The post Can’t stop pulling the ball? Check on these 2 things, says Top 100 Teacher appeared first on Golf.

The post Can’t stop pulling the ball? Check on these 2 things, says Top 100 Teacher appeared first on Golf.

Hitting the ball offline is always frustrating, but pulling it can be especially aggravating.

Pulls tend to feel more solid than slices, so watching a shot that feels good veer wide of your target can be confounding.

Luckily, if you struggle with pulls, there’s a quick remedy you can employ, and at GOLF’s recent Top 100 Teacher Summit at Talking Stick, instructor Tina Tombs suggested a helpful two-step checklist you can do to fix your issue.

How to stop pulling the ball

Ball position is key, Tombs said, and it’s the first thing that should be checked.

“Look at the fundamentals,” Tombs said. “Always reset before you go play.”

Tombs said if the ball position seems sound, the next step is to check on your alignment, and think about what kind of shot you are trying to hit when you pull it.

Instruction

The secret to creating a can't-miss setup

By: Tina Tombs, Top 100 Teacher

“It’s a sequencing thing,” Tombs said. “When you’re pulling, generally the upper body is moving faster than the lower body and you’re spinning out. But depending on who the student is, even if it’s a professional, I’m checking ball position and alignment systems before I go into anything deeper.”

If you’re wondering how to ensure your alignment is in good shape, Tombs recommends checking whether you’re set up with the right foot flare, your clubface is aimed where you want it to be (and is square at address), and your body is aligned correctly according to the kind of shot you want to hit.

“A lot of people who think they’re pulling it are aiming over there,” Tombs said. “If they don’t know where they’re aiming — or their ball position’s forward — they’re aiming there. So those are the things to check first, before getting more technical.”

So there you have it. To fix a pull, try checking your ball position and alignment first. If that doesn’t solve the problem, it might be time to enlist the help of a local professional.

For more tips from Top 100 Teacher Tina Tombs, click here.

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The post Top 100 Teacher: This is ‘the best way’ to fix a common golf swing flaw appeared first on Golf.

The post Top 100 Teacher: This is ‘the best way’ to fix a common golf swing flaw appeared first on Golf.

Golfers come in every different shape and form, of all ages, from all over the world. It’s rare that you’ll even get two swings that look somewhat alike.

And yet, through some terrible kind of miracle, there’s one golf swing mistake that unites large swarths of them: Coming over the top.

There are plenty of causes that lead to golfers coming over the top — from turning too soon at the start of your downswing to poor alignment to not enough shoulder tilt — but the fact is that lots of golfers get into trouble this way. Pair coming over the top with an open clubface and you’ll get a slice; over-correct and you’ll be dealing with over-the-top’s nasty cousin: Getting stuck and flippy with your hands.

But not to worry, because this week GOLF Top 100 Teacher Scott Hamilton shared on Instagram a simple drill that he said is one of his “favorite” and “best” ways to shallow the club, and keep the clubface stable. And you only need one arm to do it!

Hamilton notes that this drill is best done with a lighter club than usual (his student here is using a junior club), because using one that’s too heavy could compromise your technique, or worse, lead to injury. But as you make swings, the weight of the club will become more apparent, which will help shallow the cub into a good spot.

“This drill is the best way I have found to use the weight of the club to learn how to shallow and deliver a stable face,” he writes.

Watch the full video below.

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The post A one-word swing thought can help you stop slicing the ball appeared first on Golf.

The post A one-word swing thought can help you stop slicing the ball appeared first on Golf.

Most golfers hit slices, and most slicers would do anything to stop hitting slices. More often than not, the reason why they miss slices comes in two parts: They swing the club too far from out-to-in (or over the top), and the clubface is too far open. It sends the ball starting left and curving wickedly to the right.

Which is why GOLFTEC’s Josh Troyer has a swing thought that is best summarized in one word: “Tilt.”

Think “Tilt” on the downswing

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If coming over the top causes slices, what causes golfers to come over the top? The answer, Troyer says, is simple: They turn too quickly on the downswing. Insisted, golfers should think of “tilting” as their first move down.

To help with this, Troyer sets up an alignment on the ground between his feet and the ball, pointing 45 degrees to the tight of his target.

Then, he places a club across his shoulders. The feeling you want to chase, he says, is to match your shoulders to the alignment stick on the ground. If you do that, you’ll be tilting your shoulders and getting your club into a position where it can swing more in-to-out on the downswing.

If you don’t tilt, it means you’re turning too quickly. Your right shoulder moves towards the ball, and with it, will drag the club over the top.

So don’t turn too early! Tilt to start your downswing, and you’ll be in better shape when the time comes to hit the ball.

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The post Coming over the top? These 2 foolproof drills will instantly redirect your swing appeared first on Golf.

The post Coming over the top? These 2 foolproof drills will instantly redirect your swing appeared first on Golf.

Coming over the top has been a problem plaguing golfers for generations. Most of us, at some point in our golfing lives, have to navigate our way around the issue, and for teachers like GOLF Top 100 Teacher and GOLFTEC VP of Instruction Nick Clearwater, it’s what they spend hours each day fixing.

“Coming over the top, cutting across the ball, really is the biggest mistake I see amateur golfers make,” he says.

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For those unsure of what coming over the top is, exactly, it’s what Clearwater describes: It’s when golfers throw the club directly at the top of the ball from the top of their swing, and send the clubhead from out-to-in. Do this with an open clubface and you’ll hit a big slice. Keep the clubface closed and it’ll pull-hook.

The golfer on the left below, for example, is coming over the top, while the same player on the right is not.

But don’t worry, because seeing golfers make this mistake so often also means that Clearwater has devised two simple drills to fix it…

1. Object by the ball

It doesn’t need to be a pool noodle, Clearwarter says. A bottle, headcover or other obstacle can work just as well. Place it just outside the ball and then start hitting (the ball, not the object!).

“The first thing I’d always recommend is putting something by the ball,” Clearwater says. “If you’re ready to cut across the ball, you’d slam right into that obstacle.”

2. Diagonal pool noodle

You’ll need a friend to help you with this one, but all they’ll need to do is stand there and hold a pool noodle, alignment rod or club at a 45-degree angle. Your goal is simple: To swing under the obstacle on your downswing.

“The ideal path is the club below the trail shoulder, with the shaft passing through the middle of your trail arm’s bicep, when your lead arm is parallel to the ground,” Clearwater says.

You can watch the full video right here:

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The post The swing fix that turned this golfer’s huge over-the-top slice into a draw appeared first on Golf.

The post The swing fix that turned this golfer’s huge over-the-top slice into a draw appeared first on Golf.

As golfers inch their handicap lower along their path to better golf, most of them, inevitably, will find themselves needing to navigate a common problem: How do I stop swinging so out-to-in (or over the top), and start swinging more in-to-out?

A swing that’s too over the top generally causes a combination of big slices, or wicked pulls, and usually gives way to contact errors like tops and chunks. That’s what a recent student of GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jonathan Yarwood was struggling with when he came for a lesson. He was swinging a whopping 14 degrees from out-to-in with driver (for context, a “neutral” swing path is zero) and hitting almost 10 degrees down on his driver. Higher skilled golfers who swing the club at the same speed tend to slightly hit up on the ball.

Poor contact was an issue, but when he did catch one, the ball was a low, hard pull-cut that was difficult to control.

The issue, Yarwood says, was the wrong combination of swaying and tilting.

“There was no upper torso sway, there was just hip sway. As a result, it was hard to get out of that position,” Yarwood says.

The combination of too much upper-body tilt with too much lower-body sway gave his swing a reverse pivot look, which Yarwood shows below using Sportsbox AI, and it was causing his student to send the club both too far left and steep.

So, they set about reversing the problem position.

Hips toward target, torso away from target

“We exaggerated one of him doing the opposite; feeling like his hips would move [toward the target] and his torso would move away,” he says. “That allowed him to start to shallow it and come from the inside.

You can see a before and after of the position below.

With his head more over his right foot at the top of the backswing, and the final addition of a pool noodle to make sure he keeps his swing shallowed-out, Yarwood’s student started hitting up on the ball and swinging in-to-out for little draws.

All that’s left now is to practice the new move, and reap the benefits of a nice new ball flight.

You can watch an abbreviated version of Yarwood’s video below:

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The post Try this at-home drill to fix your trail arm and stop your over-the-top move appeared first on Golf.

The post Try this at-home drill to fix your trail arm and stop your over-the-top move appeared first on Golf.

Your trail arm plays a hugely important role in the golf swing, and if you struggle with a slice courtesy of an over-the-top move, it’s probably your trailing arm that’s the culprit.

Enter Shaun Webb, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher and one of the brains behind Athletic Motion Golf, who has a simple drill you can do from home. Here’s how to do it.

1. Put your lead fist on your trail hip

First, Webb says to clasp your hand like a fist and place it on your trail hip, so it crosses your body. He’ll explain why in a second.

2. Make a backswing

Then, keeping your fist on your trail hip, make a full backswing turn.

3. Elbow on trail hip

As you come through, and specifically at impact, you want your trail elbow (your right elbow for right-handed golfers), to re-connect with your lead fist, which should still be on your trail hip. It’ll give your arm a tucked look, which keeps your swing path in a neutral spot.

4. Don’t do this

If you don’t re-connect your trail elbow to your trail hip, you’ll get this look. The club will come way over the top, and you’ll struggle with all sorts of issues.

Watch the full video here:

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The post Colin Montgomerie explains how to hit his ‘old school’ fade appeared first on Golf.

The post Colin Montgomerie explains how to hit his ‘old school’ fade appeared first on Golf.

Colin Montgomerie is a man who has mastered his craft: Hitting a low fade. He always has and always will. He’s done it his entire career, and it’s propelled him into the Hall of Fame.

“He never deviated away from what he did. He just got better, and better, and better at his DNA and at who he was,” Paul McGinley says of Monty, adding that he’s the player most golfers should try to copy. “He never had a huge amount of clubhead speed, but he was repetitive. He never tried to do anything different.”

At the Berenberg Invitational charity golf tournament this week, which raises money to help fight the devastating effects of pancreatic cancer, we caught up with the European Ryder Cup legend to learn more about his baby fade. He came back with a handful of brilliant pieces of Monty advice to help the rest of us.

You can watch the full video below, or scroll past it for a quick summary of it.

1. Swing more up and down

Monty says he’s a man of the old school, which means he prefers swinging up and down. That helps Monty feel like he’s swinging to the left of his target, which is an important key for him, he says: When his arms get too far around and behind him, they never come back out in front of him, which leads to blocks and mega-misses to the right.

“They get their arms behind [their body] and never get back,” he says of recreational golfers.

It’s important to clarify that there is such a thing as overdoing it. Swinging too far left — AKA, over the top — can result in some wicked slices. Monty hits tiny little fades, which he says is created by his sensation of cutting across the ball ever so slightly, while never letting the clubface get too open.

2. Get your weight forward

Along those lines, Monty says that he sees many players swinging too far around their body, and getting stuck on their right side on the downswing. He wants you to shift your weight forward onto your front foot for a descending blow.

“A golf swing should be walking though the ball, that’s where power comes from,” he says. “Not going behind you, there’s no power in that.”

3. Swing long

And speaking of power, Monty says the key is swinging long and loose. To do that, Monty says to lighten up your grip pressure at address. You’ll grip harder during your downswing, but if you start off light, you’ll be able to swing the club longer.

“It takes the tension out of the forearms,” Monty says. “The lighter I grip it, the longer I can swing it, and the longer I cans swing the club, the more time I have. And a golf swing with time, is a good one.”

Well said, Monty.

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The post 39 degrees: Why this important number can help you hit better, longer drives appeared first on Golf.

The post 39 degrees: Why this important number can help you hit better, longer drives appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Play Smart, a game-improvement column that drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Game Improvement Editor Luke Kerr-Dineen to help you play smarter, better golf.

Shoulder tilt — it’s super important, but too many golfers don’t quite realize that. Last week, we paired with GOLF Top 100 Teacher and GOLFTEC’s VP of Instruction Nick Clearwater to explain why it’s such a key on the backswing, and now we’re following up with another explainer on how it works on the downswing. Nick has studied the effects of shoulder tilt in GOLFTEC students’ swings for years, and the evidence is in.

“The amount your shoulders are tilted at impact is one of the biggest separators between higher and lower handicaps,” Clearwater says.

Here’s why — and how you can get more of it in your swing.

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1. The best golfers have their shoulders the most tilted

What is downswing shoulder tilt? Well, if you’ve ever taken a good look at a pro’s golf swing through impact, you’ve seen it: their weight is forward, but their torso is tilted away from the target, with their lead shoulder above their trail shoulder.

Deej through impact pic.twitter.com/T4uiQxDPst

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) August 17, 2021

That is shoulder tilt, the amount your shoulders are tilted relative to the ground, and it’s really important. That combination helps the club swing from in-to-out, and allows you to hit up on the golf ball.

“The more you’re tilted away from the target, the faster the club can go up,” he said. “It’s also a way of controlling your angle of attack, by tilting yourself away from the target. Without that rightward tilt.”

Keeping your shoulders tilted like this creates a “slingshot” effect between your body and the club.

2. Higher handicaps keep their should too level

Recreational golfers tend to do the opposite: their torso and lower body are more in a straight line (usually behind the ball), and their shoulders are more level. It leads to all sorts of issues, from chunked shots to an out-to-in swing path that results in ugly pulls and slices.

“The more your shoulders are level, or even tilted toward the left, the easier it is to internally rotate my shoulder and push it towards the left,” Clearwater says.

All of which brings us to the golden number we promised in the headline: 39 degrees. That’s a good target to shoot for when it comes to tilting your shoulders at impact. Some players do it more — it’s a hard to overdo this move — and Clearwater suggests feeling like your trail arm stays bent and more behind you if you’re looking for a swing thought to help with this.

In conclusion, tilt your shoulders more; your driver will thank you.

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The post 1 disaster swing mistake that’s causing you to come over-the-top appeared first on Golf.

The post 1 disaster swing mistake that’s causing you to come over-the-top appeared first on Golf.

Max Homa plays a lot of golf with recreational golfers — and sees even more recreational golf swings every day on Twitter. There’s one mistake he says he sees golfers make in their swing more than any other.

“The most common problem I see in the golf swing is golfers sucking the clubhead way inside on the backswing,” Homa says. “then they come over the top and hit a big slice.”

Swinging from out-to-in, or “coming over the top” with an open clubface has been the most common problems in golf seemingly since it’s inception, and it’s especially common among golfers who once played baseball. Undoing the tendency to lunge at the ball with your upper body first at the top of your backswing by learning the ideal golf swing sequence is a transition every golfer needs to go through at some point.

But after analyzing millions of golf swings from hundreds of thousands of golfers in the largest golf study ever recorded, GOLFTEC research shows that the problem plaguing your downswing is actually one rooted in the backswing.

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The mistake

Golfers have heard by now that they need to turn on the backswing — and indeed, they do. A big turn creates more power in your golf swing. The problem is what gets lost: You can’t just turn. It’s about how you turn.

In reality, when you’re turning on the backswing, you also need to tilt. Think of a line that’s drawn across your shoulders, like you see on the golfer to the right: When that shoulder line flattens so it’s more in-line with the ground, it puts your backswing in a position where you’re more likely to come over-the-top. The club is so far behind you and your shoulders are so flat that, as you begin to turn, there’s no other way for your club to move but from out-to-in.

When GOLFTEC studied this, they found a direct inverse correlation between higher handicappers and shoulder tilt at the top of the backswing. In a nutshell: The higher your handicap, the less shoulder tilt you probably have.

Here’s how to get more of it.

The magic move

Lower handicaps have more shoulder tilt: About 7 degrees more of it on average, according to GOLFTEC, and usually more. Why is shoulder tilt a good thing? For a bunch of reasons, but among them:

Of course, the beauty of golf is that there’s no one way of swinging a club, and yes, you can overdo it and have too much shoulder tilt. But if you find yourself hitting big pull-slices, you probably need more shoulder tilt, like our man Josh Berhow found out himself on his most recent GOLFTEC journey. Turn and tilt: That’s the formula for low scores and high draws.

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The post This trash-can drill will boost your ‘arm speed’ and help you hit draws appeared first on Golf.

The post This trash-can drill will boost your ‘arm speed’ and help you hit draws appeared first on Golf.

Keeping your arms and body in-sync throughout your golf swing is an important part of consistent ball striking. That doesn’t mean they move at the same speed, but it does mean they’re moving in accordance with one another. Most golfers know it as a sequence, and if it gets off, there’s a good chance your ball isn’t going where you want it to.

One common issue higher handicaps encounter is that they over-use their body as they transition to the downswing. They heave the club over-the-top; their arms are just along for the ride, and the result is a big, weak, wipy-slice.

Ask any good teacher, like newly-minted GOLF Top 100 Teacher Brech Spradley, and they’ll often say the best solutions don’t require slowing one part of your body down, but rather speeding a different part of your body up. In the case of the lunge over-the-top, that means using the muscles in your shoulders, arms and wrists to move faster. It’s a power source that can often get overlooked nowadays, but one that three-time major winner Padraig Harrington says is an important one for the recreational golfer.

Putting

Lee Westwood's go-to putting drill will vastly improve your consistency

By: Zephyr Melton

“Many golfers…start trying to turn and all these other things, when what they actually need to be doing is using their hands and arms to give it a good hit,” Harrington says. “These guys will hit it a lot farther with a shorter, whippier, hands-and-arms swing than they will with anything else, and that will keep them in the game for longer and enjoying it more.”

Which brings us back to Spradley, who shares on Instagram a simple way to give your arm speed a boost: Sit on an upside-down trash can (or a higher-top chair) and begin hitting golf balls. Swing hard and keep your backswing planted in the object the entire time. You’ll find the only way to hit the ball far is to activate your arms, wrists and shoulders. With your arms not able to tag along with your body for the ride, you’ll be increasing your hand speed by grooving a full release.

“Body pivot, sequence, ground force are all important, but without the lag and snap of the hands and arms you are missing out,” Spradley writes. “Your body is certainly the big engine, but the hands and arms need to crank for speed, especially with the big stick.”

Check out some videos of the drill below:

For more help with your game, get fit for clubs by the experts at our affiliate company, True Spec Golf.

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