Topping 3 Wood

[Ndw7]

Hi all. I’ve been struggling with my driver recently so decided against using it for a little while, it was getting me into more trouble than it was worth so I was confident I was doing the right thing. I was only losing 20 yards hitting my 3 wood off the tee. I’ve been scoring much better recently and I’ve felt a good scoring round coming.

Out of nowhere, I’ve just started topping the 3 wood off the tee. It got so bad that our team captain and my partner for team matches was apparently going to drop me after a recent match. It was only the fact we were short saved me the embarrassment! (Eventhough I didn’t have the best round, i still think dropping me would have been harsh as out of the two of us, it’s always me that seems to do the business during matches!)

This weeeken, I scored 36 points which I was pleased with. But in there, were 4 topped tee shots. Out of those 4, 2 we’re lost balls so I played provisionals and made par with my second ball for 1 point each. The other 2, I managed to scramble 6’s for 2 points.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue before and if so, how did you fix it?

 

[bobmac]

When you top it, does the ball fly off very low or does it bounce into the ground just in front of you?

 

[Ndw7]

Hi Bob, thanks for the reply. The worst ones are when it bounces just in front of me. Sometimes they fly very low, but the majority of the time when it happens it’s a horrible almost spinless bounce

 

[bobmac]

Where is the ball positioned in your stance, in relation to your front foot?

 

[Ndw7]

I would say it’s left of centre, but not as far left as it would be for driver

 

[bobmac]

Move it forward to the same place as your driver, should be in line with your heal/instep

 

[Coffey]

When I started topping my 3 wood out of nowhere i started to tee it up higher. Spoke to my pro and he said to do the opposite- tee it lower as the higher it is then you will try and pick it off the tee.

 

[Ndw7]

Ok I’ll give that a try. Cheers, Bob 👍🏻 Is it possible that I maybbe unknowingly moving ball position between tee shots

 

[Ndw7]

Cheers Coffey. To be honest, that was the I approach I’ve taken. The past couple of days I’ve even tried practicing at the driving range hitting 3 wood off the mat to try and really get the feeling of hitting level / slightly down on the ball, rather than hitting it too much on the upswing, bottoming out before the ball and topping out. How did teeing it lower work out for you?

 

[bobmac]

Cheers Coffey. To be honest, that was the I approach I’ve taken. The past couple of days I’ve even tried practicing at the driving range hitting 3 wood off the mat to try and really get the feeling of hitting level / slightly down on the ball, rather than hitting it too much on the upswing, bottoming out before the ball and topping out. How did teeing it lower work out for you?

1. Where do feel your weight at and just after impact........ central, moving back or moving forward?
2. Do you finish in the classic balanced position with most of the weight on your front foot

 

[Ndw7]

1. Where do feel your weight at and just after impact........ central, moving back or moving forward?
2. Do you finish in the classic balanced position with most of the weight on your front foot

To be honest, I don’t really know. When I flush one I do finish in the classic position. But when I top one I almost come out of my finish in disgust or annoyance before I really have a chance to assess it. One of my playing partners told me on the weekend that he thought I was hanging back on it

 

[bobmac]

To be honest, I don’t really know. When I flush one I do finish in the classic position. But when I top one I almost come out of my finish in disgust or annoyance before I really have a chance to assess it. One of my playing partners told me on the weekend that he thought I was hanging back on it

Gotcha.

Definitely get the ball 4-6in further forward and just focus on a balanced finish.

A good drill for that is to hold the balanced finish until the ball lands, then relax

 

[patricks148]

a bit of a running joke at my club, but our old pro's solve all tip was put it further back in your stance. always works for me anyway

 

[Ndw7]

Gotcha.

Definitely get the ball 4-6in further forward and just focus on a balanced finish.

A good drill for that is to hold the balanced finish until the ball lands, then relax

I’ll give it a try. Thank you Bob

 

[Ndw7]

a bit of a running joke at my club, but our old pro's solve all tip was put it further back in your stance. always works for me anyway

That always seems to help me with my irons 😂

 

[Coffey]

Cheers Coffey. To be honest, that was the I approach I’ve taken. The past couple of days I’ve even tried practicing at the driving range hitting 3 wood off the mat to try and really get the feeling of hitting level / slightly down on the ball, rather than hitting it too much on the upswing, bottoming out before the ball and topping out. How did teeing it lower work out for you?

Worked better than expected. I haven't topped once since and that was about a month and a half ago. *Touch wood*

It was an interesting concept to me but makes sense when you think about it. Completely the opposite to what I was doing to try and fix it and I kept topping it and moving it higher

 

[patricks148]

Worked better than expected. I haven't topped once since and that was about a month and a half ago. *Touch wood*

It was an interesting concept to me but makes sense when you think about it. Completely the opposite to what I was doing to try and fix it and I kept topping it and moving it higher

if ever i practice with a 3 wood i never hit it off a tee, in fact you should be able to hit this club as well off the deck as you do a tee, after all its supposed to be a fairway wood. I tee it low, if i do use it for a tee shot, can also add this club is the steadiest club in my bag and hardly ever hit a bad shot with it .... touch wood

 

[Ndw7]

if ever i practice with a 3 wood i never hit it off a tee, in fact you should be able to hit this club as well off the deck as you do a tee, after all its supposed to be a fairway wood. I tee it low, if i do use it for a tee shot, can also add this club is the steadiest club in my bag and hardly ever hit a bad shot with it .... touch wood

Yeah I agree. During the match I mentioned in my post where didn’t play very well, my playing partner got quite fed up eventually and snapped “why dont you just tee it up higher!” So me obviously being in a stinking mood snapped back “it’s a f****** fairway wood. I’m not introducing another problem to try and fix my first problem!” It was probably my least enjoyable night on the course during a match 😂

 

[Ndw7]

Worked better than expected. I haven't topped once since and that was about a month and a half ago. *Touch wood*

It was an interesting concept to me but makes sense when you think about it. Completely the opposite to what I was doing to try and fix it and I kept topping it and moving it higher

I find a few counter intuitive things work in terms of fixing faults. For example, when I was suffering with the unmentionables, my pro made me hit some balls addressing the ball out of the heel. Whereas other with address it from the toe so what when they move the club closer to the ball during their downswing, it’ll find the middle, but this only encourages the wrong movement. Strange old game 😂

 

[Roops]

When I started topping my 3 wood out of nowhere i started to tee it up higher. Spoke to my pro and he said to do the opposite- tee it lower as the higher it is then you will try and pick it off the tee.

This. Think about it logically, if your ball is in an old divot on the fairway, you automatically hit down to really trap it. I find it with long irons. If I tee them up I fell like I need to pick it. 3 Wood is the same for me, tee it down and feel like the club head is chasing the ball to stay in the shot.