I agree with you Tongzilla, regarding the lag issue.
I recall reading a quote from Ben Doyle in a Golfweek article last year about TGM in which he responded to the question of whether or not you could have too much lag by asking "can you have too much love?". I thought that was an interesting response. I thought Sergio Garcia's swing generated a bit too much lag and forced compensations coming into impact that made him erratic at inopportune times....just my observation.
I believe he set out to lessen this condition over the last year and perhaps has become a more consistent ball-striker in kind. Again, this is merely a personal observation and in no way a criticism of Mr. Doyle.
Regarding Mac O'Grady, I had the good fortune of being an associate of his from 2000 until about 8 months ago when I inevitably fell on my own sword and became "banished from the inner circle".
Over the course of those 5 years, I attended and assisted Mac in at 40 seminars conducted by him at various locales. He is everything people say he is and often opens his seminars by saying to his audience with a twinkle in his eye and a wry smile that "everything you have heard about me is true". I have quietly sat back and read many posts questioning his theories and bad-mouthing his expertise. It is true that he has enjoyed the luxury of selectively "picking his spots" by conducting seminars that have essentially been set up for him prior to his arrival...a very difficult process for those putting them together. We who rely on return visits from less skilled and often close-minded students operated under a different set of circumstances in order to feed ourselves and our families.
However, all that aside, there is no questioning the fact that Mac has poured his entire being into learning, studying, and classifying the multitude of nuances and variables involved in hitting a golf ball with absolute precision.
The MORAD Investigation is a body of research that began in the early 80's and has Homer Kelley and TGM to thank as the foundation of its query. I remember being moved to tears as Mac relayed the story of showing up at Mr. Kelley's doorstep with his game in pieces after his sponsors forced him to take lessons from a local teacher who was in the habit of making changes without a complete understanding of the golf swing and its variations. He had gone from a wonderkind who routinely shot in the 60's and bombed the ball past everyone, to a short-hitting, confused, hack who had trouble breaking 90. Mr. Kelley welcomed him inside and, after hearing his story, told him that he did not have to play golf with a weak grip, as he had been told by the teacher....it was okay to play with a strong grip.
Moreover, he did not have to swing the club straight back down-the-line and vertically to the top...the Nicklaus "high-hands" position advocated by so many at that time. He then proceeded to pull down his plastic sheet to illustrate plane variations and suddenly the light went off. Within 15 minutes, Mr. Kelley had taught Mac something that would last a lifetime. Together they went to the driving range and Mac immediately regained his compression and control...the confusion was gone and he began shooting in the 60's shortly thereafter. What followed was a special relationship between Mac and Mr. Kelley that lasted until his untimely death just 3 years later.
There is so much more I could write, but it is Thanksgiving Day and that darn bird takes forever to cook. I will wrap it up by saying that you can say what you want about Mac, but he is one who has walked into the arena and put it to the test. He won on the PGA Tour and there are not many who can say that....how many of Golf Magazine's Top 100 even played an event out there. Granted, that is not the measure of great teacher. But putting your swing next to his and comparing angles only scratches the surface of what it means to be a great player. We could debate various features of the golf swing and try to poke holes in his or anyone else's theories. But I believe that, to this point, Mac has done all within his power to use scientific principles and various other sources to try and solve the dilemma of how to control as many variables as humanly possible on the way to getting the ball in the hole as quickly as possible.