Still topping your fairway woods? ⛳️

In this Scratch Golf Academy lesson, 40-year veteran instructor Adam Bazalgette explains the key reasons golfers top their fairway woods. He highlights how hanging back causes early release on the upswing, while an excessively steep angle of attack forces lifting compensations that smother club loft.

• Hanging back leads to an early release, causing impact to occur on the upswing and resulting in topped shots.
• Coming down too steeply forces subconscious compensations like lifting the arms or torso, leading to thin or topped strikes.
• Fairway woods are engineered to make contact midway up the face, not at the extreme bottom edge.
• Steep downward thrashing smothers natural club loft and frequently causes slices.

Go deeper

• Thin contact — Causes, drills and coaches for this miss
• Attack angle — The lesson, across every coach
• Scratch Golf Academy — Every video, sorted by what it teaches