Shot or Stroke Terminology
Stroke: What you have when you miss a short putt (just kidding!) A Stroke refers to the act of making a swing.
Draw: A golf shot that moves right to left for right-handed hitters and the opposite way for lefties.
Hook: A golf shot that moves severely right to left for right-handed hitters and the opposite way for lefties (and nothing to do with Peter Pan’s nemesis).
Duck-Hook: A duck-hook is an unpleasant sight if you are the one who struck the ball. However, your playing partners find it hilarious. Your ball leaves the clubface and hooks violently to the left for right-handers.
Pull: For right-handed hitters, it’s when a shot goes immediately to the left after you hit it (opposite direction for lefties).
Fade: A golf shot that moves left to right for right-handed hitters and the opposite way for left, which also is the most common shot shape in golf.
Slice: A golf shot that moves severely left to right for right-handed hitters and the opposite way for left. This happens to be the most common for beginners to golf.
Fat: Taking a little too much turf when hitting a golf shot, catching it heavy as they say.
Top: When you hit the golf ball at the lowest point on the clubface, producing a rolling shot that doesn’t catch much air.
Thin: When you hit the golf ball too low on your clubface.
Shank: Feared by all golfers, this is one of the most dreaded shots in golf. Produced by hitting the ball on the hosel of the club (the hosel is the place on a golf club where the shaft is connected to the clubead).
Break: The movement your golf ball will make on the green after you putt it (or what you will do to your putter after you missed).
Lay Up: Avoiding a risky shot to the green, preferring to take an easier option.
Line: The imaginary path your golf ball will travel along the green, on its way to the hole.
Lie: The way the ball has come to rest on the ground. The ball may have a “good lie” in short grass on the fairway or a “bad lie” in deep grass in the rough. You may have a sidehill lie, where the ball is either above or below the feet.
Scrambling: When a golfer plays several bad shots, yet manages to get a par.
Lag: The term “Lag” denotes the occasion when a player has a very long Putt to the Hole, and is hoping to get the ball within “Tap-In”
Pinseeker: When your golf shot never leaves the pin.