Famous golf coach Pete Cowen once said in a video to Hideki Matsuyama: “…so your arm pressure moves your hips better…” (see YouTube video below). I really like this phrase. One of the biggest problems I see in the downswing is that people intentionally rotate the lower body first, trying to achieve the idea of the hips opening at impact. This often causes significant harm to the downswing.
In this video, Tiger Woods also mentioned a drill he disliked the most, where he brought his arms down in front of him first instead of spinning out his hips.
On the other hand, we can clearly see that at the top of the backswing of Tour players, there is some hip movement before the downswing. In fact, during the transition, the lower body naturally prepares for the downswing by shifting weight to the left side. This allows the left leg to serve as a firm support point and apply counterforce (pushing up and back) during the downswing and release, which is needed to balance the motion of the arms and club.
During the downswing, the left leg apply pressure against the ground, moving the hips back. This creates both force and stability.
Imagine tossing a stone to skip across the water: you naturally make some lower body motion first, then brace with a firm left leg (assuming you are right-handed). Only then can your arms throw the stone with high speed. All of this happens naturally. During this throwing motion, the hips will also move—but they are forced to move, not intentionally moved. If you were to spin or rotate your hips deliberately during the throw, you would lose both balance and power.
Here is another YouTube video where Pete Cowen explained this is during a lesson with Danny Maude:
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