Why Is My Golf Swing Too Steep?

The short answer: most steep swings are built in the backswing. Either your arms lift the club up without your chest turning, or they pull it around your body with a cupped lead wrist, and the shaft ends up pointing down at your toes instead of at the ball line. From there the club has no room to come down from the inside, so it comes over the top on a steep, out-to-in path.

What "too steep" actually means

Steep describes the angle of the shaft and the angle of the club coming into the ball.

Some steepness is good. With an iron, you want the club descending into the ball, which is why tour players take a divot in front of the ball. The problem is when the club is too upright in the backswing and then comes down too steeply and across the ball from outside the target line.

Here is how to tell if that's you:

• Divots that are deep and point left of your target (for a right-handed golfer).
• Pulls and pull-slices. The ball starts left and either stays there or curves right.
• Heavy shots where the club digs rather than brushes.
• Skied drives that pop straight up off the top of the face.
• Weak, glancing contact, especially with longer clubs.

The ball flight behind a steep swing

A steep downswing almost always produces an out-to-in club path. Whether the ball pulls or slices then depends on your face.

The face angle at impact controls most of the ball's starting direction. The relationship between the face and the path, known as face-to-path, controls the curve. If the face is open to that out-to-in path, you slice. If it matches the path, you hit a straight pull. If it is closed to the path, you pull-hook it further left. That is why steep players often fight both a slice and a pull: same path, different face.

With the driver, a steep attack angle also sends the ball up off the top of the face. If you're skying it, the tee is rarely the problem, which I explain in how high you should tee up your driver.

Why your swing gets steep: the three causes I see most

1. The arms lift. The golfer makes a backswing with the arms going up and very little chest turn. The hands finish high above the shoulder and the shaft tips steep. The body then has nothing to unwind from, so the shoulders throw the club out and over on the way down.

2. The arms pull around without the chest. This one surprises people. The club whips inside early with the hands and arms, but because the chest hasn't turned, the arms run out of room and have to lift to finish the backswing. You get an inside takeaway and a steep top position in the same swing.

3. A cupped lead wrist. The orientation of your wrists changes the pitch of the shaft. If the lead wrist cups (extends) in the backswing, the club tips over and gets steep. A flatter lead wrist keeps the shaft on a better angle.

There are setup contributors too. A ball too far back in the stance and an open stance both encourage a steeper, more across-the-line delivery.

What "on plane" looks like

The easiest checkpoint is when your lead arm is parallel to the ground in the backswing.

Set your phone on the ground behind you, down the line, roughly at hand height and pointing along your target line. Pause the video at lead arm parallel and look at the butt end of the club:

• Pointing at the ball line: that's on plane.
• Pointing down at your toes or inside your feet: that's steep.
• Pointing well outside the ball: that's flat.

At the same point, your hands should be roughly in front of your chest, your lead wrist should be flat, and your arms should feel soft rather than rigid.

Drill: the alignment stick shaft extension

This is my go-to drill for golfers who get steep, because it shows you exactly where the shaft is pointing.

1. Extend the shaft. Hold an alignment stick alongside the grip so it sticks out 50 to 60 cm past the end of the club. Grip the club and stick together.
2. Start standing tall. Stand upright with the club out in front of you at chest height, shaft level with the ground.
3. Make a baseball swing. Turn your chest back and keep the shaft roughly level, as if you were hitting a ball teed up at chest height. Notice how rounded the motion is, and how the arms stay in front of your chest.
4. Tilt into posture. Now bend forward into your golf posture and make the same rounded backswing. Stop at lead arm parallel.
5. Check the stick. The end of the stick should point at, or very close to, the ball line. If it points at your toes, you've lifted or cupped. Turn your chest more and keep your lead wrist flat.
6. Rehearse, then hit. Make five slow rehearsals with the stick, then hit half shots without it, trying to recreate the same feel.

If you lose the feeling, go straight back to the standing baseball swing. The level motion is the reference, and golf is that same motion with tilt added.

Common mistakes I see

• Trying to fix it on the way down. Golfers try to "drop" or "shallow" the club in the downswing from a steep top position. Fix the backswing and the downswing has room.
• Rolling the club inside with the hands in the takeaway, then lifting to finish.
• Too much tension. Tight arms and a tight grip make lifting more likely. Soft arms, secure hands.
• No chest turn. If your chest isn't turning, your arms have to do the work and they'll go up.
• Swinging harder to fix the slice. More effort from the shoulders makes the over-the-top move worse.

Want a backswing you can trust?

My Consistency Reset and the Perform Golf swing library take you through plane, the backswing and the downswing step by step, so you can stop coming over the top and start striking it solidly. Start at perform.golf.

Kerrod Gray is a PGA of Australia Professional, Advanced in Coaching, and the founder of Perform Golf.