How to Stop Early Release in a Golf Swing

That frustrating feeling of making what seems like a great swing, only to see the ball balloon aimlessly into the sky with no power, is often caused by a single, common issue: releasing the club too early. Often called casting or scooping, this premature unhinging of the wrists in the downswing robs you of speed and consistency. This guide will walk you through exactly what an early release is, why it happens, and most importantly, provide you with actionable drills to replace that scoop with a powerful, compressed strike.

What 'Early Release' Actually Means

Imagine cracking a whip. The power doesn't come from pushing the handle forward as hard as you can. It comes from building energy and then "snapping" the wrist at the absolute last moment, accelerating the tip to incredible speeds. Your golf swing works on the same principle.

The "snap" in your golf swing is the release of your wrist angles. An early release is when you start to unhinge your wrists and throw the clubhead at the ball from the top of your downswing, instead of letting it happen naturally and powerfully through the impact zone.

The opposite of an early release is "lag." Lag is that dynamic angle you see between the left arm (for a right-handed golfer) and the club shaft deep into the downswing. Professionals maintain this angle for as long as possible, storing energy like a coiled spring. They don't try to force a release, they let their body's rotation pull the club through, causing it to "snap" through the ball and into the follow-through. When you release early, you've spent all your energy long before the club even gets to the ball.

The Telltale Signs: How to Know if You Release Early

Casting the club doesn't just feel weak, it produces a very specific and frustrating set of shot outcomes. If these sound familiar, an early release is likely the culprit:

• Significant Loss of Distance: This is the number one symptom. You feel like you're swinging hard, but the ball just doesn't go anywhere. You've wasted your clubhead speed before it matters.
• High, Floating Ball Flight: Because you're adding loft to the clubface by "scooping" at the ball, your iron shots launch very high and tend to get knocked down by the wind easily.
• Fat and Thin Shots: Early release messes up the low point of your swing arc. Releasing the club early causes the bottom of the arc to occur behind the ball, leading to fat shots (hitting the ground first). To subconsciously avoid this, you might raise your body up, causing you to hit the top half of the ball - a thin shot.
• The Slice: Often, an early release is accompanied by an "over-the-top" move. Your arms and shoulders swing out and across the ball, which, combined with an open clubface from the scoop, puts a high-spinning, right-curving ball flight (for a right-hander) on the ball.

The Root Causes: Why Is This Happening?

Just treating the symptoms isn't enough, you must understand the cause. An early release isn't a hand problem, it's a sequencing problem. The body is an incredible machine that will always try to get the club onto the ball, and if the swing sequence is off, the hands will rush in to "save" the shot.

1. The "From the Top" Impulse

This is the most common cause. Your brain sees the ball and sends an immediate signal: "Hit it!" The very first thing that moves in your downswing is your hands and arms throwing the clubhead towards the ball. It's a natural, but incorrect, instinct. A great golf swing starts its downswing from the ground up: the lower body shifts and rotates, pulling the torso, which pulls the arms, and finally, releases the club.

2. Stalled Body Rotation

If your hips and chest stop turning through the shot, something has to move to get the club to the ball. What's left? Your arms and hands. Stalled rotation forces the hands to take over and flip at the ball. The golfer who proudly declares they "stay behind the ball" often has a severe case of stalled rotation which forces an early release to compensate.

3. Poor Body-to-Arm Connection (Poor Sequencing)

Imagine your arms, torso, and lower body as gears in a machine. They must move in the correct order. In an efficient swing, the lower body initiates the downswing, creating a stretch across the core that then pulls the torso and arms through. Golfers who release early often have this sequence mixed up, with the arms trying to be the engine instead of the transmission.

Drills to Cure Your Early Release for Good

You can't just think your way out of this swing fault. You need to feel the correct motion. These drills are designed to retrain your muscles and engrain the proper downswing sequence. Start slowly and without a ball, focusing on the feeling, not the result.

Drill 1: The L-to-L (9-to-3) Drill

This is the gold standard for teaching proper release. It shortens the swing to isolate the impact zone and teaches you a body-led release.

1. Take your normal setup with a mid-iron, like an 8 or 9-iron.
2. Swing back until your left arm is parallel to the ground. Your wrists should be hinged, forming an "L" shape between your arm and the club shaft. This is your "9 o'clock" position.
3. Now, the important part: Initiate the downswing by turning your hips and chest toward the target. Do not consciously unhinge your wrists. Let your body rotation pull the arms and club through.
4. Swing through to a finish where your right arm is parallel to the ground (the follow-through "L" or "3 o'clock" position). Your body should be rotated to face the target, and you should feel like the clubhead "whipped" past your hands through the impact area.

Focus on maintaining that wrist hinge until the last possible second. The sensación should be your chest covering the ball at impact, not leaning back and scooping.

Drill 2: The Split-Hand Drill

This drill makes it almost impossible to cast the club from the top because separating your hands reduces their ability to take over. It exaggerates the feel of the club trailing behind the body's rotation.

1. Grip the club normally with your top (left) hand.
2. Slide your bottom (right) hand about 4-6 inches down the shaft.
3. Take slow, half swings. You will immediately feel how your body rotation now becomes the primary engine for moving the club.
4. Your right arm isn't strong enough in this position to throw the club from the top. You'll be forced to use your torso turn to bring the club down into impact, naturally maintaining lag without even trying.

Drill 3: The Impact Bag or Punch Drill

This is all about rehearsing the correct impact position. The early release move creates a flipped-wrist "scoop" at impact. We want to feel the opposite: hands ahead of the ball, with forward shaft lean.

1. With an impact bag: Get an impact bag (or an old cushion). Set up to it like a ball and take a half backswing. Now, drive into the bag by rotating your body. The goal is to strike the bag squarely with your hips and shoulders open to the target, and your left wrist flat (not cupped) and your hands ahead of the clubhead.
2. Without a bag (Punch Drill): Set up to a golf ball. The only goal is to hit a very low, 30-40 yard punch shot. To do this, you inherently have to have your hands ahead of the clubhead at impact, de-lofting the face. You can't hit a low punch shot if you scoop it. This simple objective forces your body to create the conditions for a late release.

Drill 4: The Pump Drill

This helps you groove the feeling of the club shallowing and maintaining lag in the transition from backswing to downswing.

1. Take your normal backswing to the top.
2. Start the downswing by lowering your hands and arms about halfway down, feeling the wrists stay hinged. Stop. That's "pump one."
3. Return to the top of your backswing.
4. Repeat the pump down, feeling your lower body start the move. This rehearsal is training your body on what it feels like to hold onto the wrist angles.
5. After two or three "pumps," go ahead and swing all the way through, hitting the ball. The idea is to carry that "pumped" feeling of stored angles all the way down to impact.

Final Thoughts

Overcoming an early release is a process of changing a deep-seated instinct to "hit" the ball with your hands. By focusing on a better downswing sequence - starting from the ground up and letting your body rotation deliver the club - you can transform that weak scoop into a powerful, compressed strike with penetrating distance.

Building feel can be a challenge, and often, what you *think* you're doing isn't what's actually happening in your swing. This is where getting objective feedback is so valuable. To help bridge this gap, we built Caddie AI to act as your personal golf expert, available anytime. You can ask for drills specific to your faults like early release, or even talk you through the right shot strategy on a tricky hole, helping you make smart decisions so you can commit to making a good technical swing.