Topping Fairway Woods/Hybrids-A Thing Of The Past…
I am going to put a really different twist on why you struggle with your long fairway clubs-woods or hybrids. The club in your bag that imparts the most backspin is highest lofted wedge (LOB, sand or pitching). The club in your bag that imparts the most side spin is your driver.
The reason we tee a driver up is to accomodate the loft. If your driver has 10 degrees of loft and you tee it up, the effective loft on your driver has about 15 degrees of loft. If you didn’t tee it up the effective loft would be about 5 degrees.
Has the light come on? When you take a 15-20 degree fairway wood/hybrid and try and hit it off of the fairway it becomes a very difficult shot, even at our level of ability. On top of that if you are trying to hit it off of a tight lie things can really get ugly.
The most common mistake is to hit tops to the right or ground behind the ball. The reason is simple-you are swinging the club to SHALLOW…another weird golf word. When the club head reaches the bottom of the arc the sole is swinging too level to the ground.
You have to have a bit more of a STEEP angle in the downswing. The best way to practice this shot is to lay a towel 8-10 inches directly behind the ball and practice missing the towel in the backswing and downswing. If you miss the towel the club head has to swing DOWN into the bottom of the ball and not UP on the ball.
