Backspin...finally achieved it but didn't get to see it.

Had to hit out of a deep bunker onto the green this past week where the grass was about a foot higher than my head.  The terrain rose from the grass line so much I could only see the top of the flagstick.  So I gave it my best.  My partner, who was on the green, yelled with excitement as my ball landed on the green.  I had hit what I thought was a far too hard and low shot and expected the ball to sail past the pin to the other side of the green.  Turned out that I had put enough backspin on the ball that it hit the green and reversed course, ending up about 4 feet from the pin.

Wish I had been able to see it!

Your posing too long if you see it.

Next time you play & if there's nobody behind you. drop a couple balls in a greenside bunker - where you can see the green, heh - and hit some explosion shots....try to 'knife' the club under the ball hitting fairly close to it, like a half-inch behind it. That will put a ton of spin on the ball. Then you'll get to see it.

Strange - the same thing happened to me on Sunday hitting out of a greenside bunker .. except I saw it.  It landed really short and spun back a bit even to be just a tiny bit shorter, lol.

Such an awesome feeling when you finally start spinning the ball. My closest-to-an-ace experience was a 99 yard par 3, I tee off with a gap wedge and land it on the slope of the green about 15 feet behind the pin and spun it back to an inch. You feel like a golfing master when you stick em close that way.

get used to it.....

You can't see the action most times from the fairway either. (even further away)

Congrats. Nice to know that you can stop it on a dime or put 'er in reverse.

On approach shots, most amateurs don't get the ball to the flag, so when you start putting the mojo on your short irons, take that into consideration.

Hmm....idea for a pole.

Reminds me of an old story -

An amateur once asked Sam Snead how to put backspin on the ball.

Sam asked the amateur, 'How far do you hit your 7-iron?"

The amateur said about 100 yards.

Sam said, "So why in the hell do you want it to go backwards?"

Welcome to a new world!

Once you can reliably apply backspin, you can start hitting those bunker shots closer and know that they should stick. With the wedges spin is fun when it is used for good and not evil. Watching a ball suck off a green is never fun, but seeing them hop and dance a little can give you confidence to use it when you need it. My best spin shot was a couple of months ago and I was 105 out in a fairway bunker, I hit a 54 SW just about 10 feet behind the pin, it jumped into reverse and hit the pin and left a tap-in birdie. When I walked up I noticed that there was an incline behind the pin that acted like a backstop. Of course the guys in my group that were closer to the green got the best part of the show as I couldn't really see exactly what happened. Good stuff.

funny, recently I've spun back purely hit 6 & 7 iron shots a few feet on the green - have yet to spin back a full wedge though (maybe its the much higher tradjectory ??)

On the second extra hole in our club championship, I had PW from a perfect distance. I flushed it, hit it over the stick, and watched as it sucked back off the green. Same deal...behind the flag was an uphill pitch that helped once the ball got moving. Probably my most solidly struck iron of the match, but of course that was the hole I lost. Dude made birdie, though, so it took a little of the sting out of it.

I'm not at the skill level to do any intentional spin yet but I thought you really needed the grooves in the club to produce spin.  I'm surprised that, with you being in the bunker you were able to get good spin with the sand in the way.  Nice job!

Question, what do you do different to get the ball to land on the green and not travel?

Spinning the ball in general and spinning the ball out of a bunker are very different accomplishments IMO. Not that there is scientifically any difference but it is much harder from a bunker at least for me. I have always been a blaster from the sand. Open it up and come in hard behind the ball. Always got it out but it was a knuckle ball at best. I recently started working on more control especially for longer shots (those pesky green side bunkers that are not really green side but still around the green). I've had good success with a shorter swing and hitting closer to the ball if not actually hitting the ball first. Haven't backed one up but I can get a check/stop and that is all I want really.