How to Stop Swiping Across a Golf Ball

Nothing sours a round of golf faster than that dreaded swipe across the ball. You feel it in your hands - that glancing, powerless contact - and you watch helplessly as the ball weakly slices away or gets yanked dead left. This article cuts straight to the chase: we’ll diagnose why you’re swiping at the ball and give you a clear, actionable plan with simple drills to start compressing the golf ball with an inward path for solid, straight shots.

Understanding the Swipe: What an Out-to-In Path Really Means

When golfers talk about "swiping" across the ball, they're describing an out-to-in swing path. Picture the path your clubhead travels from the top of your swing down to the ball. Ideally, it should approach the ball from the inside of your target line and travel out towards the target after impact. This is an "in-to-out" path.

A swipe is the exact opposite. Your club attacks the ball from outside the target line and cuts across it, moving in toward your body after impact. Instead of the clubface making solid, square contact with the back of the ball, it delivers a glancing blow across its side. This sideways motion is what imparts the ugly sidespin that causes a slice (for a righty, a curve to the right) or, if the clubface is closed to that path, a dead pull-left.

The Main Culprit: The "Over the Top" Move

The most common cause of an out-to-in path is a downswing that starts incorrectly. Specifically, it’s when your shoulders and arms initiate the swing from the top. When you feel that urge to smash the ball, the natural (but incorrect) instinct is to throw your right shoulder (for a righty) and hands "over the top" of the proper swing plane. This immediately puts the club outside the target line, leaving you no choice but to swipe across the ball to make contact.

This single flawed move is at the root of most slices, but it often starts with an imperfect setup. Let's fix the foundation first.

Stop the Swipe Before It Starts: Nailing Your Setup

You can have a perfect swing motion in mind, but a flawed setup can doom you before you even take the club back. Your address position dictates the kind of swing path you can make.

Your Grip: The Steering Wheel

Your grip controls the clubface. A "weak" grip, where your lead hand (left hand for a righty) is rotated too far to the left, makes it very easy for the clubface to open on the downswing. To compensate, a Pplayer will often come over the top in an attempt to square the face, fueling that swiping motion.

• The Fix: Look down at your grip at address. You should be able to see at least two knuckles on your lead hand (the index and middle finger knuckles). If you see only one or none, your grip is likely too weak. Rotate your lead hand slightly to your right until those two knuckles are visible. This more "neutral" to "strong" position helps the clubface stay square or naturally close through impact, encouraging a draw instead of a slice.

Alignment: Are You Aiming for a Slice?

This is a massive one. So many slicing golfers instinctively aim their bodies far to the left of the target. They think, "If I'm going to slice it right, I'll just aim left." This is a trap. When your feet and shoulders are aimed left, it actively encourages you to swing across your body along that line, practically forcing an out-to-in, swiping path.

• The Fix: Use alignment sticks or lay a club on the ground. Place one stick parallel to your target line, just outside the ball. Place another stick parallel to that one, but where your feet go. Your goal is to get your feet, hips, and shoulders all square - or parallel - to the target line. It will feel like you're aiming dead straight ahead or even to the right of your target, but this position is what frees you up to swing down the line, not across it.

Rethinking the Swing Itself: From Takeaway to Impact

With a solid setup, you can now work on the motion. Fixing a swipe isn't about dozens of complex thoughts, it's about re-sequencing one or two key movements in your backswing and transition.

The Backswing: Creating Space, Not Speed

An aggressive, jerky backswing often leads to an aggressive, "over the top" downswing. A player who rips the club away with their hands and arms tends to lift it straight up or pull it sharply inside, which sets the stage for a re-route on the way down.

• Feel the One-Piece Takeaway: For the first few feet the club moves away from the ball, feel like your hands, arms, and chest are all turning together in one piece. No wrist flick, no yanking. This keeps the club "in front" of your body.
• Focus on a Hip Turn: A great thought is to feel like your right hip (for a righty) is turning back and away from the ball. This creates depth and space in your backswing, giving your arms a clear path to drop "into the slot" on the way down, rather than having to come over the top because there's no room.

The Transition: The Real Game-Changer

This is the moment of truth. This is where the out-to-in swipe is born. To fix it, you absolutely must change how you start your downswing.

Slicers lurch forward with their shoulders. Good ball strikers initiate the downswing from the ground up.

• The Correct Sequence: From the top of your swing, your very first move should be a slight shift of pressure into your lead foot as your hips begin to unwind. This lower-body-first move makes the arms and club drop passively onto the correct inside path. They are being pulled down, not thrown.
• A Powerful Swing Thought: As you start down, feel like your back is staying turned toward the target for just a split second longer. Another popular feel is trying to get your right elbow to tuck in close to your right hip on the way down. Both moves prevent that "over the top" lunge from the shoulders and promote an in-to-out path.

Drills to Turn Your Swipe into a Solid Strike

Understanding concepts is helpful, but grooving the feel is what makes it stick on the course. Here are three simple drills you can do at the range to retrain your swing path.

1. The Gate Drill

This drill provides immediate, unmissable feedback on your swing path. It forces you to swing from the inside.

• Setup: Place your ball down. Put one headcover (or a water bottle) about a foot behind and a few inches outside your ball. Place a second headcover about a foot in front of and a few inches inside the ball's position.
• Execution: You've now created a "gate." Your only goal is to swing the clubhead through this gate without hitting either headcover. To do so, you must approach from the inside and exit toward the outside. A swipe would hit the outside headcover on the way down or the inside one on the way through. Start with slow, half-swings to get the feel.

2. The Right-Foot-Back Drill

This is a classic for a reason. It physically restricts your ability to come over the top.

• Setup: Take your normal stance. Now, simply pull your trail foot (right foot for a righty) back about 6-8 inches, so it's further away from the target line than your lead foot. Your shoulders should remain square to the target.
• Execution: Hit balls from this stance. By dropping your trail foot back, you exaggerate the room you need to swing from the inside. It makes the "over the top" move feel awkward and cramped, while encouraging your hips to turn and your club to approach from that golden inside path.

3. The Pump Drill

This drill helps you rehearse the proper downswing sequence and feel the club "drop in the slot".

• Setup: Take your normal ready position.
• Execution:
  1. Make your backswing to the top.
  2. Now, start the downswing, but only bring the club down until your hands are about waist high. Critically an eye to see the club is approaching from the inside, with the shaft often parallel to the line of your toes.
  3. Take it back to the top of your backswing.
  4. "Pump" down to waist-high again, feeling that inside path.
  5. On the third pump, continue all the way through and hit the ball. This repetitive rehearsal drills the sensation of the lower body leading and the club dropping, wiping out the "over-the-top" instinct.

Final Thoughts

Beating the swipe is about understanding its cause - an out-to-in swing path - and reprogramming your body to swing from the inside. By checking your setup for a neutral grip and square alignment, and then using drills to groove the feeling of a lower-body-led transition, you can replace that glancing blow with a powerful, compressed strike.

Mastering your mechanics is a huge part of the puzzle, but sometimes you also need smart guidance in the moment. We designed Caddie AI to be that on-demand coach. If you're struggling on the range, you can ask for a specific drill to combat your slice and get an instant, clear answer. If you get to a tee box where your slice always gets you into trouble, you can photograph the situation, and we’ll give you a simple strategy to help you navigate the hole safely, taking the guessing out of your game so you can swing with confidence.