"topping" my fairway woods and hybrid??

[davieboy1872]

recently i have been miss hitting my fairway woods and hybrid. thats never been a problem before, ive always hit them really well.

now i seem to top every one of them, the only thing i have changed (i think) is have a little bump in the hips to try and encourage more lag and better rotation.

i had a tendency to shift my whole body on the down swing to get the weight on to the left side meaning i was casting.

has this caused my topped shots??

[Mr. Desmond]

Tough to say from the post.

[turbosdad]

Im no one to give advice, but for me I was doing the same and my thought process is these are bigger clubs and the ball should go harder, therefore i should hit it harder which causes me to lean and lift ala albert Pujols...........when I dont it corrects.  just my 02

[JetFan1983]

Topping is a form of extremely thin contact. Thin and fat contact are both the result of the same problem: The swing's low point is behind the golf ball. Why is the swing's low point behind the golf ball? There are a couple reasons why this happens:

1) Weight location. If it's too far back, it's difficult to reach the ball without making compensations with other parts of your body, like your wrists, hands, arms and spine.

2) Handle location. Where is the handle of the club located at impact? If it's leaning back, you are the most likely to the contact the ground before reaching the ball. If you've hit fat shots before, then you know that after a while, those shots become thin shots after a while. This is because you realize you'll hit behind the ball if you don't change something. Usually that change is retracting the arms or to lift your head up/stand up to shorten or change the swing's arc. Over-do it and boom, topped shot (A high handicapper common fault. As a 9.3 you are more likely to be extending too early or something, but we can't know without swing video).

Two of the most important things in golf are getting over 90% of your weight onto your front foot by impact and having a flat left wrist at impact. I'm going to guess you are deficient in one or both of those areas for your topped shots. Try taking some half swings with your fairway woods where you are focusing on just getting your weight forward, maintaining a flat left wrist, straight arms, and a steady head. Four things to work on is difficult to do, so that's why you use only half swings at a slower tempo.

Ultimately, if you want help, you should seek out lessons where the instructor uses video, or film yourself and look for these key things in your swing. If you are overwhelmed by this information, then seek out an instructor who can walk you through these ideas and changes. Self-teaching is a difficult process. But since you are a 9.3, you have a better chance than most at fixing this on your own, I would think.

[Fozcycle]

To correct it on the course, try moving the ball in your setup more toward the center. This does not fix your swing, but will put the ball directly in front of the club when you are at the bottom of your swing.

[longbow]

Yep move the ball back in your stance a bit.  This is a quick on course fix.  When you do that though you sometimes will start hooking the ball a bit.  At least that is what happens when I do this.  thanks

[davieboy1872]

Got it fixed, turns out I was swaying rather than bumping. Funny how what you feel you are doing is different than what you are actually doing. Who ever invented video cameras on phones deserves a virtual pint on me