How to Put Spin on a Golf Ball

By eHow Sports & Fitness Editor

Backspin adds some flair to your game

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Getting a golf ball to stop quickly or even spin backward can be a real lifesaver, especially when you're hitting onto firm greens or when the pin is placed directly behind a bunker or water hazard. Follow these simple rules to ensure you master your backspin quickly and easily.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

Golf Shirts
Golf Bags
Golf Hats
1 Golf Balls
Golf Practice Equipment
1 Golf Gloves
Golf Shoes
Golf Club Cleaners
1 Golf Clubs

Step1

Stand with your feet closer together than when you normally swing.

Step2

Position yourself so that the ball is closer to your back foot.

Step3

Use a flop wedge, also known as a 60-degree wedge. A sand wedge can be used in an emergency.

Step4

Swing the club on a steeper plan (more upright).

Step5

Hit directly underneath the ball before taking a divot. Take a divot that is long and shallow.

Step6

Follow through normally.

Tips & Warnings

Make sure that the grooves on the face of your clubs are clean.
Hitting the ball crisply is critical. A slight mis-hit can result in a significant mistake.
It is easier to spin a "softer" golf ball. These are usually two- or three- piece balls and are often marked "Extra Spin." Ask a pro shop or golf store for assistance when choosing.
This shot is most effective when the ball comes in at a high trajectory.
This is one of the hardest shots in golf and must be practiced on a driving range before being attempted on the course!

Comments

CHEVELLE2 said

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on 4/22/2008 F

CHEVELLE2 said

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on 4/21/2008 f

CHEVELLE2 said

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on 4/21/2008 This is really cheap but you can easily put backspin on a golf ball by putting a thin layer of wet sand on your club face. This increases the friction of the face of the club and on short chips will allow you to put an unbelievable amount of spin on the ball. I only do this when fooling around and never in serious play

Anonymous said

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on 9/25/2006 Spinning the ball on full shots is really all a matter of contact and clubhead speed. If you can contact the ball cleanly (no earth or grass before the ball), then you are going to add some kind of spin. By hitting slightly down you add backspin. If you have ever hit a shot that went into the air, then you have put spin on your ball. The problem is that most people want to add more spin. To get that work on hitting you wedges as high and as solidly as you can.

Remember that the pros are hitting soft (expensive), balls into fast and severely sloped greens, so they get a lot of action. They also hit the ball very cleanly with a lot more clubhead speed than you do. If you can hit the ball 250 yards or so with your driver though, you should see some spin in every short iron shot that you hit. The higher that you hit the more that you should see.

Weaker shafts help to promote spin and a higher ball flight, so that is an option for anyone that lacks height to their shots. The bottom line is you have to hit the ball super high to get the kind of action that you are looking for, yes there are time that the pros hit low spinners, but that is another technique altogether, and if you are having trouble getting a normal amount of spin forget that shot. Hit it high, clean and with high clubhead speed and you will see spin.

Anonymous said

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on 8/8/2006 Having a golf ball land and then spin backward 10 feet or so is something that many people just don't have the ability to do.

If you normally play high compression balls, forget about it. They just will not spin enough, unless you swing faster that John Daly.

The best that you can do is limited to your current club head speed. Yes, you can place the ball slightly further back than normal to get a little more backspin. But anything more than a ball width or so delofts the club too much negating any extra backspin because of the resulting lower trajectory produced (that is called a punch shot).

I tell my students to go by their driver speed. If you have less than 100 mph go with an 80 compression ball and play the ball back about an inch or so and live with what you get. Be aware that you will also get a lot more side spin than you are used to on miss-hits.

If you generate 100-110 mph go with a 90 ball and expect to see the ball one hop and stop for everything up to about a 4 iron. None of that stuff they see on TV though.

If you are one of the lucky ones who generate up to about 120 mph, go with a 100 ball and expect the same.

The higher swing speed people, 100-120 mph can expect a one hop back (maybe a foot or two) when hitting a fade with the compressions I recommend. If you really want to use a softer ball to get more than that (possible), be prepared to lose distance and suffer more penalty from miss-hits in general.

The truth is never what people want to hear. If your two iron doesn't go as high as your wedge than you would be much better served by learning how far your balls actually release on the green.

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