Symptom
Coming over the top
Someone has told you, or the camera has shown you, that the club swings out and across the ball from the top, and your shots pull left, slice right, or do both.
A ball curves because the face and the path through impact disagree. The flight alone cannot tell you which of the two is out of place, because a face problem and a path problem can produce the same shape, and that is exactly what the questions separate.
Common ways golfers describe this
Why do I come over the top?
Coming over the top with driver only
Outside in swing path
Swinging across the ball to the left
Over the top pull slice
- Target line
- Club path
- Clubface
Narrow it to one cause
Each question is here because golfers answer it differently, and that difference is what rules a cause out. Nothing is generated while you answer: every question, cause and fix was written and checked in advance.
A few questions · no account needed
What you will be asked
- Where does the ball start, before it curves?
- With a mid-iron off the fairway, what does the divot look like?
- After it starts, what does the ball do?
- Lay one club along your toes and hold another across your shoulders. Where do they point?
- At address, how many knuckles can you see on your top hand looking down?
- Set up to your longest club. Where does the ball sit compared with your lead heel?
Where this can come from
These are the causes this symptom resolves to, in the order they turn up most often. That order is not a diagnosis and it is not your answer: two of them can produce a shot that looks identical from behind. Each has a fix you can read now, whether or not you answer anything.
Out-to-in swing path
The club is travelling left of the target line through impact for a right-handed golfer. Curvature is produced by the difference between face and path, so a path moving left with a face that lags behind it opens the face relative to the path and bends the ball right. The same path with a face square to it produces a straight pull instead.
Read the fix
Face open at impact
The clubface is pointing right of where the club is travelling when it meets the ball. Start direction is governed almost entirely by where the face points at impact, and the curve comes from how far the face sits open to the path. An open face is why the ball starts right, curves right, and loses height-adjusted distance: loft is effectively added as the face rotates open.
Read the fix
Body aimed left of target
Feet, hips or shoulders point left of the ball-to-target line. It usually starts when the shoulders swivel open to follow the eyes toward the target, or when a golfer aims left on purpose to allow for a slice. The path tends to follow the body, so aiming further left to allow for a slice reliably makes the slice worse.
Read the fix
Delivery too steep
The club descends sharply into the hitting area, so the margin between fat and thin narrows and any low point error produces a bigger miss. Divots are deep and narrow, and the same steepness usually travels with a path working left.
Read the fix
Grip too weak
The hands sit rotated toward the target on the handle, so the lead wrist has to do extra work to square the face in the time available. A weak grip does not cause a slice on its own, but it makes an open face the default outcome rather than something the golfer has to actively produce.
Read the fix
Ball too far forward in the stance
The ball sits ahead of where the swing arc reaches its lowest point. With an iron off turf this means the club is already climbing at contact. It also encourages the shoulders to aim left at address, which pulls the path further left and adds curve to the miss.
Read the fix
Related symptoms
These are not here because they sound similar. Each one can come from a cause on the list above, which is why fixing one sometimes quietly fixes another. The closest matches are first.
- I can't hit a drawYou set up to curve the ball from right to left and it fades anyway, or it starts right and never turns back, so the draw is never there when you want it.Shares out-to-in swing path
- Slicing the ballThe ball curves hard to the right and finishes well right of where you aimed.Shares out-to-in swing path
- Divots pointing left or right of the targetThe divot after the ball angles clearly left or right instead of running along the target line, which is the plainest record on the ground of which way the club was travelling.Shares out-to-in swing path
- The clubface opens or shuts as soon as I take it backStopped where the shaft is parallel to the ground, the face is already pointing up at the sky or down at the ground instead of matching the angle of your spine.Shares face open at impact
- Divots that are far too deepThe club digs a deep gouge out of the turf instead of a shallow strip, so even a small error in where it bottoms out turns into a heavy, short shot.Shares out-to-in swing path
- Bunker shots come out right or left of where I aimedThe ball gets out cleanly but starts well right of the flag after opening the face, or pulls left along an open stance, so good escapes still finish on the wrong side of the green.Shares face open at impact
What this rests on
- 40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
- How to Use Face to Path Data to Improve Your GolfFlightScope, accessed 2026
- The Influence of Face Angle and Club Path on the Resultant Launch Angle of a Golf BallPaul Wood, Erik Henrikson, Chris Broadie, 2018
- Search for the Perfect Swing: The Proven Scientific Approach to Fundamentally Improving Your GameAlastair Cochran and John Stobbs, for the Golf Society of Great Britain, 2005 reissue, originally 1968
If something here contradicts what a launch monitor tells you, say so. Corrections change the page.
Discussion
Golfers who have had this shot, on what it turned out to be and what sorted it. Read it as experience rather than diagnosis: the questions above are what narrow it to a cause.
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