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Glossary of Golfing Terms - F

This page of our glossary of golfing terms is for golfing terms which begin with the letter 'F'.

• Face - The part of the clubhead intended to strike the ball. Also the part of the bunker that confronts the player as he makes his shot. The term is not used unless the face is steep or rises some distance from the floor of the bunker.
• Fade - A shot which flies straight for much of its flight and then, in the case of a right-handed player, drifts from left to right.
• Fairway - The closely mown part of a golf hole between tee and green. Its boundaries will usually be semi-rough or rough and the apron of the green.
• Fat - A shot usually hit with an iron, so that the clubhead takes turf a little before the ball with the result that it does not reach its target.
• Feathery - A kind of golf ball which began to go out of use in 1848 and was quickly replaced by the gutta percha ball. A top-hatful of boiled feathers were forced into a sewn-hide casing. The result was a hard, serviceable ball in dry weather, though it was seldom perfectly round. In the wet, the ball was easily cut, or burst as it soaked up moisture, and lasted only a short time.
• Feel - Used of the sensitivity of the hands which enables a player to play shots, for example, where touch not power are needed.
• Firm left side - Henry Cotton taught that a golfer should hit against a firm left side. The achievements in particular of Byron Nelson greatly lessened belief in this theory.
• Flagstick - A thin marker for the hole, usually 6 feet long, with a piece of colored cloth at the top. It is also called the pin, the flag or the stick.
• Flat swing - A backswing where the club is swung back nearer the horizontal than vertical so that the club passes over the top of the upper arm or the lower. In spite of the example of Ben Hogan, this came to be considered a fault with the successes of Jack Nicklaus. The pendulum is now swinging the other way.
• Flight - The path taken by a golf ball through the air.
• Fluff- A stroke where the clubhead meets the ground considerably before the ball so that it moves hardly at all. It is most common on short shots such as a chip.
• Flyer - A shot, usually into the green, where the ball flies further than the player intended. It is usually caused by grass, especially if wet, coming between clubface and ball with reduction of backspin.
• Follow through - The movement of the body, especially the arms, after the ball has been struck.
• Fore! - The traditional warning cry given when a player sees his ball flying towards another person.
• Forecaddie - Caddies used by a club committee or competition organizers to observe where players' balls have come to rest, usually after blind shots.
• Forward tees - Set ahead of the medal tees, these are mainly used either to make the course slightly easier for general play or to reduce wear on the competition teeing area.
• Fourball - Usually a match in which two count their better ball score against the better ball of the other two players.
• Foursome - A match for four players, with each pair using one ball and hittting alternate shots on each hole. Before play begins the team of two decides who is to hit the first tee shot. The other will then play from the second tee, and so on.
• Free drop - A drop without penalty, such as away from ground under repair or casual water.
• Freeze - A condition in which a player, as a result of nerves, is unable to play his shot. It happens most often in puttingand in other parts of the short game, but many players also remain immobile over a drive.
• Friendly bounce - A bounce which favours the player in which a ball luckily skips over a bunker, for example, or kicks from a bank towards the target.
• Friendly game or match - So called in contests within a club, or club against club, when nothing very much is at stake.
• Front door - The edge of a hole nearest to the line of a putt.
• Front nine - The first nine holes of an 18-hole golf course.
• Frost holes - Temporary greens used when it is thought that normal greens would be damaged if used when they are frozen or thawing.