HOW TO GET BACKSPIN

Ah, the elusive shot that lands 15 feet past the pin and sucks back (the good sucks this time) to within a few feet of the hole. The shot that gets all the Ooo's and Ahh's on tour. Yet for most golfers who "suckatgolf", the best they'll ever see is the ball stop in time to not wind up in the back bunker! So just how do they do it?

Unlike some other areas we covered in ISAG instruction there's really no magic bullet for getting good backspin. Lack of backspin is usually an indication that you're not striking the ball with the proper descending blow to impart enough spin to stop the shot on the green or to have it check back.

How backspin works

Unless you cold top the ball you're getting some backspin, even if it's not enough to stop the ball on the green. If the ball didn't have any backspin it would dive into the ground from the topspin. (i.e, when you top it.) So you're getting some, which is a little comforting anyway. In order to get maximum backspin the key is to hit the ball first, then the ground, resulting in a divot in front of the balls original position. Just taking a divot doesn't necessarily mean that you hit down on the shot correctly! You have to hit the ball, THEN the ground. Got it? How do we do check that?

DRILL

1. Draw a line perpendicular to you feet about 2 feet long. (you can use lime or chalk or whatever if you're somewhere that would be ok to do. If not a scratch will suffice.) Place the golf ball right on the line and hit it. Does the divot start behind the line, on the line, or in front of the line? If it's behind the line you hit it fat and/or on the upswing. If it's on the line or slightly in front of the line you're good! (we'll get to why you're not getting good backspin even if it's in front of the line later)

2. Put one layer of masking tape over your club face. (let's say an 8 iron) The masking tape will allow you to see where on the face the ball was struck. Try step ONE again, this time look not only where the divot is, but where the club made contact with the ball. Ideally you want that ball mark to be about 2 grooves up from the bottom and in the middle of the face. ( bottom 1/3 of club face, centered.) If it's in the middle you're probably ok, any higher and the ball won't have sufficient time riding the club face to grab those grooves and get maximum spin. If the mark is too low you caught it a little thin, which won't get you the best spin rate either.

Got the results, now what?

First off, if you're not hitting the ball in the center of the club face, check out the article on How To Make Better Contact. There are some good drills there to get you striking the ball better. This will go a long way to improving your distance and backspin.

If your divot isn't in front of the ball:

1. Most likely you are reverse pivoting. Which means your body weight is moving toward you're back foot rather than toward your front foot on the downswing. Don't fall into the trap of moving the ball back in your stance to correct this and your divot position! Play the ball more or less off your left heel for most shots. A little more forward for the Driver (left big toe), and from there maybe 3-6 inches back in your stance to your sand wedge. Set up with your head behind the ball. Right shoulder lower than the right. You'll feel like your looking at the back of the ball a bit. Stay there on your takeaway and back swing. 70% of your weight shifts to your right foot on the takeaway. On the downswing shift your weight (70% or so ) to your left foot (for rightly's), and allow your upper body and head to move forward a bit toward the target. Lead with your hands. Firm wrists well past impact. (Don't flip at it! Again, go to making better contact for tips on how not to flip at it.) Do this properly and you'll be in a very powerful position to release your hands hard and hit the ball first with a descending blow.

2. Another reason for your divot not being in front of the ball, or in front of the ball but too deep is addressing the ball with too much weight on the left foot at address and take away causing too steep an angle of attack. When you set up as in step one you stay behind the ball, which creates a nice low and long takeaway. If you are leaning towards the target on your back swing you pick the club "up" too steeply, and have to adjust on the downswing, which means either reverse pivoting backwards as described above, or just staying ahead of the ball the whole time and chopping down with too steep of a downswing. If you're taking massive chunks of sod you may well be doing this. To correct...

...try this:

Set up as above and also make sure you aren't "hunching" over the ball. Stand tall! Head up, feel as though your shoulders are slightly pulled back and you're looking at the ball from over your nose. Don't go crazy with this, but if you're taking a very deep divot you're most likely not standing tall enough and/or reverse pivoting. Your arms should hang naturally down from your shoulders, hands say a few inches from your legs for shorter clubs, maybe as much as 6 or 8 inches away for the Driver. By addressing the ball with your head " behind" the ball a bit, standing naturally tall, you create the necessary room for a nice fluid takeaway and follow through.

I had this problem for while last season and for the life of me couldn't figure out why I was taking these huge 1" deep divots all the time! Especially difficult when the ground was wet. One day I just looked in a full length mirror at my setup and it hit me. Got in the car and headed to the range and voila!, nice thin divots and that crisp feel was back. I was simply crowding the ball and had no room to do anything but dig the club into the ground.

Maximize your Spin!

1. If your grooves are worn you'll lose spin. Try one of those hand held groove tools and get to work on those channels! Or take your clubs to your local pro and ask to have them re-grooved for you.

2. Don't play a solid distance ball and expect good spin. Pro V 1's are expensive but will give you good distance and spin.

3. The Greens' are a major factor! Don't expect the ball to dance if your home course has hard greens. We played a course here in N. J. once in a 4-man scramble with 4 very good golfers on our team. We had a slightly downhill shot of just under 60 yards and none of us could hold the green! In this tournament you could even "Buy a Mulligan" for $20 each for charity. I couldn't believe we all went over so I wasted mine trying again. I hit a lob wedge that I could have ran up and caught before it landed and it still bounced over! I later asked the head pro if they were going to do anything about the hard greens. He said in front of a few patrons that they wanted to be known for their hard greens... to which I replied, "that's kinda like being known for having herpes!" It got a laugh from everyone but him!

Hope this helps get you some of that action you're looking for. If you have any questions on improving your backspin fire me off an e-mail or ask any of the pro's in the "Ask the Experts" section. We'd be glad to help.