1 easy swing hack to clean up your over-the-top golf swing

With just one subtle change, you can fix that irritating over-the-top golf swing.

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When you’ve got an over-the-top golf swing, bad things tend to happen. The most common? Slicing the ball and leaving yourself with a difficult next shot — which usually piles on the strokes and adds to your scorecard.

While there are tons of remedies to help eliminate this type of swing flaw, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Michael Hunt shares an easy drill that can lead to better ball contact almost instantly. In fact, all you need to do is take a club and practice from pretty much anywhere, allowing you to get the necessary feels to translate it to the course.

Check out how it works below, and then give it a try for yourself.

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When you struggle with an over-the-top golf swing, it means your clubface is off-plane, leading to ball contact that’s either on the heel or toe of the club. Your angle of attack also gets thrown off, which is why you may hit a shot thin or fat, or why your ball may have way too much side spin to have a chance to stay in play.

But Hunt says the hack above is a good way to improve this common fault.

“This is for you golfers who struggle with steeping the club on the way down, or getting out-to-in on your club path,” Hunt says.

He then walks through the drill.

“Take your left hand on the grip [as you normally would for a right-handed golfer], and use an open face with your right hand,” he adds. “Then practice taking the club back, trying to take the palm [of your right hand] on a 45-degree angle. Then just allow the club to fall into that slot, getting the feeling of your weight moving towards the target and the club dropping.”

Next, Hunt describes a common mistake he sees from golfers who come over-the-top, with the player often rotating the club over too much.

“I see a lot of golfers use that right hand and pitch the club over, which steepens it,” he adds. “Or they use their shoulders and really throw that club out, causing their right hand to rotate over — which adds loft and leads to all sorts of bad things.”

It’s a simple practice drill to try before ever hitting a ball, so use Hunt’s advice during practice before your next range session or golf round — it should help you feel more comfortable and lead to fewer over-the-top golf swings.

Golf.com Editor