of the swing. With the majority of amateur players erring on the side of an open clubface, I would say there are no two better examples to learn from when it comes to fixing that slice than the grips used by Sabbatini and Johnson.

When watching Sabbatini's swing, the most unconventional position is at the top of his swing. Like a select few others on the PGA TOUR, Sabbatini has a very upright left arm when the backswing completes. If you were to view his swing standing along the target line, you would see his left arm is much more upright than his shoulder plane. His right shoulder is clearly visible between both arms. This position allows the shaft to go past parallel to the target line. Most PGA TOUR players will swing the left arm where it covers the right shoulder allowing the lead arm to match or become very close to the plane of the shoulders.

Fortunately for Sabbatini, you don't hit the ball with your backswing, as his downswing is the key move that allows him to hit a lot of great golf shots. Due to the very upright position at the top of his swing, Sabbatini must re-route his downswing in order to achieve a good impact position. As the downswing begins, Sabbatini begins to look like all the other great ball strikers on the PGA TOUR.

His left arm path begins to flatten as a result of his lower body starting the downswing with a lateral weight shift that allows his right elbow to move towards his right hip. These two components working together allow Sabbatini's left arm and club shaft to get back on track and they provide a very strong relationship between his bent right wrist and the club head. This relationship is defined as lag and is a key component to maximizing our performance when striking a golf shot.

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Rory Sabbatini brings the club well past parallel on the backswing.

Clubhead lag is when the clubhead trails the hands during the swing. This allows for the club head to move on a downward angle into impact and beyond with maximum clubhead speed. It is critical that the clubhead continues to lag and move down to not only impact but beyond all the way down to the low point. The low point is defined as the outside of the lead shoulder. For a right-handed player, this is your left shoulder. Lag is simply one of the biggest power sources in the swing. Sabbatini is a great example of someone who strikes down aggressively until reaching the low point in his swing as a function of lag.

Let's see if we can establish some of that power-producing lag in your swing.

What I want you to do is position your right arm in a waiter's position as if holding a tray of glasses over your shoulder. Your right arm is positioned away from your side with the right elbow down and right wrist bent. Notice that the palm of your right hand is facing the sky and could support almost anything. This is where I want your right arm to support the club. Now, grip your club and swing to the top achieving this same right arm position. The club head at this point should be positioned behind you with the shaft pointing towards the ball target line. You will feel the clubhead lag in the trigger finger next to your thumb of your right hand. The clubhead's weight will be clearly felt in this finger as well as the bend of the right wrist.

If you brought the shaft to a vertical position then the club head's weight would no longer be felt in the trigger finger. If you continued on to where the club head is now in front of you with the butt of the club pointing behind you, then you will feel the club head get extremely top heavy to the point you won't be able to control the club head or shaft anymore. This is referred to as "casting" and this doesn't work.

Now, from the top of the swing, maintain this club head lag all the way to the low point after impact. As you start down, feel the clubhead's weight trailing behind you with the pressure still on the trigger finger. Continue this procedure and feel the clubhead lag all the way down to the low point. In fact, often we encourage students at the TOUR Academies to focus on swinging past the ball to the low point, rather than to the ball.

As the clubhead continues down to the low point you will now begin to feel the support of the body. Your weight will shift into the lead foot with the lower body beginning to rotate creating air under your right heel. The body's efforts can be conscious or sub-conscious through this process. Regardless, the body must respond in order to achieve clubhead lag all the way to the low point.

When working on generating clubhead lag, I would encourage starting with slower and shorter swings. Learn to control the clubhead and shaft with small swings first, and then add some speed and length to those smaller swings. And remember to replace those divots now that the clubhead is moving down and accelerating just like Rory Sabbatini's.

Just Because
All right. I take back the bad things I said a few weeks ago about the NBA and its lengthy playoffs. I must admit, there have been some great games in both conferences as Lebron James and Kobe Bryant have certainly not disappointed. In fact, I am a little bit excited about the upcoming playoff games and will be watching as the NBA playoffs continue into the months of June, July and August.

Wow, hard to believe summer is already here and in full force. Where in the world does time go? With August approaching rapidly I am facing my 32nd birthday. Yikes! With another action packed week with the TOUR Academy traveling to beautiful Victoria National in Evansville, Ind., followed by a fun personal weekend in Atlanta, I have officially come to realize I am different person now and my body simply can't do the things it used to. I can remember growing up in Pinehurst, Idaho and the members at the golf course (while paying their bets to me) telling me, "Hey, your day will come when you get older and you can't do the things you used to."

Well, they were right as I certainly can't, but I also find myself looking at things so much differently now. Sometimes, I find myself doing things that I would've never done before. For example, it's nothing now to be in bed by 9:30 p.m. I never thought I would get sad when TV shows like American Idol end, and this weekend at a wedding, I even caught the wedding garter ... oh boy!

Anyway, time is certainly flying by but life is good and thank you to all for reading my blog. See you next week from Hogan's Alley.

For ways Travis can help your game, click here.