A huge percentage of high handicap golfers have swing flaws that cause them to slice the ball. For anyone unaware, a slice is a shot that curves excessively to the right for a right-handed player or to the left for a left-handed player. The basic cause is an open club face at impact (where the club face points to the right of the target for a right hander). But there are other flaws that lead to that open club face and, in fact, help to magnify the slice.

I want to dedicate this week to helping you cure your slice for good. Today, we’re going to go over one of the biggest causes for the slice: an “over the top” swing.

I get the impression that sometimes there is some misunderstanding about what an over the top, or out to in, swing path really is. Let’s talk about that some more.

I’m sure most of you have heard talk of the swing plane. That’s an imaginary surface that the club travels along while making the swing. Let’s ignore the one-plane/two-plane debate for now. That’s for another day.

Imagine a line extending through the ball to the target, where that line is the bottom edge of a huge pane of glass. You’re standing in the middle of the pane of glass in a hole that allows your upper body to be above the plane. When you swing the club, it moves along the surface of this pane of glass.

When you swing out-to-in, it simply means that the club head gets above the plane and on the other side of the line that moves through the ball toward the target. This will tend to impart side spin on the ball, causing it to go right. If the club face is open at impact the ball will start right and curve right.

Something interesting to note: many times, the classic pull shot where the ball goes dead left (for a right-hander) often comes from the same over-the-top swing flaw. The difference is that at impact, the face is closed, causing the ball to start left, and often hook even more left.

To stop your slice, you need to promote an in to out swing path, where the club stays on that pane of glass on it’s way to the ball.

Tomorrow, I’ll cover some of the specific causes for over the top swings, some other causes for slices, and as the week goes on, we’ll talk about how to correct those problems.

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Further Reading:

Combat Your Slice (Life in the Rough)
Causes of an Over the Top Swing (Life in the Rough)
Some Other Factors That Can Lead to a Slice (Life in the Rough)

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