1. Keep Your Head Down
Keeping your head down will help you stop topping the ball, and will help you start to flush the golf ball more consistently. Keeping your head down during your swing will allow your whole body to rotate and it will help you get a better divot. The reason why you’re probably topping it is that you lift your head up too early so then your body doesn’t have enough time to stay down and connect.
The trick which helps me and a lot of other golfers is to watch your impact. If you see your club hit the ball, your head will automatically stay down and you’ll end up getting the best contact of your life.
2. Shaft Lean
Having shaft lean will help you stop to top the ball because you’ll end up getting a proper divot after the ball. The whole point of shaft lean is to help you get better contact and have proper compression. To have shaft lean, just lean the shaft ahead of the club face. It should look like the image down below.
Just make sure to keep the shaft leaning in front throughout your impact. You will start to notice that your compression will improve and so will your ball flight. You will end up having a consistent ball flight. Notice how Tiger has his hands leaning forward throughout the whole swing, also notice how the compression is solid and the divot occurs after the ball because of the downwards attack angle at impact.
3. STOP BEING ANXIOUS
The number one reason why amateurs bring their head up during impact is that they are so anxious about seeing where the ball will end up. You have to ask yourself “Would you rather see a bad shot, or not see the beginning of a good shot?” I am pretty sure that everyone reading this would pick the second option. If you feel that you would rather see a bad shot well… then there’s not much I can do for you here bud 😂! Just quiet out your mind!
All jokes aside though, you just need to calm down and trust yourself. At the end of the day, there is only so much you are able to control, so just focus on the controllable’s.
4. Get In The Zone
Before every single golf shot, you should try to be zoned in and really focused on your target. Just know that no matter what you do and how much you prepare, there is still a chance of you topping the ball or hitting a bad shot. Golf is a game of millimeters and there are so many factors that come into play during one single shot.
“Golf is a game of misses. The guy who misses it the best is going to win.” – Ben Hogan
The more you prepare your self for the shot, the less nervous you feel and the less anxious you become.
5. Confidence
Build up confidence in yourself, have positive thoughts before your shot. It is so easy to just having certain fears and thoughts like
“Don’t top it”
“Your gonna shank it”
“There’s water left”
Like at the end of the day you have to realize, it’s just a sport and the more fear you have the more likely it will turn out as a bad shot. It’s like life, sometimes you just have to let go of the result and try your best. Always be prepared and LET GO of the result that you want so badly. Let go of all the fears and the made-up negative thoughts you tell yourself. Would you rather hit a bad shot knowing you were gonna hit a bad shot or hit a bad shot trying your best to hit the shot you wanted?
You have to understand that you will hit bad shots, you are going to miss hit the ball sometimes. But it’s ok, it’s not the end of the world, in fact, there is a trick that can help hit good shots more consistently, it’s just staying in the present moment and focusing on one shot at a time. I Can guarantee you, that if you do the 5 things and practice them on a regular basis, you will stop topping the ball and you will hit good shots more consistently.
