I took a lesson from a PGA Professional. Everyone is different but for me I was coming inside too quick. So he told me to go back straight (important!) then turn, and then hold my right arm like I was holding a tray. I practiced that over and over without a club. That made me flatten my swing a little bit and no matter what I did coming to the ball I came in inside out. I could hit the ball as hard as I wanted and still no slice! It was great for me. My friends told me, "you don't slice anymore." What a nice thing to hear.

If you don't want to get lessons go on YouTube and search for Mark Crossfield he does daily vlogs where he looks at someone's swing and the provides some training and coaching tips. He focuses a lot on the over the top move you are having difficulty with and i have seen some of his coaching tips you can do inside to help with. He tries to make it entertaining as well.

The real correct response to your concern is find someone who you can go to during the winter months for lessons indoors.

Look for sergio Garcias swing sequence, or even better his swing moves broken down, I recall seeing in golf digest recently. He really illustrates dropping the club down and close to the hip when you start the down swing.

Good drill to promote inside to out swing, if your right handed address the ball normal stance, then take the left foot back to the right, both feet touching, then step into the swing your path will be inside to out, my golf channel academy swing coach has me do this from time to time just too keep that feeling I've seen the results on the monitor, and the path is very much inside to out. You can also hit balls with this drill. Hope this helps enjoy!

I think everyone who comes over the top has a whole list of swing thoughts to prevent it. I know I have many things that work for me, many of which give me a beautiful little draw when my swing is working well.

One practice thing I do at the range is to put an extra tee in the ground about 6 inches behind my teed up ball, and 3 inches (or an inch more than half the width of the driver face) outside the target line. So, when I swing into the ball, in order to not catch the tee, it forces me to come into the ball from the inside. If I come over the top, I will definitely hit the extra tee. Once you figure it out you will be hitting draws (or at least straight drives) with ease.

The trick is to bring it to the course. For me, since you can't use any alignment or swing aids within the rules during an official round, I look for a broken tee on the ground to use as a focus point, or depending on the shape of the tee markers, I'll tee up about 4 inches inside and directly adjacent to one, so that when I set up to the ball, that broken tee or the back end of the tee marker is in a similar place to where I put the extra tee when I am practicing on the range. There is no penalty to use a spot (like a broken tee laying on the ground) that already exists on the tee box, provided you don't move it into position. It's not always possible to find that broken tee or use the tee marker if it's not in a good spot, so I sometimes just pick a spot on the ground, whether it be a divot or leaf or whatever, to use as the spot I have to bring my clubhead inside of. In addition to helping you come from the inside, it also helps to slow you down enough that you can actually control the swing enough to get inside the mark/tee/spot/leaf. The way I see it, a swing with very slightly slower swing speed, coming in on the correct plane will likely have a better chance of hitting the sweetspot, and will usually travel farther and straighter than a swing that cuts across the ball with too much speed creating excessive spin.

Also, one other thing that can make it easier to not come over the top is to not let your weight get back too far on the backswing, which can allow your elbow to collapse and get everything out of sync. I think about bracing my right leg before I start my takeaway, which tends to stop me from getting too far back. I also maintain the "y" my arms and clubshaft make as far straight back as feasible.

My list of swing thoughts goes on and on, as it does, I would guess, for most people. I don't think of them all on every swing. I pick an important thought or two to focus on. Most are ingrained in my swing. But when things start to go bad, I review them all until I find the problem. Rarely do I go more than a few rounds with an uncooperative driver.

Thank you for the tips. I suffer the same swing issues and will try your tip for putting a tee in the ground while on the range. Unfortunately, you cannot use a broken tee as a swing guide during a round. Rule 8-2a Indicating Line of Play does not allow this. The Decision is:

8-2a/2 Object Placed Beside or Behind Ball to Indicate Line of Play
Q. May a player place his pipe or a club beside his ball, or an object behind his ball, to indicate the line of play and leave the object there while playing a stroke?

A. No. Such action would be a breach of Rule 8-2a.

Had the same problem and went to see my Master Teaching pro and he worked it out for me in a few minutes. Trackman and seeing you swing makes all the difference. Am now hitting my clubs -1* on either side of plane. I continue to work on alignment and grip. Go see a pro.

I do the same thing...Part of the charm of golf though. Best bet is to find a simulator and a coach. I've tried self taught drills and YouTube lessons and always revert. I definitely know your pain, but the fact you fix it every year has got to be considered a confidence boost and lead to better scores. I've always told myself it's because I'm a Fairweather golfer. Best of luck straightening them out!

I keep a golf diary of things that work for me. These tips cover every aspect of the game. It helps me remember them or recall what I did when things go south when I play. What is funny is that this diary has now evolved into a small book. I am constantly learning new things and that is what I love about golf.

those Mark Crossfield videos are gold


he is a great online teacher / promoter of the game......and nearly all of his students that he shows have OTT or stability issues.

I had been working on a simple thought, which is to delay the right shoulder from shooting out during my down swing, and bringing the right elbow into the hips. works for me, hope it works for you.

I am a believer in getting a PGA Pro to help with my game. For my whole life I had hit a low baby draw. All of a sudden last year I started hitting slices. I was getting quite worked over by long-time playing partners. Went to my pro and he laughed and said I make my best money fixing slices and all you have to do is hit three balls for me. I hit two balls and he said its your wrists and proceeded to fix the slice, so I asked him why I can't get much height with a 12 degree driver. That came even quicker, just a slight weight shift to the right foot and now I'm hitting straight and with a good trajectory. That thirty minute lesson sure was worth his price. So now if I am struggling with a problem a get with a pro. Just a thought for ya...

I had a fade for quite a while. I had my son in law video my swing. I sent it to one of the teaching pros at allexperts.com. One thing he mentioned was that I straightened my right leg on the backswing, which limited my shoulder turn. Also crossing over at the top of the backswing. I had a strong grip on top of that. Also what helped is standing a little further from the ball. I gained 15 yards.