Golf Pro Carl Pettersson: “Over the Top” Shift on Downswing (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Pro Carl Pettersson: “Over the Top” Shift on Downswing (Video) - by Pete Styles

Carl Petterson has got one of those quirky moves in his swing as well. Now he is one of the most consistent players of the year so far, he has won couple of times and could take his seat at the table of the Games Elite, but he has a little quirky move in his golf swing that most amateurs would fear. And it’s this move that from the top of his backswing he tends to let the hands and arms dip forward in a classic sort of over the top position.

If you have had this over the top position in your game you might recognize it because the ball would generally slice off that shot or actually pull off that shot. And it’s one of those dreaded moves that we really don’t want to be encouraged to do. The movement from the top of the backswing ideally would be to let the hands come exactly back down on the same path they took up. Well it actually feel like that you come a little bit more inside as sort of in to out movement through the golf ball rather than the classic sort of out to in movement through the golf ball. So if you slice the golf ball Carl Petterson swing is not the one to watch.

There is a couple of little exercises that should encourage you to get the club on a better position. First I have taken my golf ball here and I have drawn a straight line back and I am just going to position my head cover just in from that straight line so I should be able now to swing the club back missing the head cover to the top and pull back down again missing the head cover as well. So I would be able to hit my shots really nicely from this position without hitting the head cover. If I do a little bit too much of Petterson’s movement of coming over the top here, now he corrects this by dropping the club back in behind, but if he didn’t do that and he left his hands go forward as I suspect a lot of amateur golfers would do from this position the club head would come outside the line and hit the head cover on the way into the golf boy. So you have got to be really careful that we don’t turn a slight over the top into a big outside inside move.

Another good checkpoint here as an exercise would be to make your backswing to the top hold for 2 seconds then let the club move down. It tends to be a little bit of urgency from the top of the swing while the golfer spins the upper body a bit too quickly that would throw the hands out in front and cause you into a outside inside swing path.

Another good checkpoint here just to encourage this right elbow to come down correctly would just be to put a head cover or a small towel under that right armpit for the right handed golfer as high as it can go and then swing to the top pull the right elbow down and the head cover stays nicely connected into the armpit. If we swing to the top and come over you might feel the right elbow disconnects from the body, the club head would fall on to the floor as I then swing from the outside inside. So there is a couple of little drills for you that hopefully would correct your outside inside or over the top swing path. Work on trying to keep the club up and down on the right line or maybe even feel like you make a small backwards loop just so you don’t copy Carl Petterson’s over the top move try and come inside the ball, hit the ball a bit straight like that.

[playerProfile url="https://golf-info-guide.com/pga-players/carl-pettersson/"][/playerProfile] 2012-07-16

Carl Petterson has got one of those quirky moves in his swing as well. Now he is one of the most consistent players of the year so far, he has won couple of times and could take his seat at the table of the Games Elite, but he has a little quirky move in his golf swing that most amateurs would fear. And it’s this move that from the top of his backswing he tends to let the hands and arms dip forward in a classic sort of over the top position.

If you have had this over the top position in your game you might recognize it because the ball would generally slice off that shot or actually pull off that shot. And it’s one of those dreaded moves that we really don’t want to be encouraged to do. The movement from the top of the backswing ideally would be to let the hands come exactly back down on the same path they took up. Well it actually feel like that you come a little bit more inside as sort of in to out movement through the golf ball rather than the classic sort of out to in movement through the golf ball. So if you slice the golf ball Carl Petterson swing is not the one to watch.

There is a couple of little exercises that should encourage you to get the club on a better position. First I have taken my golf ball here and I have drawn a straight line back and I am just going to position my head cover just in from that straight line so I should be able now to swing the club back missing the head cover to the top and pull back down again missing the head cover as well. So I would be able to hit my shots really nicely from this position without hitting the head cover. If I do a little bit too much of Petterson’s movement of coming over the top here, now he corrects this by dropping the club back in behind, but if he didn’t do that and he left his hands go forward as I suspect a lot of amateur golfers would do from this position the club head would come outside the line and hit the head cover on the way into the golf boy. So you have got to be really careful that we don’t turn a slight over the top into a big outside inside move.

Another good checkpoint here as an exercise would be to make your backswing to the top hold for 2 seconds then let the club move down. It tends to be a little bit of urgency from the top of the swing while the golfer spins the upper body a bit too quickly that would throw the hands out in front and cause you into a outside inside swing path.

Another good checkpoint here just to encourage this right elbow to come down correctly would just be to put a head cover or a small towel under that right armpit for the right handed golfer as high as it can go and then swing to the top pull the right elbow down and the head cover stays nicely connected into the armpit. If we swing to the top and come over you might feel the right elbow disconnects from the body, the club head would fall on to the floor as I then swing from the outside inside. So there is a couple of little drills for you that hopefully would correct your outside inside or over the top swing path. Work on trying to keep the club up and down on the right line or maybe even feel like you make a small backwards loop just so you don’t copy Carl Petterson’s over the top move try and come inside the ball, hit the ball a bit straight like that.

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