Delo’s Divots: We all have a tendency to stop our swing or
abbreviate our follow-through on shorter shots. The thinking
is:
”
I don’t want to hit the ball too hard, so I’ll stop right after
I hit it.
”
The truth is the follow-through does a lot of good things and
really no bad things to the outcome of your golf shot.
We all have a tendency to stop our swing or abbreviate our follow-through on shorter shots. The thinking is: “I don’t want to hit the ball too hard, so I’ll stop right after I hit it.”
The truth is the follow-through does a lot of good things and really no bad things to the outcome of your golf shot. The speed in which a ball comes off the club face is determined by the club head speed at impact. What happens after just enhances the spin and the direction.
This is especially true on a chip shot or short putt. Often times if you just jab at a chip with no follow-through, you don’t put the amount of back spin on the ball that you would if you followed through. Thus, the ball comes out lower and faster and with less spin, often resulting in a ball that goes past your intended target. Often times if you are stopping right after impact, then you are probably slowing down before impact, and that is bad.
On a short putt, if you jab or pop your stroke the ball will skip on the surface more as it leaves the putter head. Only a true end-over-end roll will make the ball hug the ground and roll with the contours of the green. Now that there is ultra-slow motion on the cameras used on the PGA Tour events, you can see the close-up evidence of the pro following through with his putter, even on a short 18-inch putt.
So the next time you have a putt or chip, set and imaginary target a few inches in front of your ball and make sure the club goes over that spot. You will have much better action through the ball if you do.
