Over the Top

[Wass]

My swing is usually nice and smooth until I start the transition from the backswing to the downswing. I make crisp contact with my driver and irons, but my ball always seems to slice off to the left mid flight (I'm a lefty). I've read that the 2 causes of a slice are an open club face and coming over the top, and I'm sure I narrowed it down to it's me coming over the top. The funny thing is that if you tell me too, I can hit a hook. If you tell me too, I can hit a slice. But I can't hit a straight shot if you tell me too. I guess that's just golf for yah. I've heard about the Inside Approach training aid, but I don't feel like dropping money on it. I'm just looking for a drill I can do to prevent coming over the top. I really feel like I'm getting close to fine tuning my game to become more consistent. I know what my problem is, it's just I don't know how to fix it. I try to pretend that I'm hitting the ball out to left field, but that doesn't work too well either. Thanks for the help.

[Dent]

Im not sure about over the top, but the most common problem is outside in. If your doing that try these things. This is what i did

1) Think of an imaginary line behind the ball and follow that line to hit it straight
2) Sometimes find a spot infront of your ball and aim to that and swing your club towards it on the forward swing to prevent slicing

[Wass]

  Dent said:

Im not sure about over the top, but the most common problem is outside in. If your doing that try these things. This is what i did

Yeah, that's what I meant. I usually come outside in, and slice over the ball.

[iacas]

The simple physics of a slice are that the clubface is open relative to the path. So, yeah, you're either:

a) clubface open (relative to target), path good (relative to target)
b) clubface square (relative to target), path across out to in (relative to target)

Of course, if your clubface is 2 degrees closed, but your swing is 10 degrees outside-in, that's more like case B than anything else.

http://thesandtrap.com/extras/playin..._of_your_slice

[Wass]

  iacas said:

The simple physics of a slice are that the clubface is open relative to the path. So, yeah, you're either:

I'm pretty sure that it's an out to in path, but I'm no genius. The thing is though that I am making solid contact with the ball, and the ball has good flight. It's not a low ball path and slicing off. It starts out high and straight, and then starts to slice off to the left. I can usually drive it around 250 with the slice, but I feel that I can get an extra 10-15 yards of distance if I could just cut down on the slice. I've tried closing the clubface a little when I approach the ball, but I still get the slice so I figured that I was coming over the top.

[iacas]

  Wass said:

I'm pretty sure that it's an out to in path, but I'm no genius.

You're missing the point. Out to in relative to WHAT? You can swing straight down the target line, but if the clubface is open, you'll slice. Or you can swing 10 degrees outside-in, but if the clubface is 10 degrees shut, you'll hit it straight left.

The point is that until you define a line, "outside-in" has no axis. You have to define the coordinate system first. Is it based on the target line or the swing axis? It's just a terminology thing, but until you get those nailed down, we can all be talking about different things and not know it.

  Wass said:

The thing is though that I am making solid contact with the ball, and the ball has good flight. It's not a low ball path and slicing off. It starts out high and straight, and then starts to slice off to the left. I can usually drive it around 250 with the slice, but I feel that I can get an extra 10-15 yards of distance if I could just cut down on the slice. I've tried closing the clubface a little when I approach the ball, but I still get the slice so I figured that I was coming over the top.

You're probably NOT coming over the top, relative to the target line. If the ball is starting off online, your clubface is probably open. Sounds weird, and I didn't believe it for awhile too, but except in extreme cases, initial ball direction is more a matter of clubface direction than clubface angle. Which way the ball then moves is a matter of clubface angle relative to the direction.

So if it's starting square, the path is square. If it peels off, the clubface is a little open.

[Guest]

Save time and have a lesson with a good teacher. I just did after having the same problem. I was not completing my body turn, only about 70 degrees instead of a full 90 degrees which meant that I hit from the top, out and over. Once I turn fully 90 degrees, I can now start my downswing with legs, then hips and release "down the line". No reverse weight shift, good trajectory, more length. Its all good, mate !

[laconic517]

try to mimic jim furyks swing with a PW then go to your driver, if you push your hands way out away from your body, you have no room to come over the top so you have to come from the inside

[teebuck911]

my problem coming over the top was cause my not keeping my right elbow tucked in, your left elbow, but you really need to see a pro or let us see your swing to actaully find out what the problem is,