spinning the ball

[rice12oketman]

need help gettin more spin on the ball. Any suggestions on what i do

[alohano]

and there's simply no way to spin the ball to the max of your ability without using a high end ball. Otherwise, clean grooves, good timing (max clubspeed at impact) and a downward pass thru the ball. No scooping and not too high.

I don't think I helped at all but good luck!

[MGB]

and there's simply no way to spin the ball to the max of your ability without using a high end ball. Otherwise, clean grooves, good timing (max clubspeed at impact) and a downward pass thru the ball. No scooping and not too high.

I don't think I helped at all but good luck!

I'll disagree with the there being no way to spin any but high end balls. I play some very penal courses where the wind blows quite hard. When we play them we use what we call "rental balls". These are experienced balls gathered from the course, sorted and sold to members and guests at the club. Because of the number of tourists here, a large variety of balls are available, XXIO, New Wing, Reygrande, Kasco, Volvik, Tourstage as well as Titleist, Dunlop, Maxfli, Callaway, etc.

Point is, I'll pick up an odd brand that I haven't played a while and give it a whirl. I've found, if struck properly, you can spin anything. The key is a descending blow at impact, pinching the ball against the ground. If correctly executed, you can stop anything on the green. Backing it up, however, is another story.

[hue]

Hit DOWN on the ball and take a divot. Practice hitting balls out of DEEP DIVOTS.

[jboy]

Some key points:

Players who generate massive amounts of spin on the ball usually have great wrist action through impact. Their swings as mentioned are steep descending blows into the back of the ball then down through the turf. You tend to find 'hitters' rather than 'sweepers' get a lot of action on the ball.

Switch to a softter covered ball, I've found the Callaway HX Blue to be the best. Buy a wedge with box grooves packed up to the legal limit (not V grooves). if you look at wedges in the pro shop some groove appear to be further apart on some brands. Zodia wedges get a good write up here for spin rates.

Getting spin on half / quarter shots, is slightly different, here you need to nip the bottom

circumference of the ball (in effect getting the leading edge under the ball while dragging the clubface over the bottom quarter of the ball) still with a fairly steep angle of attack, there isn't a technique, it's an artform, requires immense touch and control as it comes down to handspeed, rapid acceleration through the impact zone. Like pool, you want to hit the same part of the golf ball as you would a cue ball with the cue tip to get

screw back

Equipment is the first big step, the rest you'll have to change your short game.

Get a wedge with tightly packed box grooves and play a softer ball and hit down, don't sweep forward.

[abrams38]

Get a wedge with tightly packed box grooves and play a softer ball and hit down, don't sweep forward.

Are box grooves the same as Deep U-grooves?

[jboy]

Pretty much,

term U groove means the leading edges of the box groove are radiused (instead of a sharp right angle into the groove wall, it slopes in a curve blunting the groove edge), this results in less ball cover damage while maintaining high spin rates (some say you can't notice the difference) that's a generic 'square groove', a box groove has the sharp edges, also referred to as a square groove (as by definition)

The Ping grooves are radiused and this is what caused the square groove controversy with the Eye 2's...... USGA stated the groove started at the start of the sloping of the radiused edge. Karsten stated the starting point was the vertical point of the groove wall . they setlled after the cout case for the 30% rule to measure groove spacing on radiused U grooves

Result was by USGA interpretation the grooves were too closely packed together being illegal.

Found this on the web

It was in the December 1986 issue.  

The article involved original research by Golf Digest, with equipment and technical expertise borrowed from Karsten Manufacturing. The conclusion was as Michael recollected.  

   * Square grooves give some negligible spin increase from a dry fairway.  

   * Square grooves give substantial spin increase from wet rough. (Spin rates increased 25%-50%.)  

It wasn't clear from the article whether the square grooves were the sharp (pre-1985) or rounded grooves, but some of the text implies they were the sharp grooves. They admitted that they weren't sure whether the results were due to the shape of the groove or the "roughness" of the knife-sharp edge. They also expressed skepticism about whether the added spin (they assumed their tests were accurate and there was added spin) would be a help or a hindrance to either the pro's game or the high-handicapper's game.  

   * They quoted Tom Kite that he didn't WANT to suck the ball back with any more spin that he could already give it.  

   * They pointed out that the high-handicapper almost always leaves shots short of the the flag when they hit the green. Why would they want more spin?  

Cheers! Dave  

Personally, having used Pings both legal and illegal, other radiused grooved clubs and many other box grooved wedges, the box grooves do impart more spin than rediused U and V grooves,. much more and on the downside it wrecks Pro V's and other soft balls.

the profile of the square groove allows greater volumetric space for ball cover to flow into providing more grip between the ball & club, the sharp edges increase this by digging into the cover (as seen in the cover damage) allowing for higher spin rate generation

I find as a wedge ages you notice the spin rates fall off as groove edges blunt and 'spread' bottom line is you can't spin a Pro V heavily with a sand weary Vokey

[jboy]

On the subject of spin,  the grooves on the club do not produce spin.  The loft of the club and the roughness of the face produce the spin on the ball.  Studies over the last 25 years using identically lofted clubheads, with and without grooves, produced the same relative amount of backspin.   It should be noted, at very slow clubhead speeds, such as those generated by a short pitch shot, it is possible for grooves (in particular square grooves) to generate a noticeable amount of backspin over the same club without grooves.  At the slower speed of a short pitch shot the ball slides so little up the face that it can be grabbed by the edges of the grooves.  So keep your clubs clean and the faces rough.  Also, keep the grooves sharp on your sand and lob wedges.  

[vokester]

place the ball back in ur stance, swing very steeply. u have to generate a lot of clubhead speed therough impact and i would reccomend anything from 60-52 degrees to spin the ball with. like kite says, (i am a personal friend) spin is good and bad. dont try it when u have green in front of a pin, only when you need to make it stick

[tsg4tch]

...The key is a descending blow at impact, pinching the ball against the ground...

;)

[Junior]

You can spin anything. I've been able to make range rocks check up. Yuo need to hit down through the ball. On chips and short you get more spin with firm wrists through impact.

[birdieboy831]

Make sure your grooves are clean , there is nothing interfering bewtween the ball and your clubhead , also ball or clubhead cannot be wet. Hit down. To get more use a ball like the proV1.

Birdieboy

[ChocolateBoy]

all of this is good but too much spin can be a problem

[golfin4pph]

clean grooves hit down on ball! :cool:

[akrhino]

I'm a spinner.............

I've been working for the last 2 years to cut the lag especially on my short itrons. I am convinced that lag is the key ingredient in high spin you know the kind that backs the ball up 20, 30 or more feet. I live in south central Missouri and my home course has Bent on the greens and Zoysia fairways. I spent a year playing Strata Distance balls just because of the lower spin. I am more consistant on keeping the club in front of me and reducing the lag, this keeps the spin more under control. My son works weekly with a swing coach (he works with about 7-8 PGA Tour players) and he has preached the control of the lag in the golf swing. One of his prime examples is Sergio, lot's of lag and SPIN. When he's on he's on, when he's off anything can happen. I would suggest you take a accurate evaluation of your swing and equipment. Make sure it's matched to your swing, if the shafts are to stiff or have the wrong flex point then you are losing spin. Typically a hitter will benefit from a high Tip Firm shaft and vice versa for a swinger. If you dig then you need to have a stiff tip. If you sweep then a softer tip will help with the release and spin.

It would be impossible to make recomendations about you specifically so make sure you find a Clubfitter (Pro or otherwise) who KNOWS what he/she is doing and your chance of success is greatly multiplied.

Just my 2 cents.

Todd

[akrhino]

One thing I forgot.....

Solid clean contact is the biggest issue. You can't control/spin the ball unless you hit it solid not thin/fat or drop kick it.

[sly_sam]

I used to sweep the ball then i started to hit down and compress the ball. I noticed when i used to sweep, it would go higher, but i had little spin in comparison to taking a divot with my shots. It laso lacked control. Now it seems that i have more control over the shot and more spin. Also, cleaning the grooves really helps alot. After every shot i think it's good to clean off the face of your irons and wedges. After the round, clear all the groves out with a nail or anything else you can get in there. Thats what i do, good to keep the clubs clean.