Over The Top Golf Swing Drill To Kill Your Slice

Golf Monthly created this content as part of a paid partnership with Callaway. The contents of this article are entirely independent and solely reflect the editorial opinion of Golf Monthly.

Over the top golf swing drill to kill your slice

The slice is the shot that plagues amateurs more than any other. Not only does it look ugly but it also costs golfers precious yards and accuracy. Luckily, in the video and article below, PGA pro Ben Emerson presents his over the top swing drill to kill your slice once and for all.

Unfortunately, an over-the-top swing is a common fault among golfers and produces an array of truly destructive shots. To make matters worse, amateurs often exacerbate the problem by intuitively aiming further left in a bid to find a short-term solution.

When golfers come over the top, it’s usually a consequence of poor sequencing, so we want to help golfers better understand how the golf downswing sequence works. What we mean by sequencing is the order in which the body moves from the top of the backswing. So as you get to the top and your hands get to their highest point, it’s vital to develop a good transition in order to create power and eliminate your slice.

It’s one of the things tour players do that you perhaps don’t and it helps them create and control power. By and large, the best players in the world all start the downswing with their lower bodies, firing the strongest muscles first. So once they get to the top, you’ll notice this motion where they almost squat into the ground, which then triggers the upper body to rotate, bringing with it the arms and then the club. 

If you watch a slicer, you’ll see something very different. Rather than leading with the lower half, the upper body takes over, which sends the club outside the ball-to-target line. It's for this reason that many golfers aren't able to stop cutting across the golf ball and also why slices and pulls are linked.

It leads to massive inconsistency in terms of strike, direction and distance, making it very hard to play to your potential. If this is something you’ve been struggling with recently or for a while, give this drill a go - it’s really simple and effective. 

First things first, if you've been aiming left, it's vital to fix your golf swing posture. Then, when you swing to the top, pause for a fraction of a second, which should allow gravity to take over and drop the club on a much better plane.

So take it to the top and do a couple of rehearsals like Ben demonstrates in the video above, then rotate with the lower body to bring everything through to a nice balanced finish. The great thing about this drill is that it can be done on the range during a practice session, but it can also become part of your pre-shot routine on the course, giving golfers a feel they can rely on under pressure.

So, if this is a part of the game you’ve been struggling with, give this over-the-top swing drill a go. As with any swing change, repetition is the key to adding this to your technique and finally fixing your slice for good.