(golf club smacks ball)
- Hey, Adam Bazalgette here,
founder of Scratch Golf Academy.
Today's subject, how to stop topping
your three wood off the fairway, or from the fairway.
It's a thing that plagues a lot of golfers,
topping fairway woods.
And I'll show you, really, what is the leading
cause of it, and a couple of the things
you need to get right, or need to emphasize, let's say,
once you've solved that cause.
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(golf club hits ball)
Well, they're not the easiest clubs to hit,
this is my three wood, When there's no tee
under the ball, there.
They're long shafted, they don't have much loft,
but, still, people shouldn't have the kind of problems
that they typically have with these.
Let's look at a great player, we'll kind of start
to pick out some of the things he's doing well,
what you need to work on.
So, here's Justin Rose hitting a three wood.
99% sure it's a three wood there, looking at that.
And, just watch a couple of things he does well.
If we put a little line just above his head,
watch how, through impact, he doesn't rise.
His body doesn't get taller.
And it's really not people lifting their head,
when they don't do this, is straightening
the whole body up.
His head comes around okay, when he gets through there,
but he keeps his level.
He stays low, and the other thing you'll see him do,
long arms there, after impact.
In other words, a lot of width in the golf swing.
If you do that, if you have that kind of width,
you are not really going to have
any problem topping the ball.
But, unfortunately, that's not what most people do.
Many golfers that top it spread their arms apart.
You see, sort of, a chicken wing there in the left arm.
It narrows the radius of the swing.
And, naturally, when you do that,
you could easily top the ball.
I've got a free course on solid strikes, if you want it.
It's a three part detailed course, just go down
in the description box, pick it up.
It's yours there for free.
Okay, well the biggest barrier to me,
to people getting this look you see him have,
with the long arm, and staying in the shot;
people come down too steeply.
That club approaches the turf at too sharp of an angle,
and listen, if you don't pull up a little bit,
either with your body, or your arms, or a bit of both,
you're going to have a hard time;
because, you're not gonna make good contact.
Well, if you do it just the right amount,
you can hit a good shot.
It's very difficult to time, though.
Let me show you a little example from the world of aviation,
then we'll come out and we'll look from here,
and I'll show you, really, how to tackle this thing.
And I'll give you a drill at the end, from the front view.
So, here comes a huge plane in for a landing.
Look how shallow and level the landing is.
And that enables it to, fairly aggressively,
thump the wheels down on the runway.
If you, if that thing came down steeply,
it's either gonna kill everyone, or it's gotta pull up
in order to get any kind of a landing.
All right, in my view, this is the single biggest key
to feeling that shallow, non-choppy angle of attack.
That's the plane of your golf swing.
Now, listen, picture a little table here,
with some cups, or something, on it.
If I brought my trail hand, my right hand,
from the side of my body, back from behind the right hip,
along the table, I would brush the cups off the table.
If I wanted to smash the cups, I'd come from here.
This is always, geometry wise,
when the club, or the arm, is in front of you,
this is always more down toward the ground,
this is more running along the ground.
So, if you can get it on a decent plane,
that's not what this video is about,
that is the first key.
When that club's coming more from the side of your body,
it gets nearer the ground sooner,
than it does when it's coming from here.
Let me give it a go, here, with this three wood.
A little problem with my hand,
so I'm going with a 10 finger grip.
It's a lousy excuse, but I could
probably use it with this club.
All right, here we go.
(golf club smacks ball)
A decent hit, that was a solid hit.
Just a little to the right of the green, that's the key.
Let's look from this angle.
So, the impact bag gives a great drill,
even if you don't have one,
you can put a towel there, or something.
Just the mental picture alone, really.
So, let's say the golf balls are
right next to these two golf balls.
If I'm coming from nice and shallow,
the club's getting nearer the ground back here,
I can afford then, like the airplane example,
to get a nice, bump of the ground.
And, really, the goal should be, not so much
to be full width here, but to be full width about there.
About a foot, foot and a half past the ball.
That's where you want both arms long.
You want the club more in line with the arms.
And, again, if you can get shallow here,
and get a nice, brushing, kind of angle,
you've earned the right to get long there.
And it's pretty easy to do.
That is the feel.
Then, simply bring some balls over here,
you might want to do this with a hybrid,
or something with a little bit of loft.
I'll stick with the three wood.
Nice, shallow, swing.
And chase it right out there.
I hit even a hair behind that.
But it was shallow enough that I got a decent hit.
I promise you, if you have a long flat spot,
you will be a good three wood player.
You'll rarely top the ball.
Hope that helps you with how to stop topping
your three wood off the fairway.
If you like the video, we'd really appreciate a thumbs up.
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Thanks for watching, and best of luck to you.
(funky music)