Golf Techniques to Try: How to Stop Topping the Golf Ball

Picture this: you're at a golf course, about to hit the ball. You take your stance and swing the club. You hear the club make contact with the ball.

Instead of soaring to the skies, however, the ball barely moves from its original position.

There's a name for what happened there: topping the ball. It occurs when you strike the upper half of the ball rather than the center. All golfers have had this happen to them, but it's particularly common with beginners.

Want to learn how to stop topping the golf ball? Read on to find out why this happens and what you can do to prevent it!

Common Reasons for Topping the Ball

There are several reasons why you may end up topping the ball. They include:

• Bad posture
• Poor ball placement
• Incorrect wrist position
• Poor hip and shoulder rotation

Once you identify why you're making this mistake, it will be much easier to fix it. Often, though, topped shots will occur due to a combination of several issues. If so, you may need to go back to the basics and rework your swing.

How to Stop Topping the Golf Ball

Minimizing topped shots is one of the best ways to improve golf performance. Here are some tips that will help you do that!

Put the Ball in the Right Spot

Before we get into correcting your swing, let's talk about ball position. Most golfers who top the ball have it too far forward in their stance.

You can correct this issue by bringing alignment sticks to the range. Get the sticks set up in the shape of a "T," then experiment with different ball positions. Eventually, you'll settle on the right spot based on the club you're using.

Here's some general information on where the ball should be for common club types:

• Driver (tee shots): Align the ball with the heel of your lead foot
• Fairway wood: Two balls forward from the middle of the stance
• Short iron: Back-of-center in the stance
• Mid-iron: Middle of the stance
• Long iron: Forward-center of the stance
• Wedge: Toward the back of the stance

Optimize Your Rotation

Good rotation involves squaring your clubface at contact. To do that, you'll need to transfer most of your weight onto your front foot at impact.

Imagine you're rotating through your shot. At the top of your swing, you want to feel your back leg driving the weight forward to the left foot. This shift will maximize your rotation and keep the club on the path to a clean strike.

Keep the Arms in Sequence

A proper golf swing posture requires the arms, wrists, and elbows to work in sequence. This is essential for keeping the club on plane during the swing.

Ideally, you should aim to have your arms straight at impact and apply inward pressure to the elbows. If you're right-handed, bowing the wrists at impact will also help you keep your hands ahead of the ball at contact.

If you do everything right, it will be much easier to strike the ball cleanly. This position generates optimal compression for a long, high shot and promotes an effective release.

Keep Your Head Stable

Beyond helping you with ball placement, alignment sticks can also be a good reference point for where to keep your head during your golf swing.

As a rule of thumb, making clean contact requires you to keep your head centered. If you move your head off that point, you'll be more likely to lean back on your downswing. This will usually result in topping the ball.

Keeping the head aligned with the impact zone also makes it easier to follow a controlled angle of attack to launch the ball high.

Position Your Wrists Properly

The first step to positioning your wrists correctly is to establish a baseline. Record some swings to identify your wrist position at:

• Setup
• Top of the backswing
• Impact

If you top the ball often, you may notice that your lead wrist extends a lot at impact. Typically, it will transform from a flexed position into a bowed position right before impact. This is what we call "flipping the club."

To achieve a consistent impact position, don't extend your lead wrist during the swing. At the top of the swing, decrease any extension you had in your setup and get your left wrist into a flexed position.

Top Drills You Should Work On

Now that you know the theory, let's talk practice! Here are some drills that will help you stop topping the ball and improve your golfing accuracy.

Shorter Swings

If you shorten your swing to about half-length, you'll get a better idea of how all the components of the swing come together.

Set up 10 balls, grab your wedge, and complete a set of half-swung shots. Don't worry about accuracy or power and focus on hitting the ball cleanly. Once you can do it with a wedge, move on to the 7-iron.

Front of the Line

This drill is designed to help you hit the ground later in the downswing. It optimizes your hip and shoulder rotation to keep the club on a path through impact.

First, draw a line with some shaving foam. Pretend your ball is on the line, then practice hitting 1-3 inches ahead of it. Start with a quarter swing; once you're confident in it, move on to the half-swing.

Contact Point

When it comes to drills that help with golf ball striking techniques, this one is a classic. All you need for it is:

• One golf ball
• One club
• Foot powder spray

Spray the powder onto the clubface, then start hitting the ball. After each shot, identify where you struck it. Topping the ball won't leave a mark on the clubface, since you've likely hit the ball with the leading edge.

More on Topping the Golf Ball

As you can see, learning how to stop topping the golf ball is all about optimal posture and rotation. The next time you're on a golf course, use this guide to work on your swing!

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