A question that I am often asked is “how do I put backspin on a shot?” To properly spin a sand wedge or a gap wedge, a few things need to happen, but there are two principles that are absolutes:
- Make ball first contact
- Hit the shot with a high amount of speed
In addition to the strike and speed, two of the main mistakes I typically see are the setup and the moment after the strike. In the pictures below we will look at two address positions.
In the first position you will see that my body position is correct. The ball is in the center of my stance and I have slightly more weight onto my lead foot. The error lies in the hand or shaft position. My hands are slightly forward (left of my belt buckle). In this position as the swing reaches impact the clubface will be slightly delofted, this will result in a flight that is more penetrating and less likely to spin back. This hand position will more likely result in a shot that lands and takes a few hops forward before stopping.
In the second picture you will see my address position is the same as before. The difference lies in the hand/club position. Now the shaft is more “neutral” (pointing at my belt buckle). From this position when swing reaches impact the clubface will be utilizing its entire natural loft thus giving me a better chance to spin the ball.
In the next two pictures we are going to look at the club/hand position after impact. In the first picture you can see that my hands have released the clubhead allowing the tow of the club to swing to a finished position. This is ideal for a standard shot, but for a high lofted spinner this is not going to work.
In the second picture you can see that my hands are holding off the release of the club, essentially adding loft through the strike. This is very important to achieve the spin that you are looking for.
A few more
notes about backspin on a wedge.
- Move away from a super lofted club 60, 62, 64 degree wedge. If you were to hit these shots with one of those wedges, there is a high likelihood that you are going to add too much loft and the ball will ride up the clubface and the result will be high short dead shots.
- The divot- While we do want to create contact with the ground deeper does not make better. A lot of players want to “go down” after the shot. This is not necessary, if you take a proper address position the strike into the ground will be minimal but the strike to the ball will be great.
- Remember the shorter the shot, the harder it will be to spin it. Shots inside of 50yds are statistically harder to spin back. When looking to play this shot you will need to play it from a yardage that allows for the spin.
- Know your game, if you are a player that has trouble getting the ball hole high or past hole high, then backspin is not the thing that you need to work on.