Instruction
What happens when “over-the-toppers” try to hit a draw
One of the worst feelings in golf is not being able to hit a certain shot, and more specifically for many, not being able to hit the coveted draw.
Over-the-toppers everywhere would give anything to hit a ball that begins right of their target and falls back toward the target. However, whenever golfers who swing over the top try and draw the ball, all they get is a HUGE pull. So what I’d like to do in this article is explain to you why this occurs and help you to understand what you must do in order to move the ball consistently right to left like a Tour player.
To illustrate the point, let’s take a look at a solid player I had in the Academy who swings the club from out-to-in on every swing and hits a very controlled fade. Below you can see that all his paths are negative (on the left part of the screen), which shows he is indeed swinging out to in.
Now, I am not here to say that this swing pattern is bad by any stretch of the imagination because I’m all for working with your strengths. However, this path will make it very easy to move the ball left-to-right, but difficult to hit a draw without causing a pull. That’s because his average path is -7.2 degrees left of his target.
I asked this player to hit several draws to see what happens…
After many attempts, this was the common shot he (as a very good player) hit. Let’s examine the data and see why:
- His average path, shown on the left side of the screen, never shifted right of the target, which would be shown by a positive number.
- His average path when trying to draw the ball was basically the same as his normal swing — as is the result with most over the top players when they try and draw the ball.
- His path when trying to draw the ball (as shown by the blue line) is still way left of his target.
- The only thing he did differently while trying to draw the ball was to hit the ball with a more closed face than usual at impact, causing the face to be -1.7 degrees left of the path… thus, a shot starting left and heading farther left.
What you need to understand if you are an over-the-top player and you try to draw the ball, you MUST shift your path to the right of the target. If you close the face and keep the same path, a pull is inevitable.
The only true way to move the ball from right to left is for the path to be right of the target, and the face to be left of the path but right of the target, (as shown below). You must always have this order when trying to curve the ball correctly: path, then face angle at impact, then target-line. Anything other than that is dangerous
When the path is right of the target (shown by the blue line above), you can shift the face left of the path slightly and cause the ball to fall from right to left.
Hopefully by now you finally understand WHY you tend to pull the ball as a over-the-top player when trying to draw the ball, and the adjustments you need to make in order to correct it. Keep in mind that you’re making these changes merely to widen your arsenal of shots, because at the end of the day, nothing is more reliable than a trustworthy fade when you need to hit a fairway or green.
The LPGA Tour is kicking off its 2026 season this week at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, and the pros are dealing with something most Florida golfers rarely face: freezing temperatures.
“It’s colder here than in the UK at the minute, which is a first,” said England’s Charley Hull during Wednesday’s media day at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
Even Lydia Ko, who lives at Lake Nona, seemed surprised by the cold snap. “We’re pretty much getting to below zero in celsius here, which maybe in other parts of the country they would be thankful, but when you’re in Florida it is a little bit of a surprise,” she said.
If the world’s best players are adjusting their games for cold weather, recreational golfers should, too. Here’s how to play smart when the mercury drops.
Understand What Cold Does to Your Game
Before you change anything, you need to know what you’re fighting against. Cold air is denser than warm air, which means your ball won’t fly as far. Period.
Hull noticed this immediately during practice rounds at Lake Nona. She mentioned hitting a gap wedge into the 18th hole during a previous win but needing a 4-iron during Tuesday’s practice round. That’s a difference of four or five clubs for the same shot.
Action item: Expect to lose 5-10 yards on every club in your bag when temperatures dip below 50 degrees. Plan accordingly and don’t be stubborn about club selection.
Layer Up Without Restricting Your Swing
Hull admitted she wore three pairs of pants during practice. While that might be extreme for most of us, staying warm is critical to playing well in cold conditions.
Your muscles need warmth to function properly. When you’re cold, your body tightens up and your swing gets shorter and faster. Neither of those things help you hit good golf shots.
Action item: Wear multiple thin layers instead of one bulky jacket. Look for golf-specific cold weather gear that stretches with your swing. Keep hand warmers in your pockets between shots. And don’t forget a good hat because you lose significant body heat through your head.
Take More Club Than You Think You Need
This is where ego gets in the way of good scores. When it’s cold, the ball doesn’t compress as well off the clubface. Combined with denser air, you’re looking at serious distance loss.
The pros at Lake Nona are dealing with a course that measures 6,642 yards but plays much longer this week. If they’re adjusting, you should too.
Action item: Take at least one extra club on every approach shot. In temperatures below 40 degrees, consider taking two extra clubs. It’s better to fly the ball to the back of the green than to come up short in a bunker.
Adjust Your Expectations on the Greens
Cold weather affects putting in ways most golfers don’t consider. The ball is harder and doesn’t roll as smoothly. Your hands are cold, making it harder to feel the putter. And if there’s any moisture on the greens, they’ll be slower than normal.
Ko mentioned that she still sometimes reads the greens wrong at Lake Nona despite being a member for years. Cold weather makes that challenge even tougher.
Action item: Hit putts more firmly than usual. The ball needs extra speed to hold its line on cold greens. Take a few extra practice strokes to get a feel for the speed before you putt.
Embrace the Mental Challenge
Hull said something interesting about cold weather golf: “I like the mental toughness of it.”
That’s the right attitude. Everyone on the course is dealing with the same conditions. The player who stays patient and doesn’t get frustrated by the extra difficulty will come out ahead.
Action item: Lower your expectations by a few strokes. If you normally shoot 85, accept that 90 might be a good score in 40-degree weather. Focus on solid contact and smart decisions rather than perfect shots.
Warm Up Longer and Smarter
This might be the most important tip of all. Cold muscles are tight muscles, and tight muscles get injured easily.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul revealed she’s been protecting a wrist injury that bothered her late last season. Cold weather makes those kinds of injuries more likely if you don’t prepare properly.
Action item: Spend at least 20 minutes warming up before your round. Start with stretching, then hit easy wedge shots before working up to your driver. Keep moving between shots on the course to maintain body heat and flexibility.
The pros at Lake Nona this week will adapt and compete at the highest level despite the cold. You can do the same at your local course by following these tips and keeping a positive attitude.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Brooks Koepka is back on the PGA Tour, and whether you love him or hate him, the guy knows how to win when it matters. After his LIV Golf stint, the five-time major champion returns this week at the Farmers Insurance Open.
What makes Koepka fascinating? He doesn’t fit the mold. His swing isn’t textbook. He doesn’t obsess over mechanics. Yet he’s won three PGA Championships and two U.S. Opens, regularly making it look easier than guys with prettier swings.
So, what can average golfers learn from someone who treats the game so differently? Quite a bit.
Stop Overthinking Every Shot
Koepka describes his approach as “reactionary” rather than mechanical. While most tour pros grind over swing thoughts, Brooks sees the target and hits it. No mental checklist.
This might be the most valuable lesson for weekend golfers who’ve watched too many YouTube swing videos.
How to actually do this:
On the range, hit five balls where you stare at the target for three seconds prior to addressing the ball. Don’t think about grip or stance. Just burn that target into your brain. You’ll be shocked at how pure you hit it when your brain focuses on where the ball is going instead of how you’re swinging.
Next time you play, give yourself a rule: Once you pull the club, you’ve got 15 seconds to hit. Koepka is one of the fastest players on tour because he doesn’t give his brain time to sabotage him.
If you feel tension in your hands at address, you’re trying to control too much. Koepka’s grip pressure is famously light. Loosen up until the club almost feels like it might slip, then add just enough pressure to hold on. That’s your swing thought: soft hands, see the target.
This approach works better under pressure. When you’re standing over that shot with water left and OB right, the last thing you need is a mental checklist. See it, feel it, hit it.
Play to Your Strengths (Even If They’re Not Pretty)
Koepka uses a strong grip that wouldn’t pass muster in some teaching circles. But he’s built his game around what works for him, elite driving distance and recovery skills. He doesn’t try to be someone he’s not.
Here’s how to build your game like Brooks:
Look at your last five rounds and figure out where you’re actually gaining strokes. Bombing it off the tee, but can’t hit greens? Lean into it. Play courses where distance matters more than precision. On tight holes, grip down on your 3-wood instead of trying to thread a driver through a keyhole you’ll miss seven times out of ten.
Koepka knows he can scramble, so he’s not afraid to miss greens. If you’re deadly from 50 to 75 yards, start leaving yourself those distances on the par 5’s instead of going for them in two every time.
Know when to take your medicine. Koepka in the trees at the PGA? He’s punching out to 100 yards, not trying to bend a 6-iron around three oaks. You’re in the rough with a flyer lie and water short? Hit your 8-iron to the middle and move on. That’s not playing scared, that’s playing smart.
Save Your Best for When It Counts
Here’s a wild stat: Koepka’s putting average in majors is often more than a full stroke better per round than in regular events. He elevates when pressure is highest.
How does an amateur tap into that gear? It’s not about trying harder, it’s about caring differently.
Here’s what actually works:
Decide which rounds matter to you. Club championship? Member-guest? That annual trip with college buddies? Circle those dates and treat them differently. Koepka doesn’t care much about regular tour events, but majors? That’s when he locks in.
Two weeks before your big round, change your practice. Stop beating balls mindlessly. Play nine holes in which every shot has consequences. Miss the fairway? Hit from the rough on the next hole too. Three-putt? Twenty push-ups. Koepka’s practice intensity ramps up before majors because he’s rehearsing pressure, not just swings.
Develop a between-shot routine that resets your brain. Koepka is famous for his blank expression after bad shots. Try this: After any shot, take three deep breaths while walking, then find something specific to notice, a tree, a cloud, someone’s shirt. That’s your reset button. By the time you reach your ball, the last shot is gone.
The Bottom Line
Brooks Koepka’s return reminds us there’s no single path to success in golf. His “substance over style” approach proves that results matter more than looking good.
You don’t need a perfect swing; you need a reliable one that holds up under pressure. You don’t need to hit every shot in the book; you need the shots you can count on. And you don’t need to play great every time; you need to play great when it matters.
Welcome back, Brooks. Thanks for the reminder that golf is ultimately about getting the ball in the hole, not winning style points.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Blades Brown made a big impression last week in the California desert, and not just because he’s only 18. He put up numbers that would catch any weekend golfer’s attention. Most of us won’t hit 317-yard drives or find 86% of our greens in regulation, but there’s a lot to learn from how Brown managed his game at The American Express.
Here are three practical lessons from his performance that you can use on your own course this weekend.
Step 1: Give Priority to Accuracy Over Distance Off The Tee
Brown’s driving stats are impressive. He averaged almost 318 yards off the tee, ranking 12th in the field. More importantly, he hit 76.79% of his fairways, tying for fourth place in the tournament.
Think about that ratio for a second. Brown could have swung harder, chased more distance and tried to overpower the course. Instead, he played smart golf and kept his ball in play.
Your Action Item: Next time you’re on the tee box, ask yourself a simple question before pulling the driver. Do you need maximum distance here, or do you need to be in the fairway? If there’s trouble lurking or the hole doesn’t demand every yard you can muster, take something off your swing. Grip down an inch. Make a three-quarter swing. Do whatever it takes to find the short grass. Brown’s approach illustrates that fairways lead to greens, and greens lead to birdies. He made 22 of them last week, along with an eagle.
The math is simple. When you’re hitting three out of every four fairways like Brown did, you’re giving yourself legitimate looks at the green with your approach shots. That’s when scoring happens.
Step 2: Commit To Hitting More Greens
This is where Brown really separated himself. He hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation, an 86.11% clip that tied for first in the entire field. Read that again. An 18-year-old kid tied for the lead in one of the most important ball-striking statistics in professional golf.
How did he do it? By keeping his ball in the fairway (see Step 1) and giving himself clean looks with mid-irons and wedges.
Your Action Item: Start tracking your greens in regulation. You don’t need a fancy app or a statistics degree. Just mark down whether you hit the green in the regulation number of strokes. Par 3s in one shot. Par 4s in two shots. Par 5s in three shots.
Once you know your baseline, set a goal to improve it by 10%. If you’re currently hitting five greens per round, aim for six. The beauty of this approach is that it forces you to think strategically about club selection and shot shape. Brown’s strokes gained approach number was positive (0.179), meaning he was better than the field average. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be on the dance floor more often.
When you hit more greens, you eliminate the need for heroic short game shots. Brown only had to scramble 10 times all week, and he got up and down 70% of the time. That’s solid, but the real story is that he rarely put himself in scrambling situations to begin with.
Step 3: Minimize Mistakes And Stay Patient
Here’s the stat that jumps off the page: Brown made only three bogeys all week. Three. In four rounds of professional golf against the best players in the world.
He also made just one double bogey. That kind of clean card doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you play within yourself, avoid the big miss and trust that pars are never bad scores.
Your Action Item: Before your next round, decide that you’re going to play boring golf. No hero shots over water. No driver on tight holes just because you can. No aggressive pins when there’s a safe side of the green.
Brown’s performance shows us that consistency beats flash every single time. He didn’t lead the field in any single strokes gained category, but he was solid across the board. That’s how you post numbers and cash checks.
Give these three steps a try. Your scorecard will thank you.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
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KoreanSlumLord
Sep 4, 2016 at 4:08 pm
I dislike the look of my ball going right to left. I fought for many years to rid myself of my natural draw. I like my irons and fairway woods to be high, straight, with a soft 5 yard left to right fade at the end. My drives I like a long, low running fade taught by the great Jimmy Demaret. Jimmy Demaret at the Champions Club in Houston said Mr. Hogan was disgusted with any shot that went right to left. Now mind you, I can shot shape a draw at will should the conditions call for it.
KK
Sep 4, 2016 at 3:43 pm
So wrong. You can totally hit a draw with a square face and an in-to-out clubhead path. In fact, that’s the simpler and very likely better method.
tom stickney
Sep 5, 2016 at 4:21 pm
KK- if you impact the ball with a square face and an in to out path you will miss the ball left of target…check out the new ball flight laws on the Trackman blog etc to aid your understanding of how face and path interact to produce curvature
Mr. Wedge
Sep 6, 2016 at 1:42 pm
It’s important to distinguish whether you are talking about face angle in relation to the club path or target line. If you are talking about target line, then you are correct, because an in-to-out path with a club square to target line, will actually be closed in relation to club path, and thus produce a draw. But an in-to-out path and a square club face in relation to the club path will just produce a push to the right. The “spin” and resulting draw/fade are dependent on face angle in relation to club path.
Billy
Sep 9, 2016 at 2:42 pm
U guys are wrong .. There’s gear effect
He must shank every shot
Sometimes a Smizzle
Sep 2, 2016 at 12:07 pm
I am not sure why there are many shank ratings. Nothing wrong with this article thay i can see.
KK
Sep 4, 2016 at 3:39 pm
Because you can’t see that he’s flat out wrong.
Jim
Sep 2, 2016 at 12:50 am
jeez….stop swinging 7 degrees out to in. Practice with some visual aide….Of you have a grass range, tie a 6′ piece of string between 2 tees, make it straight and pull it tight. Press it right down firm and hit balls right off it with irons. For a driver, put another tee just a few degrees outside the string about a foot after your teed up ball and ‘program’ that into your ‘computer – that the club has somewhere to go BESIDES THE BALL. The ball is not the terminus of the swing! Most OTT folks are hitting at the balln not swinging through it. Close the stance A LITTLE! – It’s better for your back anyway. A closed stance doesn’t
change ball flight – but it might help you make a better turn.
Have a good spine tilt toward the back side (10 degrees anyway) & get a little more turn from the entire front side while sweeping the club away – STOP LIFTING it up before your hands pass your belt line.- MAKE your hip turn – even a
100 degree + shoulder turn doesn’t ‘make’ your hips turn. Try and get a LITTLE ‘flatter’ OR at LEAST get your hands behind your shoelaces at the top. Even my XXL students and those with fused spines can get there if they start with the spine tilt and turn the front shoulder more ‘level to the
ground’ to start the backswing…. Try a little shift off the back foot and deliberately hold the shoulder turn (and hands) for an instant to allow the front hip to lead the umwinding, then lead with the back of your front hand and try to clip the second tee with the follow through….
there’s NO reason to live with 7 degrees out to in. Look at the smash factor – he must have been hitting pretty close to center face to produce even 1.41 – notice the jump to 1.48 with the draw attempt…. there’s no reason this person – or any OTT wildman can’t reduce that to 2 degrees with a little coaching and get to square better
Hawt
Sep 1, 2016 at 10:25 pm
Well, you OTT fade guys gotta just aim way right and hit a hook, and live with calling that a draw, aintcha
Hawt
Sep 1, 2016 at 10:27 pm
If you’re right handed, that is.
Brian
Sep 1, 2016 at 3:13 pm
I would give my left nut to be able to hit a predicable fade. Few things in golf are more miserable, in my mind, than fighting snap hooks off the tee.
Hugh
Sep 1, 2016 at 1:27 pm
Absolutely. You can get away with this with irons but over the top with a wood is just a game killer.
Justin
Sep 1, 2016 at 1:17 pm
An “over the top” fade with the driver, no matter how controlled and consistent, will never travel as far as a true power fade. The angle of the swing path on a power fade is much less negative and the face only slightly open. The golf swing is very much a game of staying within the lines. In this case, if you are trying to hit a power fade, the lines you need to stay within are the negative swing path angle and the target line. Close the face left of your swing path and as Tom said you’ll hit a big pull. Open the face right of your target line and you’ll hit a very weak push or block. For most amateurs, It’s much easier to develop one solid swing and then use the position of your feet to change whether you are hitting a draw or fade. If you set your feet right of the target line but keep the club face angled toward the target, you are creating a “closed” club face as far as the swing path is concerned. This will result in a draw unless you swing path is negative (over the top) with regard to your intended path.
I truly believe that before any amateur tries to add a draw to their game (especially off the tee), they should learn to hit a proper fade with minimally negative swing path and just slightly open face. Once you get that down, you may never even want to hit a draw!
Jack
Sep 2, 2016 at 2:39 am
I believe in that. I’ve recently changed from draw to fade as I changed my swing around, and the results are nice. Way better control, and actually the distance is better for me as it’s at the same time further and more consistent (has to do with my improved swing mechanics too) but the fade doesn’t really impact it negatively that much. I can still execute my draw/hook when I need it but it’s my secondary shot shape now. Though it’s useful in certain wind conditions.
AllBOdoesisgolf
Sep 1, 2016 at 10:55 am
embrace the fade