causes and cures for hitting it off the toe

Hello,

New here so I apologize if this has been addressed before. I have been playing seriously for 10 years or so, and have been as low as a 4. At the end of last season I started hitting every shot off the toe of the club, and I've started this season doing the exact same thing. I've been to my coach, who had me hitting it flush for a little while, but I've since reverted. Anybody else experience this? What are the most common causes of this, and how can I stop it soon?

Thanks,

hi
what shape of shot do you hit when it comes off the toe, you could be swinging out to in and you would his a big fade or slice. what i would do is get impact tape and see where your hitting on the face. "talc also works" start with hitting with a 3/4 swing and see it your hitting off the middle.
it could be that your standing to far away and stretching a little at address.
cheers
bill

Thanks for your response. I realized after I posted the original that my question was kind of arbitrary. I always hit a draw, whether I flush it or not, but occasionally lately I've hit a push or push fade. Also, 3/4 shots are much more likely to come out of the middle, could that mean it could be my position at the top?

Thanks again,

I was doing this all last week, I found I was standing too far away from the ball. Sounds too simple to work but just try standing a little closer to where your arms hang straight down when you relax them and don't swing out of your control.

I have read that improved impact alignments shorten the dynamic reach of a golfer (for example flipping vs. flat left wrist at impact). Did you make a change last year when this started? Did you improve some aspect of the swing? As others have said, maybe you just need to move a hair closer to the ball.

Another guess would be that maybe your irons are too flat.

Take a golf club and stand upright, hold the club with your arms relaxed and extended straight out in front of you. Swing the club back and forth in a nice wide relaxed arc and feel how the your arms stay extended. Now tighten your grip and the muscles in your arms, notice how your arms will start to bend at the elbows and pull in towards your body.

Tension in the grip and arms is one of the major causes of striking the ball off the toe and topping it.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Jbrunk, to answer your question, I made a minor change last year. I was really concentrating on making sure I was shifting my weight to start my downswing and that my hips were open at impact (to combat hanging back a little). I had the best 4 ballstriking months of my life, then one day I started hitting it off the toe.

Brian, that makes sense. I used to struggle a lot with holding on, especially right at impact. I'll try to remember to keep my grip pressure light.

Thanks,

Interesting. Now we are getting somewhere. I have made a similar change in the last year, (more efficient weight shift that results in being more open at impact), and have started hitting the short irons more on the toe.

My guess is, that like me, you started swinging more left after impact as your plane got better. You started turning more after centering which opens up your hips and left shoulder faster. As far as I can tell, the only thing I have done (outside of having my lies checked) is move a little closer to the ball and it has worked.

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Thanks man, it crossed my mind that I may be spinning out a little.

Today at the range I concentrated on good posture, making a good pivot (and not sliding back) and even grip pressure throughout the swing. Hit a few good high draws, right out of the middle of the club face.

Next step is to get my lies checked.

Thanks for all the feedback, it's definitely coming along.

J,

I want to make sure you did not misunderstand something I said. Most good players, swing too far right and need to swing more left after impact and improve their plane. Turning the hips and opening up the left shoulder as much as you can is a good thing. Do not confuse that with "spinning out". Maybe your comment was unrelated, but I just wanted to make sure we were talking about the same things.

Thanks, I may have misunderstood a little. I was thinking that I was maybe taking my improved path a little too far (today's solution is tomorrow's problem). Could that be a reason for hitting it off the toe? My left shoulder too open?

Maybe. I think the more important question relative to "hips/left shoulder too open" is, are you happy with the direction?

If it is going straight, or fading/drawing to your liking, then you proabably have the right amount of open hips, shoulders and clubface. As a result you can just move up a little.

Hitting off the toe is harder to accurately diagnose relative to hitting off the heel, but it is also a much better problem to have.

In order to avoid hitting the ball off the toe, I have found that when you address the ball, it helps to hover the clubhead over the ball and then slowly lower yourself by squatting until the clubhead is touching the ground behind the ball.....then begin your backswing. Allow your knees to gradually move outward towards a bowed position.

Next time you watch pro golf on TV, check how many players slightly lower themselves in this manner.

By the way....this procedure works on all clubs, from the driver to chip shots.

I want to thank everybody for the feedback. In the end it was (and still is sometimes) a combination of hanging on, inconsistent posture at address, and my hips sliding back (instead of turning) a little during the backswing.

I'm getting back on track, thanks again!