Loft and backspin correlation

[jobin]

I watch other players hit lob wedges from off the green and get good backspin, stopping the ball next to the hole. I also see some use an 8i under similar conditions and also get good spin. So i gotta wonder if the loft of the face has a great influence on the spin rate. Sure i know that the flatter the face, 9* driver, will have less backspin than a 8i but the driver may have loads of side spin.

So if i want to get max backspin is there one club i should use? Given the ball, the lie, the clubhead speed all pretty equal.

[aenemated]

Technique plays a bigger role in having it check up than the loft of the club.

[Three_Jack]

Uh... no... loft is hugely important. Try and make a 4 iron suck back at all, even with "perfect technique", without opening the face....

 

[Three_Jack]

To answers OPs question...

#1 you need a ball with a spinny cover. Urethane cover as a minimum, and then there are some urethane balls that spin more than others(Kirkland 3-piece balls are near the very top in terms of spin)

#2 clean grooves, and a clean lie. No dirt and no grass in between the ball and club.

#3 SPIN LOFT. You need a big difference between your dynamic loft(loft you present to the ball at impact) and your attack angle. So the more you hit down on it, the more spin you will get. However, make sure when you hit down on it, that you aren't heavily delofting the club because that will nullify the affect of hitting down on it. It;s why you see pros aim way left with their wedges and short irons because they are hitting down so much which pushes the club path naturally out to the right.

#4) After everything is considered, obviously more clubhead speed will produce more spin. But you don't need to swing out of your shoes to get good backspin.

 

Also, remember what your goal is, unless your hititng a lob wedge and its running out 20-30 feet every time, you really don't need backspin. In fact, tour pros try to take a lot of spin OFF, because it hurts their ability to control the distance they hit.

I saw a video of rory the other day trying to shallow out his wedge swing to feel like he isn't taking a divot at all.

[aenemated]

The OP didn't mention making the ball "suck back," he mentioned stopping it. A low pitch with a 6 or 7 iron that jumps and then slams on the brakes is a great shot to have.

[RobertBaron]

It seems like catching the ball a groove lower on a less lofted club will check it pretty good too. Like obviously don’t skull it, but ever so slightly catching the ball thin keeps the height of the ball lower then checks on the green. Kinda tough for me to do less than 50 yards or so but it’s great for those 50 yard pitches

[iteachgolf]

That shot isn’t happening from anywhere green side. Not with a 6 or 7 iron.

[iteachgolf]

At slower speeds loft is massively important. Too much loft can result in less spin in some circumstances. You can spin it greenside by address by loft to a low lofted iron like below but it’s more of a trick shot

[Three_Jack]

But what you did in that video was add loft... you made a 2 iron into a pitching wedge or less by adding loft via a combination of flipping the club and opening the face.

So yet again, loft is a very major component of spin.

[iteachgolf]

Which is what I said even though somehow it autocorrected.

 

“You can spin it greenside by adding loft to a low lofted iron like below but it’s more of a trick shot”

[crapula]

Loft, speed, contact. Higher loft, higher speed, low center contact = spin. Catch it high on the face, less spin. Less loft, less spin. Less speed, less spin.

Then you can get into angle of attack unless you just assume loft means spin loft.

 

[iteachgolf]

High on the face doesn’t necessarily mean less spin. Just more likely to get debris between the face and the ball. When ball is teed up in the rough it’ll spin just as much high on the face as lower

[crapula]

Ok. I guess when I catch it high I also hit with less loft.