If you feel your body lunging towards the golf ball on your downswing, causing you to stand up out of your posture, I have good news: it's one of the most common swing faults, and you can absolutely fix it. That's a swing-killer called early extension, and it's likely the hidden source of your inconsistent contact and lost power. This guide will walk you through what early extension is, why it happens, and most importantly, provides the drills and feelings needed to replace it with powerful, athletic rotation.
In the simplest terms, early extension is when your hips and pelvis move toward the golf ball during the downswing. Instead of rotating your body around your spine while maintaining your setup posture, you lose your posture and "extend" your lower body closer to the ball. Think of it this way: at address, your rear end is a certain distance from the ball. In a good swing, it stays back, creating room for your arms to swing. In an early extension swing, your rear end moves forward, closing that space.
This forward thrust causes a chain reaction of bad things. Since the space for your arms has suddenly vanished, your body has to make a split-second compensation. This often leads to:
Ultimately, early extension turns what should be a powerful, rotational movement into an inefficient, high-effort lunge. You lose compression, consistency, and a ton of clubhead speed because you're not using the ground or your body's rotation as your engine.
Fixing early extension starts with understanding why it's happening in the first place. For most players, it boils down to a few common causes. See if any of these sound familiar.
Many golfers intuitively believe that to hit the ball hard, you need to drive everything at the ball. They see powerful pros on TV exploding through impact and mistake that for a forward thrust of the hips. But I promise you, real golf power isn't a linear lunge, it's a powerful rotational unwind. As mentioned in the overview of the golf swing, the swing is a rounded action. The goal is to rotate your torso powerfully, using the ground for leverage. Early extension is the opposite - it’s a stall in rotation that gets replaced with a push forward.
Sometimes the problem isn't your a fault in your thinking, but a physical restriction in your body. If you lack mobility in your hips, thoracic spine (mid-back), or ankles, your body will find the path of least resistance. If you can't rotate properly because you're tight, your body's only option to try and generate speed is to thrust forward.
Weakness in your glute muscles is another common culprit. Your glutes are the engine of your rotation. If they're not firing correctly, smaller, less-equipped muscles take over, and your pelvis becomes unstable, making it far more likely to drift toward the ball.
If you take the club away too far behind you on the backswing, your natural reaction to get the club back to the ball is to make room by throwing your hips forward. This isn't the classic "over the top" move, it's the opposite. The club is so far "stuck" behind you that a forward hip thrust feels like the only way to create space to swing. You’re essentially responding to one fault by creating another one.
Your golf swing often follows the path set by your address position. If you set up with your weight too far on your toes or with your back too rounded (a "C" posture), your body is already predisposed to lunge forward during the swing just to maintain balance. A more athletic setup with a straight back and weight centered over the balls of your feet provides a stable platform to rotate around.
Okay, let's get to the good stuff. Reading about the problem is one thing, but feeling the fix is what creates lasting change. These drills are designed to give you instant feedback and retrain your body to rotate instead of thrust.
This is the gold standard for a reason. It gives you undeniable feedback on whether your hips are moving correctly.
Golf swings are often changed with a simple thought or "feel." Early extenders are usually thinking about pushing their right hip towards the ball. We need to replace that with a new feel.
This is a fantastic drill to feel how your lower body should support rotation without becoming unstable.
This drill is great because it makes it almost impossible to hang back or early extend. It forces proper weight transfer and powerful rotation through the shot.
Fixing early extension is fundamentally about changing your concept of power from a forward lunge to a powerful rotation. By understanding the causes and regularly practicing feel-based drills like keeping your rear-end back, you can retrain your muscle memory and replace this swing-killer with a consistent, powerful, and athletic motion.
While these drills provide a fantastic foundation- I know that translating a range feeling to on-course performance can be tough. We actually designed Caddie AI to bridge that exact gap. It acts as your 24/7 on-demand coach, ready to give you personalized feedback or strategic advice right when you need it. You can ask what might be causing your early extension for a personalized response, or even snap a photo of a tricky lie to get an expert opinion on the spot, helping you make smarter, more confident decisions without any of the old guesswork.
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