Does wedge grind affect spin rate on full shots?

Question for the experts. Does the grind on a wedge affect how much it will spin the ball on full shots? The reason I ask is my 2 year old Callaway MD4 54* with the S grind spins more on full shots than my new JAWS 60* with C grind. The 54 actually spins too much for me, and I have a hard time keeping the spin down and preventing it from backing up. This very likely is a quirk in my swing but I wanted to find out if I could solve the issue with an equipment change Thanks.

No. At least not if you hit the little ball before the big ball the way your supposed to and are hitting off of grass and not hard pan or a hard mat.

First thing I'd do is find an LM to get the dynamic loft at impact for both those clubs. There could be something about the 54* that's causing you to deloft it more into impact.

Now different face milling can effect spin.

bounce can for sure...

One more thing, have you ever used a groove sharpener on that older MD4? That can actually raise a burr on the edge of the groves that can have a big effect on spin generated for the higher lofted clubs.

I believe there's a study out there that shows more bounce = more spin. The added bounce causes contact lower on the face and more spin.

Would be a cool test to do. Grind alone with all else equal I would say no... But bounce, yes. You'd probably need a robot to do this test since strike plays a huge roll in spin production.

I think this is being overthought a little.

The result probably is a result of spin loft and the fact that more loft does not always equal more spin. There is a point of diminishing returns where the friction level drops and you get less spin.

If you wan't to listen the the Trackman guys/gals, it's around 45* of spin loft.

Perfectly normal for someone who doesn't deloft a lot to see a higher spin rate from a less lofted wedge.

This subject is "heavy" since we have several scenarios...

Do we have sole contact before ball contact? if the answer is yes, then bounce or grind DOES makes difference

If the answer is NO, the sole has no contact before the ball is gone, its only face roughness, and a difference to COG in the head vs the ball, and higher bounce MIGHT move COG lower.

Then we have dynamic loft, and the human factor....i play high bounce wedges myself, and if the surface the ball lies on is very hard, i need more forward shaft bending to make sure bounce dont make contact before i have full ball compression, so i change my swing....

Like Stuart say, a LM test will be able to tell if we had the same Dynamic loft at impact, and if dynamic loft is the same, COG is the same, and impact height vs COG is the same, its face roughness left....

YES, since the 56 "should" get closer to the max for spin loft thats 45.....when spin loft gets above 45, we still add launch but spin goes down, and thats the whole idea behind the "spinner" shafts. They hold back Dynamic loft to prevent to high Spin loft and keep it closer to 45*

It's a bit more complicated than that. I'm not sure I'd say generally 'should'. I'm more in the yes it may happen or it may not. Yes, there certainly is going to be a point where as loft increases, the spin will start to decrease instead of increase. But as Howard mentioned, it's all about the spin loft delivered, not the static loft of the head. So the way the club is delivered into impact can make a big difference. That particular point is also going to depend on swing speed as well, which is why we see the decrease more with chips and pitches sooner (with respect to loft) than we do with full swings.

Bottom line is that most of the more general equations and theory used to predict spin break down when spin loft gets somewhere above 45* to 50* and we have to rely much more on anecdotal data than theory.

But with respect to the OP, based on his description of what's happening, it sounds to me like there might be more going on than just the difference in static loft of the head.

Yes, it is about the spin loft...but how often is someone going to deliver less than 45 degrees with a 56 wedge? Or less than 50 with a 60 degree wedge?

His reason for asking the question: "The reason I ask is my 2 year old Callaway MD4 54* with the S grind spins more on full shots than my new JAWS 60* with C grind."

I'm only asking to learn more from you guys! :)

Just realize, I didn't say 45* was the 'magic point' at which the spin starts to slope down, only that it was somewhere above that and the actual point is going to be different for different individuals. It's actually more typically somewhere above 50* based on the little data I've seen.

And 10* of forward shaft lean at impact with a wedge might not be what you'd normally expect to find with an amateur, but I don't think it's unobtainable. I had one session with my 54* where the dynamic loft varied over a range of 10+* I only wish that in my case I could say it was intentional. I'm generally a very shallow, flippy, high dynamic loft player, yet I can still get my 54* wedge to 48* dynamic loft with a normal swing and without actually trying to deloft it. So it seems realistic to me that someone a lot less flippy than me could deloft a wedge quite a bit in full swing. Although the higher amounts might be more of a knock down shot than a 'normal' swing.

Thanks for the info guys. I do tend to deloft the club with my iron and wedge swings, so in conjunction with the 45* rule of thumb (which I didn’t know about), that could be one explanation for my issue. I haven’t done any sharpening of the grooves on my 54. I will get on a launch monitor to see if that helps identify what’s going on. Thanks again.