How to Hit Wedges into Soft Greens In Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
How to Hit Wedges into Soft Greens In Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

I often get questioned by golfers, how can I create more back spin Pete? How can I get the ball to land on the green and spin back like I see on the TV? Well that’s a whole different art, form and skill on its own. But if you are in those rare few minority of people that actually spin the ball too much, or play on a golf course that has greens that slope towards you. Soft well watered greens that spin back down slops and back into water hazards. And you think I don’t want that spin. I don’t want the ball to land on the green and back up too much. There is a couple of alternations you can make to your set up and your technique that would stop that from happening.

First thing would be to play a golf ball that doesn’t spin quite so much. So apply more of a distance or a slightly firmer ball. It might not give you the great feel of a spin ball, it will fly a little bit straight through off the tee. And then when you get near the green it won’t grab and spin back quite so much. Your alteration would be to take a less lofted pitching wedge, your sound wedge and then hit it a little bit more gently. So rather than standing there with lob wedge, taking great lumps out of the ground and flying it 50 yards on to the green, generating loads and loads of back spin. Knock that down sound wedge; pitch wedge maybe even a nine. Play a little bit more of a dead hands pitch. So I’m not using my hands, I’m slowing the club pad down, playing the ball in lower.

So when it lands on the green it will hop forward a couple of times moving away from the water rather than land on the green and back up into the water, if you are generating too much spin. So here I was going to take my 52 degree wedge instead of my lob wedge. I play the ball a little bit more forward in my stance. I play it with less had action. And I push the ball forwards hitting it in there about 60 yards but not backing it up and spinning it too much. So sometimes spinning the ball is a, is a nice thing, or other times it can be a bad problem to have particularly if you’ve got big sloppy greens, well watered that will spin the ball back down off the green or into a water hazard and that’s how you can reduce your spin.

 2013-04-02

I often get questioned by golfers, how can I create more back spin Pete? How can I get the ball to land on the green and spin back like I see on the TV? Well that’s a whole different art, form and skill on its own. But if you are in those rare few minority of people that actually spin the ball too much, or play on a golf course that has greens that slope towards you. Soft well watered greens that spin back down slops and back into water hazards. And you think I don’t want that spin. I don’t want the ball to land on the green and back up too much. There is a couple of alternations you can make to your set up and your technique that would stop that from happening.

First thing would be to play a golf ball that doesn’t spin quite so much. So apply more of a distance or a slightly firmer ball. It might not give you the great feel of a spin ball, it will fly a little bit straight through off the tee. And then when you get near the green it won’t grab and spin back quite so much. Your alteration would be to take a less lofted pitching wedge, your sound wedge and then hit it a little bit more gently. So rather than standing there with lob wedge, taking great lumps out of the ground and flying it 50 yards on to the green, generating loads and loads of back spin. Knock that down sound wedge; pitch wedge maybe even a nine. Play a little bit more of a dead hands pitch. So I’m not using my hands, I’m slowing the club pad down, playing the ball in lower.

So when it lands on the green it will hop forward a couple of times moving away from the water rather than land on the green and back up into the water, if you are generating too much spin. So here I was going to take my 52 degree wedge instead of my lob wedge. I play the ball a little bit more forward in my stance. I play it with less had action. And I push the ball forwards hitting it in there about 60 yards but not backing it up and spinning it too much. So sometimes spinning the ball is a, is a nice thing, or other times it can be a bad problem to have particularly if you’ve got big sloppy greens, well watered that will spin the ball back down off the green or into a water hazard and that’s how you can reduce your spin.