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Country: gb Page generated at: Tuesday, 14 April 2026 at 21:57:49 British Summer Time
club
Glossary
NCG’s Golf Glossary: What is a follow through?

published: Jan 1, 2010

|

updated: Apr 17, 2024

NCG’s Golf Glossary: What is a follow through?

NCGLink

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What is a follow through in golf? Don’t know your dormies from your doglegs? Or your stymies from your shanks? NCG’s Glossary of Golf Terms is here to help.

Tiger Woods

Here at NCG we pride ourselves on being the publication for the everyday player, so we’ve taken it upon ourselves to delve into the wonderful world of the golfing lexicon.

Sometimes the most obvious terms have the most interesting story, so you might find yourself an interesting conversation starter…

What is a follow through?

This is the part of the swing where the ball is on its way and you are travelling, hopefully, into a well-balanced finish. Most perceived wisdom suggests that your belt buckle should be pointing at the target in at the end of the follow through.

How would you use it in a sentence?

“I lost my balance in my follow through and sliced it out of bounds.”

“OK, what we’re looking for, is a nice, balanced follow-through. That’s it, hold the finish.”

What are the origins?

It has been suggested that the words might have been around for nearly 100 years, the likelihood is that it came from cricket.

Any other business?

One of the highlights of 2018 was watching Padraig Harrington’s step-and-hit drill which saw the Irishman walk after his ball with the right foot overtaking the left. No talk of a balanced follow through here.

Here, from his Twitter account, he explains the move….

“Step and hit drill is an old drill that helps me get more downforce in my arms as I get better ground reaction up from my left leg.

“I used in play sometimes at the US open 2006.It was a bob Torrance drill that Pete Cowan is now encouraging me to use in play full time.

“when done right it’s not noticeable unless you’re actually looking at the left foot.

“overall it helps you move better. The biggest mistake social golfers make is they try to stay still or keep their head still.

“You must move “properly “. If you try the step and hit drill,use the same timing of foot action as when you’re throwing a ball.”

Click here to return to NCG’s Golf Glossary

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