Early Extension in Golf: The Two Causes and Their Fixes

Early extension — when the hips and pelvis move toward the ball during the downswing, crowding the arms and forcing the chest to rise through impact — is one of the most common faults instructor Brian Mogg sees in recreational golfers. He says it's rarely the real problem. It's usually a compensation for something that goes wrong earlier in the swing.

What causes early extension?

Mogg points to two root causes. The first is a steep downswing. When the club approaches the ball too vertically or comes over the top, the body instinctively searches for room to make contact, and pushing the hips toward the ball is often the reflex that creates it. Mogg says the fix starts in the backswing: a fuller turn gives the arms and club enough depth to approach the ball from a better position, which reduces the need for a late compensation.

The second cause is pressure that stays stuck on the trail foot too long, which traps the arms behind the body and leaves little room at impact. Mogg teaches golfers to load into the inside of the trail foot on the backswing, then shift pressure to the lead foot through the transition. He points to Rory McIlroy as an example of the effect: McIlroy shifts toward his lead side while letting his pelvis clear through impact, rather than driving his hips straight at the ball.

Early extension is usually a compensation, not the original problem.

How do you actually fix it?

A common drill has golfers stand with their backside against a wall or chair and try to maintain that contact through the swing. Mogg says it can build awareness, but it doesn't address why the hips are moving in the first place. If the downswing is still too steep or the pressure shift hasn't improved, the same compensation tends to return. His advice is to work backward through the turn, the downswing path and the pressure shift before trying to fix the hips directly.