I was reading an article on GolfDigest.com the other day and saw a link to a tip from 2012 by Tom Watson about leading with your lower body.

This is a major fundamental to playing good golf. Anyone who has ever read Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons will immediately recognize the tip, and Martin Hall’s tip about lifting the left heel and “box before ball” tips, and a simple thought to help you stop casting the club , as well as countless other places.

The key swing thoughts to leading with your lower body is ” initiating the downswing by rotating the left hip and simultaneously moving to the left heel–this is more pronounced if you’ve let the heel come off the ground in the backswing (as I recommend).”

This move will help you clear your hips and lower body, and then allow your arms to swing from the inside into the ball.  You’ll hit it much farther and straighter.

“[W]hen you start down, your left shoulder should stay on the plane you established at address. So many amateurs start the downswing by turning the shoulders toward the target too early, causing the dreaded over-the-top move that results in pulls or slices.”

If you pull the ball, or slice it, this is the tip for you.

Watson also says “In the best swings the lower body starts forward while the upper body is still turning back. The left hip turns toward the target as the shoulders continue to coil. That takes terrific timing and a lot of practice.”  This is something I wouldn’t recommend to the weekend hacker, as the timing is very tough to get down. Instead just turn back fully, and then start with the hips and legs and the shoulders and arms will do what they should. Do not try to swing hard at the ball.

None of this is new, but sometimes we get so caught up in trying to control the path of the clubhead that the simple fundamental of using your legs and hips to start the downswing gets lost in the details.