Topping the golf ball means you hit the top half of the ball instead of the bottom half. This sends the ball soaring weakly with no distance. It is a frustrating mistake for any golfer. This guide will help you fix this problem with simple steps and practice tips.
Why Golfers Top the Ball
Topping the ball happens for a few main reasons. It often comes down to hitting the ball on the way up, or lifting your body too soon during the swing. Your club strikes the top of the ball instead of the bottom. This is the core issue.
Common Causes of Topping
Many things lead to a steep angle of attack golf swing, which encourages topping. When you swing too steeply, the bottom of your swing arc comes up too high, too soon.
Here are the main things that cause you to top the ball:
- Lifting Up (Early Extension): You stand up too early in the downswing. Your chest rises before impact. This raises the low point of your swing arc.
- Poor Posture: If you start standing too upright through impact, you will hit up on the ball too much.
- Ball Position Too Far Forward: If the ball is too far forward in your stance, you are more likely to hit it on the rise.
- Trying to Lift the Ball: Golfers often try to help the ball into the air. This makes them “lift” with their body instead of letting the swing path do the work.
- Flipping the Wrists: Releasing the club too early causes the shaft to lean backward at impact, leading to a shallow contact point on the ball.
Recognizing Fat Shot Causes
Sometimes, the issues causing you to top the ball overlap with what causes a fat shot causes. While topping is hitting the top, chunking (a severe fat shot) is hitting the ground well behind the ball. Both often stem from poor low-point control.
A fat shot causes often relates to dropping the angle of attack too low too quickly, or a reverse pivot. If you swing too steeply and get your body weight stuck behind you, you might hit the ground before the ball. Fixing poor low-point control helps solve both problems.
Fixing Your Swing Plane and Low Point
The key to hitting the ball solidly is hitting the ball first, then the turf (ball first contact). This requires a proper swing path and consistent low point.
Establishing the Right Angle of Attack
A good iron shot requires hitting down on the ball slightly. This compresses the ball against the clubface.
The Problem: Digging into the Turf Golf
If you swing too steeply, you might be digging into the turf golf shots. This is common when trying to hit down too hard. However, an overly steep move can also lead to topping if your body stalls and then rises too fast. It is a balance.
Achieving a Shallow Angle
We want to promote a slight downward strike without being overly steep. This involves shallowing the golf swing. Shallowing means that on the downswing, the clubhead drops slightly behind your hands, approaching the ball from the inside.
When the club is shallow, it stays on the swing path longer. This naturally lowers the low point of your swing arc, keeping it behind the ball longer.
Body Movement at Impact
How your body moves dictates where the club hits the ground.
- Keep Your Head Stable: Resist the urge to look up at the ball right after impact. Keep your spine angle steady.
- Hip Rotation: Your lower body needs to rotate toward the target through impact. If your hips stall, your upper body tends to hang back or rise up, leading to a top.
- Forward Weight Shift: Feel your weight moving toward your lead (front) foot as you swing down. This shifts the low point forward, promoting clean contact.
Table 1: Body Position Checkpoints
| Swing Phase | Good Action | Bad Action (Leading to Topping) |
|---|---|---|
| Downswing Start | Hips begin to turn toward the target. | Upper body stalls or pushes toward the ball. |
| Impact | Weight mostly on the lead foot. | Weight stays centered or shifts backward. |
| Finish | Full rotation, weight fully forward. | Hanging back, standing up straight quickly. |
Drills to Stop Topping the Ball
Practice is vital for retraining your swing muscles. These drills focus on hitting the ball first and controlling your low point.
Ball First Contact Drill
This is the most important exercise for eliminating both topping and chunking. The goal is to feel the club hit the ball before it touches the turf.
How to Perform the Ball First Contact Drill:
- Set up: Place a golf ball in its normal position.
- Tee it up slightly: For irons, try teeing the ball up just a hair higher than normal. This gives you a better visual cue for brushing the ball.
- Use a Towel or Headcover: Place a towel or an old headcover about two inches behind your golf ball.
- The Goal: Swing normally, but try to hit the ball cleanly without touching the towel. If you hit the towel, it means your low point was behind the ball, often causing a fat shot or a severe topping if you then stand up.
- Focus: Commit to hitting the ball. Feel the club brush the turf after it hits the ball.
The Coin Drill for Low Point Control
This drill helps set the correct low point location relative to the ball.
- Place a small coin (like a penny) directly under where you want the club to hit the ground—usually just ahead of the ball for irons.
- Hit short, smooth shots.
- If you top the ball, you likely missed the coin entirely or hit it too far forward. If you hit the coin too early, you might be digging into the turf golf style.
- The perfect strike will allow you to hit the ball, and then just graze the coin after impact.
Stability Drill for Posture Maintenance
Topping often happens because you lose your posture. You stand up.
- Place an alignment stick or a headcover just outside your back hip pocket (the one closer to the target).
- Take your normal swing.
- Try to keep your rear end touching that object slightly throughout the downswing and into impact.
- If you stand up too early (early extension), you will lose contact with the object immediately. This forces your lower body to stay stable and maintain the spine angle.
Shallowing Drill: The Gate Drill
To promote shallowing the golf swing, use alignment sticks to create a gate.
- Set up your ball.
- Place one alignment stick outside the ball (closer to the target) angled slightly away from you.
- Place another alignment stick inside the ball, angled toward you.
- Your club should ideally travel between these two sticks on the downswing, promoting an inside path. If you swing too steeply (over the top), you will hit the outside stick. If you swing too far under plane, you might hit the inside stick or get too disconnected.
Ball Position and Setup Adjustments
Setup dictates the swing. If your setup is wrong, fixing the swing mid-shot is almost impossible.
Adjusting Ball Position
For irons, the ball should generally be in the middle of your stance or slightly forward of center.
- If you consistently top: Move the ball one ball-width back in your stance. This gives the descending blow more time to occur before impact.
- Check Your Aim: Make sure your feet, hips, and shoulders are aimed straight at the target. An open stance can encourage an over-the-top move, which often results in topping.
Grip Check
A poor grip can force compensations.
- Stronger Grip: If your grip is too weak (left hand rotated too far right for a right-hander), you will have to flip your hands (roll them over) to square the face at impact. This flipping action often causes the clubhead to pass the hands too early, leading to topping. Try making your grip slightly stronger—you should see two or three knuckles on your lead hand at address.
Addressing Short Game Issues: High Handicap Chipping Fixes
Topping doesn’t just happen with full swings. It’s a huge issue in the short game, often called chunking the golf ball when it results in a heavy strike.
Why Short Game Topping Occurs
In chipping and pitching, golfers often try to scoop the ball up or lift it into the air. This “scooping” is the equivalent of topping in the long game.
High handicap chipping fixes must focus on a stable lower body and passive hands.
The Pendulum Swing for Chipping
Think of your arms and shoulders making a triangle that swings like a pendulum.
- Stance: Take a narrow stance. Put 70-80% of your weight on your lead foot. Your feet should be close together.
- Ball Position: Place the ball just slightly back of center.
- Action: Swing using only your shoulders. Your lower body should stay very still. Do not let your hips turn or stand up.
- Focus: The goal is to hit the ground slightly after the ball. This keeps your angle of attack consistent and prevents flipping.
If you are struggling with fat and thin shots cure in the short game, the weight shift is usually the culprit. Keeping weight forward ensures you maintain that slight downward blow necessary for crisp contact.
Advanced Concepts: Deciphering Steep vs. Shallow Attack
Topping is often associated with an overly steep approach, but sometimes it’s about when that steepness occurs.
Comprehending the Steep Angle of Attack Golf
A very steep angle means the club is coming down almost vertically. While a slight downward angle is good, too much steepness can cause issues.
If you are too steep, you might hit the ground first (fat shot). However, if you try to “save” the shot from going fat by standing up, you move the low point too high, leading to a top.
The drill above that limits your hip movement helps diagnose this. If you can’t maintain spine angle, your body is trying to compensate for a poor swing path.
Shallowing the Golf Swing: The Key to Consistency
Shallowing the golf swing is often misunderstood. It does not mean swinging horizontally. It means that after the transition from backswing to downswing, the club drops slightly behind the hands so it can approach the ball from the inside corridor.
How to Encourage Shallowing:
- Feel the transition: At the top of your backswing, feel like your arms drop slightly toward your body before you start turning your hips forward. This small drop helps lay the shaft down onto the correct plane.
- Avoid casting: “Casting” is the opposite of shallowing. It means throwing the clubhead out toward the ball with your hands early in the downswing. This forces a steep, outside-in path, which often leads to thin or topped shots because the hands are ahead of the clubhead at impact.
Troubleshooting Thin Golf Shot Solutions
A thin shot occurs when the club strikes the equator (middle) of the ball. This is extremely close to topping the ball and often results from the same root cause: lifting up or an improper low point.
If you are experiencing thin golf shot solutions, focus here:
- Increase Spine Tilt: At address, ensure you have a slight tilt away from the target (leading shoulder higher than the trail shoulder). This sets the low point correctly behind the ball for a descending blow.
- Impact Position: At impact, your hands should be slightly ahead of the clubface. This is a “forward press.” If your hands are behind the clubface, you are almost guaranteed to hit it thin or top it.
- Practice with a Tee: When practicing shots that thin out, try setting the tee slightly below the equator of the ball. If you still miss the tee, you are hitting too high. If you hit the tee cleanly, you are achieving the right depth.
Summary of Fixes
Stopping the habit of topping the ball requires patience and consistent practice focusing on the low point of your swing arc.
Action Checklist to Stop Topping:
- Posture Check: Maintain spine angle throughout the swing. Do not stand up.
- Weight Shift: Feel weight moving to the lead foot through impact.
- Drill Work: Regularly use the ball first contact drill with a towel behind the ball.
- Short Game: For chipping, keep weight forward and use a pendulum motion.
- Shallowing: Work on shallowing the golf swing to promote an inside path and better compression.
By focusing on hitting down slightly (compression) and maintaining posture, you will move away from fat and thin shots cure issues and start making solid contact every time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Can I fix topping the ball just by changing my grip?
A: While an overly weak grip can contribute to topping because it forces you to flip your hands, it is usually not the sole cause. A grip change helps, but you must also correct the body movement (like standing up) that forces that flip.
Q: Is topping the ball the same as hitting it fat?
A: No. Topping means striking the top half of the ball, causing it to fly low and weakly. Hitting it fat means striking the ground significantly behind the ball before the club reaches the ball, causing a very short, heavy strike. Both involve poor low-point control, though.
Q: What club is most commonly topped?
A: Golfers often top their driver because they instinctively try to lift the ball off the tee, causing early extension. They also top short irons when they get too aggressive trying to hit down hard, causing them to overshoot the low point and stand up.
Q: How does ground strike golf relate to topping?
A: Ground strike golf refers to achieving the optimal point of contact with the turf—just after the ball. If your ground strike is too far behind the ball, you might hit fat. If your ground strike moves too far forward (or you lift up before the strike), you risk topping the ball because the clubhead is ascending too soon.