Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro
How can I stop topping my golf drives? When you stop topping the ball with the driver it can be a rather dispiriting thing to see as the ball just hits down into the ground, pops up in the air, and tumbles down the fairway or off the tee into a hazard. It doesn’t go very far and it’s a very frustrating shot because you can put lots and lots of power into a drive for very little result. Now when you start topping the ball, it’s often down to a very kind of simple fault in your technique. Make sure that that ball is just opposite the left heel as always and that you're trying to sweep that ball up in the air. However, what a lot of people do to try and help the driver up in the air, is recoil and fold the arms upwards as they come through impact. As the arms fold and recoil up through impact, it’s often the case that it lists higher than the level of the ball that you want. You catch the ball just above the equator and that’s why you get that hit down into the ground the top and the pop up into the air.
If you want to start topping your driver try and maintain your spine angle, try and keep your posture nice and solid and as you swing through really extend those arms down towards the target. Don’t allow them to crumple into the body. Really extended them and point them down to where your target live is. I have a couple of practice swings and then just try and have almost a bit of a half swing with the driver and just try and see if you can actually hold this position. It will feel very very awkward to begin with actually stopping halfway through the driver swing but lots and lots of those drills should enable you to actually transfer it into the full swing technique. So if you're struggling with the top driver keep the posture and extend those arms down through impact. And hopefully, you should start seeing that ball sailing through the air rather than downing into the ground just after you hit. 2014-11-20How can I stop topping my golf drives? When you stop topping the ball with the driver it can be a rather dispiriting thing to see as the ball just hits down into the ground, pops up in the air, and tumbles down the fairway or off the tee into a hazard. It doesn’t go very far and it’s a very frustrating shot because you can put lots and lots of power into a drive for very little result. Now when you start topping the ball, it’s often down to a very kind of simple fault in your technique. Make sure that that ball is just opposite the left heel as always and that you're trying to sweep that ball up in the air. However, what a lot of people do to try and help the driver up in the air, is recoil and fold the arms upwards as they come through impact. As the arms fold and recoil up through impact, it’s often the case that it lists higher than the level of the ball that you want. You catch the ball just above the equator and that’s why you get that hit down into the ground the top and the pop up into the air.
If you want to start topping your driver try and maintain your spine angle, try and keep your posture nice and solid and as you swing through really extend those arms down towards the target. Don’t allow them to crumple into the body. Really extended them and point them down to where your target live is. I have a couple of practice swings and then just try and have almost a bit of a half swing with the driver and just try and see if you can actually hold this position. It will feel very very awkward to begin with actually stopping halfway through the driver swing but lots and lots of those drills should enable you to actually transfer it into the full swing technique. So if you're struggling with the top driver keep the posture and extend those arms down through impact. And hopefully, you should start seeing that ball sailing through the air rather than downing into the ground just after you hit.
