[quote=GoNavy]Trying to hold or position anything in the swing is just another way to say tension. You don't want any tension in the swing. Early release is caused by trying to help the club head get through the ball, trying to hold off this, is just the reverse of helping, and results, are what you have seen. What you need to work on, is to relax and let the release happen by itself, the correct grip will ensure the clubface is square, your address setup and alignment will ensure the swing path is correct. Letting things happen according to physics and gravity will happen the same way every time, this is where consistancy come from, then golf becomes a game of setup and judgement, and you will stop thinking about swing positions and weather your elbows here or there or release is early or late, or the other five thousand things that can go wrong. Always go back to the basics, grip, stance, posture, alignment, balance those are the only thing you need to concern yourself with, and must be perfected for you.

Put another way, no one would ever consider taking a class in Calculus or trigonometry without learning basic math first, then algebra and so on, but for some reason all new golfers want to go straight to the advance stuff and skip over the basics, just can't be done.

Now you state your Hdycap is 17 so your not exactly new, but if you are having all these problems, I felt you might needed to be reminded that basics are where it is at, so you problem probably lies in there, not in the release.[/