Instruction
4 Ways to Stop Coming Over the Top
“Tom, I’m coming over the top and hitting big slices! Help!”
Nothing can ruin your score quicker than hitting three off the tee after you pump one out of play. And nothing is more frustrating than catching one solid, only to see it put on the blinker and slice hard to the right while losing big distance.
The over-the-top move that causes this ball flight most often stems from poor sequencing of the body. When your body gets out of sync, it often forces the rear shoulder to ride outward on the downswing, shifting your swing direction in toward your body. Slice city.
There are a few very common reasons that lead to poor sequencing. I’ll highlight them below, and provide the best drills that will help you eliminate your over-the-top issues with some time and effort.
Problem #1: Arm Lift to the Top
Cause and Effect: The arm lift is caused when the shoulders aren’t the lead source of power in the backswing, leaving the arms to lift to the top independently of the torso’s actions. This places the arms in an overly upright position and one that makes it hard to return the club down to the inside during the transition.
The Fix: Practice from an uphill, sidehill lie.
How to Do It: Find as drastic of a slope as you can. If you lift your arms to the top from an uphill, sidehill lie, you will stick the club into the ground on the way down. The only way to hit the ball with any success from this kind of lie is to allow the club to follow the slope and work around your body to the top, which will help you discover the feeling of how the arms follow the shoulders to the top, not the other way around.
Problem #2: Getting Way Inside on the Takeaway
Cause and Effect: When you get the club way inside on the takeaway, it forces your body to make drastic recoveries to be able to return the club properly at impact. This move is often caused by an over-rolling of the lead forearm, or the over-turning of the torso during the start of the swing. This places the arms, hands and club into a position where they have no choice but to transition over the top in the downswing.
The Fix: Use the Stick drill.
How to Do It: Place a small stick (as shown in the photo above) a few feet behind the golf ball and a little outside of the target line. Practice taking the club head OVER the stick on the backswing, and then deliver the club on the inside of the stick on the way down.
This “looping” feeling will help you to understand the role of the arms back and through the swing, and will ultimately encourage a draw.
Problem #3: Reverse Weight Shift
Cause and Effect: When someone has a reverse weight shift, their spine tends to be too centered and not tilted enough behind the ball at address. This causes their weight to move toward their forward foot on the backswing and then rapidly reverse directions to their rear foot on the way down, violently thrusting their right shoulder out and over the swing plane.
The Fix: Use the Tilt drill.
How to Do It: To start, feel like you set up behind the ball with your rear shoulder lower than your front shoulder and your weight favoring your rear foot. Exaggerate this tilted position throughout the swing, and you will feel how the weight should move into the backswing.
When you’re doing this drill your swing will feel drastically different, and you’ll see some weird shots at first. You’ll likely hit the ball fat to start, which is due to your swing becoming more shallow. Then you’ll start to hook the ball. Those are good signs, and your ball flight will straighten out with practice.
Problem #4: Quick Hips from the Top
Cause and Effect: Anytime the hips race out from under the torso or “spin-out” from the top, the club is usually thrown over-the-top. The longer the club, the more detrimental this move becomes.
The Fix: The Rear Foot Back drill.
How to Do It: Whenever you pull your rear foot behind your front foot at address, you will encourage a deeper hip turn to the top and a more delayed spinning of the hips on the way down. The Rear Foot Back drill gives the arms freedom to “drop” under the plane during the transition, putting you into a better position to deliver the club head into the ball.
Remember, there are many things that can cause an over-the-top motion, but these are far and away the most common ones I see from most golfers. Take your time to understand each of these issues, and make sure you are not making one of these crucial mistakes. If you are, it’s OK. You can practice and engrain these new feelings, and eventually your banana ball may just turn into a tight draw.
There may be no more painful affliction in golf than the “yips” – those uncontrollable and maddening little nervous twitches that prevent you from making a decent stroke on short putts. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself very fortunate (or possibly just very young). But I can assure you that when your most treacherous and feared golf shot is not the 195 yard approach over water with a quartering headwind…not the extra tight fairway with water left and sand right…not the soft bunker shot to a downhill pin with water on the other side…No, when your most feared shot is the remaining 2- 4-foot putt after hitting a great approach, recovery or lag putt, it makes the game almost painful.
And I’ve been fighting the yips (again) for a while now. It’s a recurring nightmare that has haunted me most of my adult life. I even had the yips when I was in my 20s, but I’ve beat them into submission off and on most of my adult life. But just recently, that nasty virus came to life once again. My lag putting has been very good, but when I get over one of those “you should make this” length putts, the entire nervous system seems to go haywire. I make great practice strokes, and then the most pitiful short-stroke or jab at the ball you can imagine. Sheesh.
But I’m a traditionalist, and do not look toward the long putter, belly putter, cross-hand, claw or other variation as the solution. My approach is to beat those damn yips into submission some other way. Here’s what I’m doing that is working pretty well, and I offer it to all of you who might have a similar affliction on the greens.
When you are over a short putt, forget the practice strokes…you want your natural eye-hand coordination to be unhindered by mechanics. Address your putt and take a good look at the hole, and back to the putter to ensure good alignment. Lighten your right hand grip on the putter and make sure that only the fingertips are in contact with the grip, to prevent you from getting to tight.
Then, take a long, long look at the hole to fill your entire mind and senses with the target. When you bring your head/eyes back to the ball, try to make a smooth, immediate move right into your backstroke — not even a second pause — and then let your hands and putter track right back together right back to where you were looking — the HOLE! Seeing the putter make contact with the ball, preferably even the forward edge of the ball – the side near the hole.
For me, this is working, but I am asking all of you to chime in with your own “home remedies” for the most aggravating and senseless of all golf maladies. It never hurts to have more to fall back on!
Over the last couple of decades, golf has become much more science-based. We measure swing speed, smash factor, angle of attack, strokes gained, and many other metrics that can really help golfers improve. But I often wonder if the advancement of golf’s “hard” sciences comes at the expense of the “soft” sciences.
Take, for example, golf instruction. Good golf instruction requires understanding swing mechanics and ball flight. But let’s take that as a given for PGA instructors. The other factors that make an instructor effective can be evaluated by social science, rather than launch monitors.
If you are a recreational golfer looking for a golf instructor, here are my top three points to consider.
1. Cultural mindset
What is “cultural mindset? To social scientists, it means whether a culture of genius or a culture of learning exists. In a golf instruction context, that may mean whether the teacher communicates a message that golf ability is something innate (you either have it or you don’t), or whether golf ability is something that can be learned. You want the latter!
It may sound obvious to suggest that you find a golf instructor who thinks you can improve, but my research suggests that it isn’t a given. In a large sample study of golf instructors, I found that when it came to recreational golfers, there was a wide range of belief systems. Some instructors strongly believed recreational golfers could improve through lessons. while others strongly believed they could not. And those beliefs manifested in the instructor’s feedback given to a student and the culture created for players.
2. Coping and self-modeling can beat role-modeling
Swing analysis technology is often preloaded with swings of PGA and LPGA Tour players. The swings of elite players are intended to be used for comparative purposes with golfers taking lessons. What social science tells us is that for novice and non-expert golfers, comparing swings to tour professionals can have the opposite effect of that intended. If you fit into the novice or non-expert category of golfer, you will learn more and be more motivated to change if you see yourself making a ‘better’ swing (self-modeling) or seeing your swing compared to a similar other (a coping model). Stay away from instructors who want to compare your swing with that of a tour player.
3. Learning theory basics
It is not a sexy selling point, but learning is a process, and that process is incremental – particularly for recreational adult players. Social science helps us understand this element of golf instruction. A good instructor will take learning slowly. He or she will give you just about enough information that challenges you, but is still manageable. The artful instructor will take time to decide what that one or two learning points are before jumping in to make full-scale swing changes. If the instructor moves too fast, you will probably leave the lesson with an arm’s length of swing thoughts and not really know which to focus on.
As an instructor, I develop a priority list of changes I want to make in a player’s technique. We then patiently and gradually work through that list. Beware of instructors who give you more than you can chew.
So if you are in the market for golf instruction, I encourage you to look beyond the X’s and O’s to find the right match!
Most pros take months, even years, to win their first tournament. Lottie Woad needed exactly four days.
The 21-year-old from Surrey shot 21-under 267 at Dundonald Links to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open by three shots — in her very first event as a professional. She’s only the third player in LPGA history to accomplish this feat, joining Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951).
But here’s what caught my attention as a coach: Woad didn’t win through miraculous putting or bombing 300-yard drives. She won through relentless precision and unshakeable composure. After watching her performance unfold, I’m convinced every golfer — from weekend warriors to scratch players — can steal pages from her playbook.
Precision Beats Power (And It’s Not Even Close)
Forget the driving contests. Woad proved that finding greens matters more than finding distance.
What Woad did:
• Hit it straight, hit it solid, give yourself chances
• Aimed for the fat parts of greens instead of chasing pins
• Let her putting do the talking after hitting safe targets
• As she said, “Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots”
Why most golfers mess this up:
• They see a pin tucked behind a bunker and grab one more club to “go right at it”
• Distance becomes more important than accuracy
• They try to be heroic instead of smart
ACTION ITEM: For your next 10 rounds, aim for the center of every green regardless of pin position. Track your greens in regulation and watch your scores drop before your swing changes.
The Putter That Stayed Cool Under Fire
Woad started the final round two shots clear and immediately applied pressure with birdies at the 2nd and 3rd holes. When South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim mounted a charge and reached 20-under with a birdie at the 14th, Woad didn’t panic.
How she responded to pressure:
• Fired back with consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th
• Watched Kim stumble with back-to-back bogeys
• Capped it with her fifth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th
• Stayed patient when others pressed, pressed when others cracked
What amateurs do wrong:
• Get conservative when they should be aggressive
• Try to force magic when steady play would win
• Panic when someone else makes a move
ACTION ITEM: Practice your 3-6 foot putts for 15 minutes after every range session. Woad’s putting wasn’t spectacular—it was reliable. Make the putts you should make.
Course Management 101: Play Your Game, Not the Course’s Game
Woad admitted she couldn’t see many scoreboards during the final round, but it didn’t matter. She stuck to her game plan regardless of what others were doing.
Her mental approach:
• Focused on her process, not the competition
• Drew on past pressure situations (Augusta National Women’s Amateur win)
• As she said, “That was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win. So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this”
Her physical execution:
• 270-yard drives (nothing flashy)
• Methodical iron play
• Steady putting
• Everything effective, nothing spectacular
ACTION ITEM: Create a yardage book for your home course. Know your distances to every pin, every hazard, every landing area. Stick to your plan no matter what your playing partners are doing.
Mental Toughness Isn’t Born, It’s Built
The most impressive part of Woad’s win? She genuinely didn’t expect it: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend.”
Her winning mindset:
• Didn’t put winning pressure on herself
• Focused on playing well and contending
• Made winning a byproduct of a good process
• Built confidence through recent experiences:
- Won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur
- Missed a playoff by one shot at the Evian Championship
- Each experience prepared her for the next
What this means for you:
• Stop trying to shoot career rounds every time you tee up
• Focus on executing your pre-shot routine
• Commit to every shot
• Stay present in the moment
ACTION ITEM: Before each round, set process goals instead of score goals. Example: “I will take three practice swings before every shot” or “I will pick a specific target for every shot.” Let your score be the result, not the focus.
The Real Lesson
Woad collected $300,000 for her first professional victory, but the real prize was proving that fundamentals still work at golf’s highest level. She didn’t reinvent the game — she simply executed the basics better than everyone else that week.
The fundamentals that won:
• Hit more fairways
• Find more greens
• Make the putts you should make
• Stay patient under pressure
That’s something every golfer can do, regardless of handicap. Lottie Woad just showed us it’s still the winning formula.
FINAL ACTION ITEM: Pick one of the four action items above and commit to it for the next month. Master one fundamental before moving to the next. That’s how champions are built.
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” on RG.org 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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Coach4Him
Dec 21, 2016 at 11:18 pm
oh, and by the way before I get called an “arm chair expert”— I was a high school basketball and golf coach for 38 years. I have attended a lot of clinics, worked camps, etc. and picked up a lot of great “band aids” along the way.
Coach4Him
Dec 21, 2016 at 11:15 pm
I, too, have issues with the pull with my over the top move. Frustrating to be hole high so much on second shots or on a par 3 but 10-15 yards left of the green. I started using a closed stance on all shots to alleviate the problem, more exaggerated on the driver, fairway wood and long irons / hybrids —- less so on the mid and short irons. Seems to work quite well. Hope this helps someone.
PinHigh
Dec 22, 2016 at 2:36 pm
Careful with the closed stance on an over the top pull. You’re jamming your left hip over and over. Hope you have your lead foot open a few degree and not closed. Just a thought.
Niramas
Dec 21, 2016 at 12:24 pm
I find all of you armchair “experts” with your 18 handicaps quite amusing.
ChiliDip
Dec 21, 2016 at 9:33 pm
Starting with your reply…
Ror
Dec 21, 2016 at 9:34 pm
This is a forum of opinions right? So let everyone have one!!!
Varmint
Dec 18, 2016 at 5:28 pm
Alistair’s videos and Dennis Clark’s articles are more substantial.
WiseGuy
Dec 18, 2016 at 5:12 pm
Tom’s articles are a sniglets of most golf mags. One and a half stars at best!!!
IMO
Dec 18, 2016 at 5:21 pm
Tom pretty much is a golf mag, all his accolades come from them. What makes them experts in selecting.
Varmint
Dec 18, 2016 at 5:22 pm
Great point!!!
Hank
Dec 18, 2016 at 11:53 am
#1 & #2 Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus did and came ‘over the top’ (but on plane). #3 #4 are results of not doing #1 & #2 well enough. Simples.
TexasSnowman
Dec 18, 2016 at 10:45 am
Tom: I have issues with being over-the-top, but my usual miss is a Pull rather than a slice. One any one of these causes be more likely to cause a pull?
Fwiw: Totally disagree with other comment that most golfers are under plane… OTT is epidemic with about 90% of golfing population.
Philip
Dec 19, 2016 at 12:46 am
FWIW – if you are OTT and are hitting a pull I would say you are hitting the ball with a closed face that is square to your path. I have deliberately doing this last season to tone down my slice to just a pull fade or straight pull. Definitely better than walking to the next fairway on the right.
Mr Clean
Dec 18, 2016 at 2:32 am
…. but when you do, make sure you don’t hit her in the eye and wipe it all off nice and clean
Lionelle Woods
Dec 17, 2016 at 1:25 pm
I suggest a different photo for the article. Makes the game of golf look like an Alt Right movement.
SP
Dec 18, 2016 at 3:59 pm
Shuuuuuuuut up.
Caveman
Dec 16, 2016 at 9:46 pm
In other words, don’t swing like a caveman smashing skulls. Got it.
MrTrainingAid
Dec 16, 2016 at 7:59 pm
Excellent one.
Homey
Dec 16, 2016 at 8:02 pm
Careful Aid, roast might me just a golfer and not a teacher and Tom will not be happy!!!
Par4
Dec 16, 2016 at 5:39 pm
Tom you forgot keeping your back to the target on your downswing… Along with don’t go swimming on a full stomach, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, etc.etc… Francis Bacon said it best,”The remedy is worse than the disease”.
HoleIn2
Dec 16, 2016 at 5:24 pm
You put more band aids than band aids does… This is like self diagnosing a flaw, and you don’t like a golfer telling another golfer how to fix. You should read your own articles…
Brian
Dec 16, 2016 at 6:01 pm
Lol. I wish I could give you some kudos for that. Just what I was thinking.
Doug
Dec 16, 2016 at 10:11 pm
All theae teaching and drills just going to make your game suffer more. Do what works for you and practice to be consistent with that.
Tom
Dec 17, 2016 at 1:23 pm
continue practicing a flawed swing so there’s no room for improvement.
SP
Dec 18, 2016 at 4:01 pm
Right?! I’m sure Doug’s game is outstanding….
MangoChutneyand BurntHair
Dec 18, 2016 at 5:15 pm
Every one has a swing flaw, even the best. Sometimes it’s a signature move…
Steve M
Dec 16, 2016 at 5:19 pm
This really doesn’t help me at all. Aside from the frightening taking my club back over a stick and bring it back down inside drill, the huge issue i have with this article is i don’t know why i’m coming over the top. So do i just guess which of the 4 issues i think it is so give myself a 3 in 4 chance of making things far worse?
SundayRed
Dec 16, 2016 at 5:25 pm
Can’t agree more…
Tom
Dec 17, 2016 at 1:29 pm
if ya play this game long enough, self diagnosis is a trait you will inherit
Tom Duke
Dec 23, 2016 at 12:02 am
Hi Steve…the over the top moved is caused by the spine being too vertical when the right shoulder makes its way around to the ball/target line. The spine angles of all great ball strikers are leaning some 30 degrees away from target coming through the impact zone. Feel free to check out windandsling.com, where I have a video explaining this, as well as the Strike Right golf swing trainer which was designed, in part, to eliminate the over the top move. Feel free to reach out to me at tom@windandsling.com. Good Luck!