Welcome to Play Smarta regular GOLF.com game improvement column that will help you play smarter and better golf.
An over-the-top swing is the bane of many recreational golfers. Go to your local range and you’ll likely see dozens of players struggling with the move. As a result, they hit fades or weak slices, and rarely have any real shot at becoming a lower handicap.
The reason for swing over the top is so common because it is the result of a swing that feels correct. One of the main reasons for a high swing is that the golfer does not line up the swing properly. With this motion, you will see the golfer begin the downswing with spin rather than displacement. But when you do that, you throw the clubhead out of your hands and have no choice but to go over the top to hit the ball.
When you watch a good ball striker hit the ball, the order of action changes. Once they reach the top of the backswing, their first downward movement is a lateral shift toward the target. Once this shift occurs, rotation follows, allowing the club to work more internally.
In the following video, GOLF Top 100 Teachers Greg Phillips of the Titleist Performance Institute shares an easy feel you can use to incorporate this sequence into your swing.
How to move then rotate
It can be tempting to get to the top of the swing and then try to relax as quickly as possible. Your brain tells you this is the best way to generate energy, but in reality, it’s a poor ranking and mostly inefficient. If you want to hit the ball like the best ball striker, you need to shift the pressure to the first side and then allow your body to relax.
Phillips likes to teach this by placing extension sticks on the ground that bisect the student’s stance on a diagonal from behind their trail foot to in front of their lead foot. The goal in the downswing is to move the pressure along that diagonal line before the swing begins.
“A lot of times I’ll throw down the extension bars or knock down sticks here (to the right of the target),” Phillips says. “I want you to line up straight, but I want you to pretend you’re going to hit it (to the right).
When you do this, the club will naturally work harder on an in-out path with more natural shallowness.
“You’re twisting early,” says Phillips. “And I need you to have some on the side.”
