Backspin

As an amateur seeing the ball take a hop forward and then zip or spin backwards is the pinnacle of the game and a goal that many amateurs ask of their golf coaches.

I have been asked countless times by a client “how can I get the ball to spin back, like I see on the tele?”

My response has always been the same;

“How far past the hole are your approach shots?

Each client has then asked what does that have to do with getting back spin?

Look at it logically, if you don´t reach the hole position why would you then want to see your ball spin backwards even further away from the hole?

Being further away is not going to help you reduce your scores.

I bring to your attention a piece of Masters history, Greg Norman headed into the final round clear of Nick Faldo only to lose out. Backspin was an enemy to Norman who saw his ball spin back off the green down the slope to the fairway leaving a near impossible shot, this happened a couple of times and it cost Norman the green jacket.

So before you head to the chipping green to try and spin the ball backwards please think about how exactly it is going to help your game.

If you are still wanting to get the ball to grab and spin back then continue reading.

Creating backspin:

To create backspin you must correctly impact and compress the golf ball. A clean, pure strike is fundamental to making the golf ball spin.

Next the angle of attack at which you strike the ball must be more aggressive and vertical to “pinch” the ball from the surface and get the ball compressing against the club and grooves to create the anti-clockwise spin rotation.

Compressing the golf ball is a big part of improving your golf in general as the more you can compress the ball the more control you have over it.

Learning to correctly release the wrists at the moment of impact is crucial to generating this necessary compression and valuable added mili-seconds of contact with the clubface.

But the release must be perfectly timed with the rotation of the hips, forearms and torso to generate enough club head speed to impart the backspin on the ball.

It is not an easy thing to achieve and requires a lot of dedicated practice and some very very bad shots that will damage your confidence.

Backspin looks good, but doesn’t always lead to a better result.