Golf Backspin

For the inexperienced player, there is no more satisfying experience than executing a great shot. Golf clubs can be intimidating items to handle, so getting one to do your bidding and put the ball in the spot where you wanted provides a very satisfying feeling.

But as your game develops, an individual shot becomes less about how good it is and more about the influence it will have on the one that follows. In short, it's not simply a case of hitting the fairway but hitting the spot on the fairway that offers the best lie from which to take an approach shot.

One Step Ahead

In order to play and think, for want of a better phrase, one step ahead calls for a player to command a great deal of control over the ball. And exercising such control in many situations requires the application of backspin. As the name suggests, this involves causing the back of the ball to move at a higher rate than the front, restricting the ball's forward momentum when it lands, whether that be with a long iron on the fairway or perhaps with a pitching wedge on to the green, and preventing it rolling forward and in to a potential troublespot.

Optimum Performance

The principal aid to the golfer in achieving backspin are the grooves that are incorporated on to the club face. As the face makes contact on a downward movement with the ball, the grooves grip it, pulling it backwards and thereby imparting the spin. For optimum performance from both the ball and the club, it goes without saying that both should be wiped prior to taking the stroke in order to remove any soil or sand and ensure a clean contact. It should be noted here that it is not just bad housekeeping that can affect clean contact. If, for example, you are faced with a shot in the deep rough, this, too, is going to prevent the clean contact described above.

A dramatic example of the application of backspin and where it can utilised to greatest advantage is the flop shot. This technique comes in to its own around the green when a player will find he has little room in which to maneuver the ball into the ideal position. Executing it incorrectly may land the ball in a bunker or see it sailing off the green and into the surrounding rough. Definitely not recommended.

Pitching Wedge

Using a pitching wedge, the flop is achieved by taking a high backswing and chopping the club face down violently against the back of the ball. The result is that the ball rises high and at an acute angle in to the air before descending equally dramatically and stopping dead. That's the idea anyway. Of course it may take a while before you can execute the flop shot to any great standard but practice and on no account be afraid to take on the shot. Learning to control and utilise spin means taking a leap forward in your progress towards mastering the game.