How and Why Make the Golf Ball Spin Backward (Video) - by Pete Styles
How and Why Make the Golf Ball Spin Backward (Video) - by Pete Styles

This obviously needs to be one of the most commonly asked questions that I get asked by regular sort of club golfers handicapped golfers is, ‘Hey Pete how do I make the ball spin? I’ve been watching the pros on the TV and they’re landing it past the flag and spinning it back into the hole, how can I do that?” Well here it is, the reality is most professional golfers aren’t actually trying to spin the ball back. Spinning the ball back is just a product of being a good ball striker using the right equipment and playing off the right playing surface. So if you can get all of those elements right you should start to generate quite a lot of back spin without actually trying too hard. But don’t forget for a lot of the professionals they don’t actually want that much spin they could spend quite a lot of their time trying to reduce the spin because it’s not that easy when you’re working out yardage with your caddy and you’ve got to think, well I hit this club one ten but I know its going to spin back five yards so that therefore I’ve got a fly it past the flag but then it’s on a slope so it will spin back more because most great hits tilt in too a little bit. You’ve got to work out all these different parameters before you then go ahead and hit your shot.

And how many times do you see a ball getting near to the flag then spin and it comes back all the way up to the front of the edge of green. So actually spinning the ball is a sort of a double edge sword and I think if you ask most professional golfers how would you like to spin the ball they would say, just drop and stop so where that ball lands it stays perfectly still, granted they don’t want it to land and bounce on 10 yards onto a green but also they don’t want to land it and spin it back 10 yards on the green just drop and stop is perfect. So if we could work on that for your game that would be ideal. So the parameters that we talked about before that would help you spin the golf ball. First thing is you’ve got to have a decent ball and you’re really looking for a softer ball. If your ball says distance anywhere on the cover or the box is not really going to spin too much it’s too hard of a golf ball so we want a premium ball a slightly softer ball with a nice soft cover and the soft cover reacts better with the grooves. And that’s the next thing makes sure you got relatively new grooves and quite clean. Professional golfers because they have got more budget and they’ve got their – the guy has given them a free kit they might take a new wedge every month particularly if they’ve been practicing hard. It’s not realistic for the average club golfer to do that so maybe a wedge every two seasons and in between keeping the golf club nice and clean. So when you set up to a ball if you’ve got grass stuck on the face and it’s wet that’s not going to spin, that puts a layer of moisture between the club and the ball. That’s the next thing to consider is on a wet day this ball will not spin as much off the club face because the ball is wet, the grass is wet, the club face might be wet that’s going to put a little slippery coating on the ball and it might fly further but it won’t spin as much so we need a dry clean grooves a dry soft golf ball, we don’t want any grass in between club face and ball so ideally this would spin more from the fairway than from the rough. You often see players talk about getting flyers when they’re in the rough that means that the ball flies too far it doesn’t spin so you’re trying to play this off a nice tight line. Ideally then you would be hitting into a relatively soft green so a well watered green not like a British open in the middle of summer a link screen where it’s dry and faster bounces too far a nice soft well watered green and like I said a lot of greens would tilt in towards you that’s going to help you because the ball will land spin a bit more roll back down the hill. If you’re playing into a flat green and certainly a green tilts away from you that’s going to be a lot more difficult. Now we look at the technique first thing that we often see club golfers do is that they don’t hit the ball hard enough they are trying to back spin the ball and a little 20 yard pitch its just not going to happen you’ve to generate a lot of more back spin than that, so we need a good club head speed upwards of 60 miles an hour and hitting a golf shot maybe 60 to a 100 yards is kind of in that spinning zone then take quite a lofted a club stand wedge or a lob wedge will be ideal, play the ball middle to back third of you stance; that would encourage a slightly steeper hit down then accelerate into the ball really get this club head accelerating as you strike down. Anything where you’re playing the ball forwards decelerating and scoping that’s using height to get the ball to stop but it’s not going to actually land the greener back spin so play it in the back third of your stance grip down for control hand slightly ahead and then strike nice and firmly into the back of the golf ball with an accelerating action. If you can pitch it out there 80, 90 yards something like that that would really get the back of the golf ball biting and if it should land then start to check up a little bit on the green. When you look on your club if you see you’ve struck it well there may even be a little trace of golf ball just left in the grooves that shows you how you’ve bitten into the back of the ball landing the ball and spinning it up. If you can practice that technique maybe you’ll start to see a little bit of back spin like the pros. 2014-03-14

This obviously needs to be one of the most commonly asked questions that I get asked by regular sort of club golfers handicapped golfers is, ‘Hey Pete how do I make the ball spin? I’ve been watching the pros on the TV and they’re landing it past the flag and spinning it back into the hole, how can I do that?” Well here it is, the reality is most professional golfers aren’t actually trying to spin the ball back. Spinning the ball back is just a product of being a good ball striker using the right equipment and playing off the right playing surface. So if you can get all of those elements right you should start to generate quite a lot of back spin without actually trying too hard. But don’t forget for a lot of the professionals they don’t actually want that much spin they could spend quite a lot of their time trying to reduce the spin because it’s not that easy when you’re working out yardage with your caddy and you’ve got to think, well I hit this club one ten but I know its going to spin back five yards so that therefore I’ve got a fly it past the flag but then it’s on a slope so it will spin back more because most great hits tilt in too a little bit. You’ve got to work out all these different parameters before you then go ahead and hit your shot.

And how many times do you see a ball getting near to the flag then spin and it comes back all the way up to the front of the edge of green. So actually spinning the ball is a sort of a double edge sword and I think if you ask most professional golfers how would you like to spin the ball they would say, just drop and stop so where that ball lands it stays perfectly still, granted they don’t want it to land and bounce on 10 yards onto a green but also they don’t want to land it and spin it back 10 yards on the green just drop and stop is perfect. So if we could work on that for your game that would be ideal. So the parameters that we talked about before that would help you spin the golf ball. First thing is you’ve got to have a decent ball and you’re really looking for a softer ball. If your ball says distance anywhere on the cover or the box is not really going to spin too much it’s too hard of a golf ball so we want a premium ball a slightly softer ball with a nice soft cover and the soft cover reacts better with the grooves. And that’s the next thing makes sure you got relatively new grooves and quite clean.

Professional golfers because they have got more budget and they’ve got their – the guy has given them a free kit they might take a new wedge every month particularly if they’ve been practicing hard. It’s not realistic for the average club golfer to do that so maybe a wedge every two seasons and in between keeping the golf club nice and clean. So when you set up to a ball if you’ve got grass stuck on the face and it’s wet that’s not going to spin, that puts a layer of moisture between the club and the ball. That’s the next thing to consider is on a wet day this ball will not spin as much off the club face because the ball is wet, the grass is wet, the club face might be wet that’s going to put a little slippery coating on the ball and it might fly further but it won’t spin as much so we need a dry clean grooves a dry soft golf ball, we don’t want any grass in between club face and ball so ideally this would spin more from the fairway than from the rough.

You often see players talk about getting flyers when they’re in the rough that means that the ball flies too far it doesn’t spin so you’re trying to play this off a nice tight line. Ideally then you would be hitting into a relatively soft green so a well watered green not like a British open in the middle of summer a link screen where it’s dry and faster bounces too far a nice soft well watered green and like I said a lot of greens would tilt in towards you that’s going to help you because the ball will land spin a bit more roll back down the hill. If you’re playing into a flat green and certainly a green tilts away from you that’s going to be a lot more difficult.

Now we look at the technique first thing that we often see club golfers do is that they don’t hit the ball hard enough they are trying to back spin the ball and a little 20 yard pitch its just not going to happen you’ve to generate a lot of more back spin than that, so we need a good club head speed upwards of 60 miles an hour and hitting a golf shot maybe 60 to a 100 yards is kind of in that spinning zone then take quite a lofted a club stand wedge or a lob wedge will be ideal, play the ball middle to back third of you stance; that would encourage a slightly steeper hit down then accelerate into the ball really get this club head accelerating as you strike down. Anything where you’re playing the ball forwards decelerating and scoping that’s using height to get the ball to stop but it’s not going to actually land the greener back spin so play it in the back third of your stance grip down for control hand slightly ahead and then strike nice and firmly into the back of the golf ball with an accelerating action.

If you can pitch it out there 80, 90 yards something like that that would really get the back of the golf ball biting and if it should land then start to check up a little bit on the green. When you look on your club if you see you’ve struck it well there may even be a little trace of golf ball just left in the grooves that shows you how you’ve bitten into the back of the ball landing the ball and spinning it up. If you can practice that technique maybe you’ll start to see a little bit of back spin like the pros.