At the beginning of the 2021 golf season, my first year back playing in quite some time, I averaged scores between 95 and 105 strokes. It was far from old playing days, but I was determined to return to my old playing styles. I put many rounds in the books and even more time on the practice greens. By the end of the season, I was consistently in the mid to low 80’s, but the work was far from over.
After reviewing my year from videos, photos, and other data, I recorded a few glaring tendencies that I will address heading into the 2022 golfing season.
Early Extension
My battle with early extension is the first that I have spoken about in previous articles, such as One Video That Changed My Round. I have worked on this issue in rounds following that article but have not completely fixed the flaw. By definition, early extension is the excessive movement of the pelvis towards the ball (target line) during the swing. It is one of the most common errors in a golfer’s swing and causes a loss in distance and consistency.
Looking at the image above, you can see a couple of common tendencies associated with early extensions. The first that jumps out to me is my right foot is entirely on the ball of my foot as I contact the ball. Raising your heel indicates that you are pushing your hips towards the ball and not the target. One of the most common drills to help with early extension is to place the face of a pitching wedge under the heel of your trail foot, suspending the shaft behind you. The club shaft should remain off the ground through contact before moving your heel and letting the club fall to the ground. It keeps your trail hip back and forces the rotation to come from your lead hip, working toward the target and away from the ball. You can even see that my left foot is on the toes, adding to the intensity of the extension. The other issue is that overall posture during contact is much more vertical than you would expect. Early extension leads to many golf swing problems and, more importantly, impacts the results.
I can attest that I struggled with distance and consistency out of the gates. I was able to get my accuracy under control for the most part, but distance never really came around this past season. After watching back clips of the swing throughout the year, I put my finger on issue number two, which also explained my loss in the distance.
Early Release
Early extension and early release usually go hand in hand. If you are struggling with an early extension, you are more than likely overcompensating throughout the remainder of the swing to put your body back in position. Also known in the golfing world as “casting the club,” a phenomenon whereby the maximum degree of lag angle is lost in the early downswing. It resembles casting a lure with a fishing rod, hence casting the club.
You can see in the image above that it has been fully released about 15 inches before contact with the ball. This causes a tremendous loss in overall clubhead speed and control of the swing’s low point. I immediately found myself out of the position with the early extension as my club began its descent towards the ball. As my posture changed, my swing did as well, and my mind’s solution was to get the club to the ball faster to correct the errors. The mind is a powerful thing.
Golf is primarily a feel sport, but you have to see your swing consistently to know if what you are feeling translates to what you are producing.
Conclusion
Golf is hard. I can’t put it any simpler than that. However, if you know what you are looking for, you can address the issues head-on. Like anything else in life, the amount of effort you put into your game is what you will get back from it. There are endless online resources, both free and paid, and your course likely has a pro that you can speak to directly. Talk to someone with knowledge around the sport and put in the time to correct the flaws. Just be mindful that there is no cookie-cutter way to swing a club. Everyone has a different body type, flexibility, and natural swing path. Make sure that you work with a result-minded person around your swing specifically.
