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How You Finish Is Key
To Your Swing
By: Don Massengale, Senior

When you are on the practice tee, hold your club at the finish and notice where it is. It will tell you a lot about your swing. I believe the follow through is one of the most important parts of a golf swing.

If I have students with the problem of making a good follow through, I put my foot behind the club head at set-up and have them take the club up over the left shoulder (right if you are left-handed), asking them to keep their elbows close together on the finish. This will give you a sense of how a good follow through should feel.

By working on the follow through, there are several good things that can happen:
1. It means your body, arms, and hands are working properly down in the hitting area.
2. It helps to make the weight transfer from the right foot to the left. It is very important that your weight finish on your left foot. The weight should be 95% on the left and 5% on the right foot (opposite if left handed).
3. A good follow through means there was no stopping or hitting with the right hand in the hitting area. It also keeps the left hand from breaking down and keeps the ball from going to the left (right for left -handers).

Working on the follow through at the practice tee is very important. I would start by putting some balls on a tee and hitting them until you have good balance when you finish your swing. Once you can do this, hit some off the ground.

Remember, when you go on the golf course, you can check your follow through on your practice swing to get the feel of your finish, but when you start to hit the ball, just pick out your target and make a good shot.



HOLD THAT FINISH!
By: Donnie Massengale

It constantly amazes me that so many people have trouble finishing their swings. Time after time I ask students to hold their finish only to see them fall off balance or go to some uncomfortable position that they cannot hold for long. We should again take a look at the guys and gals we see on TV every weekend for some answers. When we watch the Pro's we see that they do have some common things that they all do. By watching the Pro's, you will notice that they all set-up and finish. It would be very wise for us to copy these two common things. As usual I could go on and on about the set-up but we will spend our time on the finish of the article. Watching a Pro hold the finish is where we should start. The weight is on the front foot with the belt buckle facing the target and the club is over the front shoulder. Now, how do we get there? A good way to start is to just create that position without hitting a ball, try to hold that position for a while. If you are having trouble picturing this position you can look in almost any golf publication for a picture of the finish. It's also a good idea to practice this in front of a mirror or window so you can see and feel what you are doing. Now try to make a swing that concludes in that exact position.

Most of the time people struggle with the finish because they are so worried about the back swing. The back swing is used to set things up. We don't want to be so concerned with the back swing that we can't finish. We do not hit the ball on the back swing.

A good finish will make up for a lot of mistakes (not all!) that occur during the swing. The finish also tells us quite a bit about what has happened earlier in the swing. HOLD THAT FINISH!

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