Do you struggle topping the golf ball?

Watch the video to understand the root cause of a ‘Thin’ or ‘Topping’ golf shot.

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Transcript

So you’re hitting a lot of thin shots or topping shots and you want to know why. You’re about to start looking at articles and tips, but before you do that let me give you a little bit of help in understanding why this thin topping shot occurs. The reason you’ll be thinning it or topping it for most players is that the bottom of your arc, the lowest point of you swing, is too early. If you’re a right handed player it’s too much to the right side of the ball. You’ll just miss the ground. The club will be traveling on the way up as it strikes the ball. You’ll be hitting the middle of the golf ball. Now, I’d say for most people who are hitting a thin shot and a topping shot that’s what’s happening. There are some extreme cases where players get too much past the ball. The lowest point of their swing is well after the golf ball. It causes them [inaudible 00:00:52] the golf ball to get in the way of this path causing them to hit the middle of the golf ball. That’s a lot more rare, and if that’s you you’ll see your divots well after the golf ball, if you happen to hit the ground.

Most players’ low point will be too much to the right side of the ball. If you can learn to move your low point more to the left I’m pretty sure you’ll hit the ball more solid. I can’t give you all the reasons why that could be happening in this video, but can give you some ideas. Let’s start at address. I want you to check your ball position. Perhaps the ball position’s too much to the left in your stance. You make a good swing, but the low point’s too early and you’ll hit the thin or topping shot. Don’t think it’s just too much to the left. I’ve seen players position the ball way too much to the right in their stance. That will cause them to compensate hanging back on their right foot. The low point happens early, and they hit a little up on the ball and they hit a thin or top shot.

Body position is an important one also. With the way you balance, you want about 50/50 in your feet. Some players get too much weight on their right foot at address, perhaps with their upper body tilted too much away from the target, left shoulder too high. If you don’t make some compensations you’ll be too much behind the ball at impact causing your low point to be too much to the right side of the ball. An actual swing itself, backswing, one of the most common faults we see with generally not hitting the ball solid is a backswing sway, where the body will have too much lateral movement to the right. Again, if you don’t compensate from here your body will position too much behind the ball at impact. You’ll hit up on the ball and you’ll hit that thin or topping shot. During swing, it’s a key move to be able to move or transfer your weight to the left foot early in your transition. [inaudible 00:02:39] hang back on the right foot, again, the weight’s too much on the right foot. The body is behind the ball. The low point’s to the right.

Other players who early release. The club head gets early released so through impact there’s a scooping movement. The club head reaches the ball before the hands. Again, that will cause the bottom of your swing to be too early and to hit a little bit up on the ball, not hitting the ball solid. As I said, I can’t go through all of the reasons why you could be hitting a thin or top shot. It’s the same family as a heavy shot, the same faults. The low point will be too much to the right, so in reading your articles or lessons, look for reasons of how to move your low point more to the left. I’ve given you some ideas at set up, backswing, and during swing. Hopefully that will give you a head start in fixing your thin shot or your topping shot.