Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
Early extension is one of the biggest swing faults among recreational golfers. But despite its prevalence, lots of golfers don’t even know it exists.
If you’re one of those who isn’t quite sure what early extension is — or how it hurts your swing — here’s a quick refresher. In simple terms, early extension is when your pelvis moves toward the ball during the downswing. When this happens, it limits the space for your arms during the downswing and causes you to either get too steep or have your arms get stuck behind you. Suffice to say, if you ever hear the phrase “early extension,” it rarely means anything good.
This is a swing flaw that is a killer for recreational players, but even among the pros, it’s something they’re always trying to avoid. Case in point, Justin Rose. The former U.S. Open champ is one of the best ball strikers in the game, but even for him, the looming threat of early extension always has him working on his posture during the downswing.
In the video below, you can see Rose talking about just that — and the way he works to keep himself from falling victim to early extension.
The secret for fixing early extension
If you watch Rose play on Tour, you’ll notice he always does a specific swing rehearsal where he exaggerates bending forward at the hips while he drops his arms down. It looks a bit odd, but it serves a specific purpose.
One of the things Rose does particularly well with his swing is create space for his arms during the downswing, and this all happens thanks to this swing rehearsal.
“I can feel like I’m really pushing my toes into the end of my shoes,” Rose says. “Pushing left, kicking forward, that’s actually going to push my left hip [back], creating the space that I need to have my hands close to my body.”
It might seem counterintuitive for Rose to push his weight toward the ball to fight early extension, but the physics of it make sense. Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and this swing feel is a prime example of that. When Rose pushes into his lead toe, the ground pushes back and helps him get his lead hip out of the way.
“As soon as I’m thrusting [my hips], my hands are now jammed,” Rose says. “Or the only other option I’ve got are my hips thrusting [and] my arms are thrusting out and I’m cutting across the ball.”
If you’re struggling with early extension, give Rose’s swing thought a try. By using physics to your advantage, you can create the space you need for your arms to swing freely during the downswing and make better contact with the ball on a more consistent basis.
