We’re talking about wedges and how you can create the all elusive backspin that so many golfers want.
So, in this lesson, you’re going to learn how the equipment makes a huge difference when we talk about backspin. You’re going to learn how the conditions or the environment influence your ability to create backspin. And you’re going to learn a technique which is conducive to putting a spin at your golf ball.
The first thing we have to establish is every time you hit a golf shot, you’re putting backspin on the golf ball. If the ball isn’t reacting as you would like it to do on the green, it just simply means you’re not putting enough backspin on the golf ball. That’s what we’re going to try and cover in this article is just how to increase that spin.
So, brand new wedges here, with obviously very, very clean grooves, very, very sharp grooves. And this wedge here, this Milled Grind, and the face are just starting to rust a little bit, which is how they’re designed. It’s helping me create some backspin. So, the wedge plays a huge role. The golf ball has to be a top-quality golf ball. I use TP5X. If you’re using a hard covered golf ball, it’s not going to spin. So, the equipment’s important.
Then we mentioned the conditions. Tight fairway means I’m not going to get anything between the club and the ball. That means I can impart the most amount of spin. The distance I’m hitting the ball over makes a massive difference. If I’m hitting a 20-yard shot, I can’t create as much spin as if I’m hitting a 60, 70, 80-yard shot.
So, we have to have some amount of speed in there to generate spin. You’re not going to see this from the article, but we’re slightly into the breeze. Into the breeze, again, is going to help me spin that golf ball. Soft greens, that’s going to help. The green sits a little bit towards me.
So, the situation I’ve found, with the equipment I’m using, already suggests to me that I’m going to be able to create some spin in this golf shot. That’s the first thing. Put me in a different situation, I won’t be able to spin it as much. So, that’s, that covered. Make sure we got the right equipment, make sure the conditions are good, and then we can start talking about the technique.
Now, when we’re looking at creating spin, there’s a little equation that we know happens down at impact, which will create spin. It’s called spin loft. So, imagine that my golf club is traveling level with the ground, so my attack angle is level. And I have 50-degrees of loft on the golf club at impact. The difference between those two lines is what’s going to create the spin. So, that angle is 50-degrees.
If I hit another shot where my attack angle was level, but this time I had 30-degrees of the loft. The difference between those two would be 30. That’s going to create less spin. So, we have to increase or widen that angle to create spin. The difficult bit is when the angle gets too wide, we start to lose spin because we reduce friction.
So, there’s an optimum in there. And that’s where we get golfers hitting shots which don’t spin because they often launch the ball too low or they launch the ball too high. So, there are things that we need to avoid. We do not want to have the ball way back in the stance and driving the golf club down this way with a handle forwards. Because what that does is it produces or promotes a lower lofted club at impact. This means that you’re going to get a lower flight and you’re going to narrow that spin loft too much.
Equally, we don’t want you to be that golfer who threw the ball, excessively flicks the club past the hands. Because you’re going to create a lot of lofts. You’re going to increase that angle, but you’re probably going to increase it too much, that we lose friction. So, too low and too high, will both not create good spin. We need something that’s in the middle.
So, here’s how you’re going to do it. You’re going to take your starting position with the ball in the middle of your stance. With your stance pretty narrow, just less than shoulder height. Certainly narrower than I would for a mid-iron. Notice, how when I set up, I’m going to have very, very small amounts of forwarding lead in the golf club.
Now, when I hit this shot, I will take a divot, but I want to try and feel as if that divot is relatively shallow. Relatively shallow because I’m still rotating my body through. And I feel like I’m extending my arms through to finish the position this way. Very easy to feel like a very high shot would create spin. It won’t. It will give a high launch angle. It might stop quickly, but it’s not going to create the spin. But equally, as we said, too steep and that’s not going to create spin either.
So, let’s go ahead and see if we can hit this shot on to the green. I’m going to do those things at setup. So, ball nicely in the middle, a little bit of weight on the lead foot would help me in this situation. So I’m feeling maybe 55% weight on the lead side.
Okay, ball flight’s pretty good. And that ball should land on the green and react just as I want with a little bit of backspin. It’s a little bit short of the flag, but that ball spinning back and I have taken a divot but it’s not a huge divot. The reason it was shallow is that I felt like I was rotating my body through and extending like a do in a full swing. And I felt on the way through that my lead wrist was just beginning to extend a little bit this way.
Notice how there’s a little bit of shape, a little bit of cupping in that race. That’s important. It helps the club move away from the ground, helps expose the balance a little bit, which shallows my divot. And it means that I’m not trapping the loft off the golf club too much. So, if we can create that delivery into the ball, we can create that motion in that golf swing, that’s going to help us impart the most spin.
After that, we need to make sure we’ve got the right equipment, i.e. the wedge, the ball, the conditions that need to be right. The ground needs to be very, very tightly cut grass. The green needs to be very soft. The green needs to be seated towards you. All these things help us create that spin that we’re all after on the golf course. Like I said right at the start, there’s no magic formula here. There’s nothing you can do to create that spin.
But a 56-degree wedge, 54-degree wedge, 58-degree wedge, they’re very often the best lofts to do that with. If your wedge is new, that helps. If the ball is good, that helps as well. And you have to have a fair bit of speed. Being positive and hitting the ball hard is a great way to imparts and spin. Just be aware that when you are creating spin you don’t want to suck the ball off the front of the green. So, you have to maybe recalculate your yardage and carry the ball a little bit further than you would normally.
So, hopefully, that article was helpful to you. If we can start to get you to have a little bit more control of the golf ball when it lands, you’re often more likely to get closer to the flags. And that’s ultimately going to help your score. It’s also pretty nice, about to hit that shot and just brag to your player partners, you managed to suck the ball back in the green and end up pretty close to the flag.