In reality, most tour players would be very happy if their ball

Good luck getting spin with this club!

So let me expose the magic and then I’ll tell you why backspin is not necessary to play good golf. Let’s start with the moment of truth…impact. Backspin is created by striking the ball with a descending angle of attack. This causes the ball to compress into the grooves of the club face. At the same time the ball is compressed into the grooves it also starts to ride up the face of the club. This compression into the grooves and riding up the face causes backspin. But even before this impact takes place there are two things every golfer can easily do to help them create backspin, one is free and one is quite expensive.

If your clubs look like the one in photo #1 you don’t have a chance. If your grooves are full of debris the ball simply cannot compress into the grooves, regardless of how fast your swing speed and or club head speed is. Clean grooves don’t guarantee backspin, but having a clean club face improves your chances.

The second item necessary to help create backspin is a soft cover ball. The good ones will cost about $50 a dozen. These are the types of balls tour players use. They get them for free. These are not the most durable balls on the market and in fact they’re quite temper mental. Any kind of topped, toed, heeled or skied shot will likely cause the ball go out of round and it quickly becomes worthless. Thick skinned or hard cover balls are much more tolerant to abuse. One of the sacrifices for playing a ball that is more tolerant to abuse is a loss of backspin. Hard cover balls are less likely to compress into the grooves of the face and therefore less likely to spin. This however is a good thing for most golfers because less backspin also means less sidespin. In other words, fewer hooks and slices.

So if you can keep your grooves clean and you don’t mind spending $50 or more on a dozen golf balls, you ready to learn step three. The impact position.

Most golfers scoop the ball off the ground and have an impact position similar to photo #2. Scooping the ball can cause the ball to be hit high in the air but with little or no backspin. I could spend thousands of words trying to describe how to get into an impact position that would create a descending angle of attack (photo#3) but this is best done with your own personal PGA instructor.

In closing, my response to everyone that has asked to learn how to create backspin is this… why? Are you always flying the ball way past your target? Many average golfers rarely get the ball to the green, with that being the case, why would you want to learn how to put backspin on the ball?

Still interested in how to create backspin? Then please consult your local PGA Professional.   

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