Sway in backswing - Good or Bad?

[foxhole88]

If you have a sway as part of your take-away, is this a good thing or bad thing?  I am sure most people would say it's a bad thing because its too much movement, but does it help or make it easier to load up or time things up for your downswing?

[Ctp722]

It makes everything harder, I've never seen a golfer sway his hips and consistently make good shots.

It screws your timing up

[B-Con]

I'm sure someone out there would say that it makes it easier for them, but not me. Sway makes the shot harder for me every time. How much harder is proportional to the length of the club. (Sway with the driver? Forget it.)

[rw21217]

I'll echo what my pro told me when I first went to him.  I had some serious issues with sway.  Almost every good golfer makes a turn around a posted right leg with no sway.  He showed me clip after clip of touring pros and marked their hip positions.  Most didn't move an inch from the line.  Some are able to make a small sway work, Paul Casey is one he told me of.  I've made an effort to remove my sway and all I can say is my shots are definately more consistent, so I vote for sway=bad.

[jamo]

I had a really bad sway problem for a while. I couldn't turn my hips and I couldn't get my weight back up to the ball. I vote bad.

[Kieran123]

I used to sway BAD only with my driver. It was more powerful than it is now, but less accurate.

Happy compromise to make though

[Tomboys]

The only thing a sway on the backswing gave me was a higher handicap.  So, I too, vote bad.

[Ringworld]

You don't have to sway to make your core turn.  You don't even have to really turn your core that very much just enough to make your swing consistent.  Me, not as flexible as I used to be and I catch myself over-swinging or taking an exceptionally long swing.  No need.  Less is more.

[MasterP]

I went from a 20 to a 13 in one year by reducing my sway. It still not gone, it creeps into my driver shot all the time, but it's much better than before I got lessons.

[Mattplusness]

When I went to get my clubs lengthened, after the first shot the pro told me about my sway (never knew about it before then). My best score before then was a 96. I'm down to an 87 this year.