Before booking with a golf coach for your first lesson, instead of knowing only “golf swing”, it’s highly recommended to expand your golf vocabulary a bit more in advance. Learning the basic shots is a good place to start.

 

Drive

A drive, also known as a tee shot, refers to a golf player’s first stroke of each hole from the tee box, which is intended to be a long-distance shot through the fairway to the green. Therefore, a golf driver swing requires both distance and accuracy.

 

Putt 

A putt refers to any shot taken by a golf player with a putter on the green.

 

Chip

A chip is a short shot played around the green, where the ball is lifted a little off the ground and then runs through the grass for some distance.

 

Pitch 

A pitch shot is played with a highly lofted club into the green. In comparison to a chip shot which stays low and rolls along the ground, a pitch flies higher and spends more time in the air than on the ground.

 

Pull

A pull is a shot that goes straight to the left with no curve.

 

Approach

Approach is a relatively broad concept. Any shot played into green can be considered as an approach shot.

 

Explosion

An explosion refers to a bunker shot, usually when the ball has been buried into the sand, which looks like an explosion of sand that sends the ball off the bunker into the air.

 

Mulligan 

A mulligan means a do-over. It refers to the custom of giving a second try on a hole after hitting a poor drive, normally the first tee, without penalty. It only applies to recreational golf players in casual games, which means professional golfers are not allowed to take it under most circumstances.

 

Draw

A draw refers to a controlled golf shot that curves from right to left for a right-handed golf player.

 

Fade

A fade is a shot that moves from left to right.

 

We know learning the different kinds of golf shots won’t guarantee that you make the right shot, but we hope it will lead to a better understanding of the gameplay, which, together with the skills and strategies you’re learning as well a a little luck, will help you build your perfect golf swing eventually.