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Hey Folks, Tell Me About Spin...

collegefbfan

collegefbfan

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I think there is not much more beautiful in golf as spin on the green. I mean, to me, it is like, holy cow, man did you see that ball spin back towards the hole. Forgive me if this is a dumb question. Is spin more of the club that is used or more of the type of swing that is used? Or maybe 50% of each? In my quest to at least hit the ball straight and consistently with good contact, spin would be the next thing I would like to learn how to do.
 
collegefbfan said:
I think there is not much more beautiful in golf as spin on the green. I mean, to me, it is like, holy cow, man did you see that ball spin back towards the hole. Forgive me if this is a dumb question. Is spin more of the club that is used or more of the type of swing that is used? Or maybe 50% of each? In my quest to at least hit the ball straight and consistently with good contact, spin would be the next thing I would like to learn how to do.
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I let someone better than me answer the question correctly. But from my understanding, it's a combination of technique, equipment (including the ball), and to some degree club head speed.

All I know if that any time I've had the ball spin backwards, it was dumb luck and with no idea of how it happened. I can't even control the spin around the green.
 
Pulling the ball back is the max-spin scenario. You need to have everything line up to make that happen.

-Wedge or short iron
-High-spin premium ball
-Clean grooves
-Soft green
-Lots of ball speed
 
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Maybe it's just the company I keep and/or the courses I play, but I haven't played with many amateurs who can rip the ball back on a green. As others have said, it's a combination of technique and equipment, but I'm gonna say it's more technique. I can't do it even with a brand new wedge that's never touched grass before, but I could hand a pro one of my old worn-out wedges and he could make the ball dance however he wanted to.
 
BigMac said:
Maybe it's just the company I keep and/or the courses I play, but I haven't played with many amateurs who can rip the ball back on a green. As others have said, it's a combination of technique and equipment, but I'm gonna say it's more technique. I can't do it even with a brand new wedge that's never touched grass before, but I could hand a pro one of my old worn-out wedges and he could make the ball dance however he wanted to.
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At 64 I can still spin the hell out of the ball, usually this time of year I am looking for ways to mitigate spin because it may look cool to rip it back, but it is only desirable to do so under certain circumstances. You don't need insane clubhead speed to produce good spin. My driver rarely touches 100 any more and that is plenty of speed for spin production. The keys to producing spin:
1) You need a good ball with a urethane cover.
2) You need a good lie, with no grass or moisture to impede clean club/ball contact.
3) You need a descending blow. -3.5 to -4.5* works best for me.
4) The more loft, the more spin you will produce.
5) More club head speed = more spin.

I mitigate spin on soft greens by lessening the amount of loft I use on the approach. Less loft also requires less clubhead speed = drop and stop, not rip it back.
 
1860VS said:
At 64 I can still spin the hell out of the ball, usually this time of year I am looking for ways to mitigate spin because it may look cool to rip it back, but it is only desirable to do so under certain circumstances. You don't need insane clubhead speed to produce good spin. My driver rarely touches 100 any more and that is plenty of speed for spin production. The keys to producing spin:
1) You need a good ball with a urethane cover.
2) You need a good lie, with no grass or moisture to impede clean club/ball contact.
3) You need a descending blow. -3.5 to -4.5* works best for me.
4) The more loft, the more spin you will produce.
5) More club head speed = more spin.

I mitigate spin on soft greens by lessening the amount of loft I use on the approach. Less loft also requires less clubhead speed = drop and stop, not rip it back.
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You said driver…we are talking wedge spin. 😂 I kid. I’m like most but rarely spin the ball back drastically. I agree a lot of the factors you mentioned are key. I am just glad I can mitigate spin because who hates hitting one close only to see the ball roll back 10’ - 15’?
 
The grooves in the wedges need to be fairly "fresh" and you need a urethane covered golf ball. With both of those, I find I have a lot more control over my wedge shots and can also be more aggressive, knowing that the ball will check up or spin back.
 
Technique
Sharp, Clean Grooves
Urethane Golf Ball
Club Head Speed

Put those all together and you will be ripping some balls back
 
The USGA also made it harder for the recreational golfer to spin the ball when they instituted the groove rule, which had absolutely no effect on the professionals.
 
Sean said:
The USGA also made it harder for the recreational golfer to spin the ball when they instituted the groove rule, which had absolutely no effect on the professionals.
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Mostly just out of the rough - I still think if you have a clean lie, good clean grooves - either set will spin the ball just fine, comes down to technique
 
Huge part of spin is the ball.
 
TRyan said:
Mostly just out of the rough - I still think if you have a clean lie, good clean grooves - either set will spin the ball just fine, comes down to technique
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Correct, but many amateurs lack the technique and the old grooves would have helped them.
 
At the courses I play regularly I do not like to see the ball spin backwards on the green. One hop and stop is what I prefer.

Now if I played on very firm and fast greens regularly I might have to change my approach because the few courses that I played recently that had those conditions it was difficult to hold the greens. The ball just bounced on and then over the green.
 
Technique, ball, conditions, club.
 
One hop and stop is much more beautiful to my eyes
 

At 5:36 in Tiger starts talking about how he does it.


As to your question. It's a mix of both. I am not a good player but I can get spin with my wedges But it is def a skill and a Art form as Tiger demonstrated. Being able to control it is what separates the players from the hacks!
 
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