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Have you ever felt the embarrassment of topping the ball off the first tee in front of a watching audience and wondered what you are doing wrong?

The three most common reasons for topping the ball can be summed up as follows:

1)Ball Position – When playing the ball off the tee rather than a ground shot, correct ball position is a vital element. If the ball is too far forward it will cause you too bring the club-face to the ball too late in the swing, meaning the lower portion of the club will address the ball in a higher position causing you to top the ball. How high you have the ball teed up may also effect the manner in which you hit the ball. You should have half the ball showing above the top of the club in order to ensure you hit the ball in the middle of the club. Too low and you may very well top the ball.

2)Incorrect Aim – By not ensuring that you aim is correct and finding yourself aiming too far right will cause you to be pulling out of your shot both too early and too fast. This will cause you to pull up too much and be too centred with your stance in relation to the ball position and this will also affect your weight shift and timing. The nett effect of course is that you are likely to be topping the ball.

3)If You Are Turning in the Backswing – Check your body position to ensure you are not turning excessively in the backswing. This will have you turning a bit too hard in order to get the club back out in front of you in the follow through. This means the club is coming from an outside to inside plane which may cause some reverse weight shift by pulling you more left, bringing the club over the top of the ball rather than the correct lower position and of course this will have you topping the ball.

Of course if you have the ball positioned too far back, effectively bringing you too far forward you will be forced to pull out of your shot too early again affecting your stance and weight shift meaning you are pounding down on it as you are also trying to pull up. Again topping the ball is the inevitable consequence.

Ensuring you have the ball correctly positioned will have a beneficial effect on your ability to ensure you stop topping the ball off the tee.

Always pay attention to the basics when trying to improve your golf or work on any aspect of your game. Ball position and stance are the first places to look when working on the problem of topping the ball off the tee. Then make sure you are not over turning in the swing or over stretching and losing your composure and balance. Try limiting the amount of turn in the backswing, position yourself correctly in relation to the ball and you will prevent yourself from topping the ball.

It is important to work on and try and master each element of your game before you try and tackle other problem areas.

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