Quote:
Originally Posted by
birlyshirly 
With some qualification, I didn't understand him to be saying that less spin loft causes more spin.
Correct (as I understand everything). It's not so much less spin loft, but rather, an increase in friction - when your spin loft is around 45°, it seems somewhat logical to me that the "corners" are capable of creating the most friction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
birlyshirly 
Instead, I thought he seemed to be saying that more friction at impact (resulting from ball, lie and clubface conditions) can yield more spin than higher spin-loft/lower friction conditions.
Yes, basically, the more friction from the grooves, the more the path begins to play a role. It's still never the predominant factor (according to several people who have tested it - they never get the ball to start closer to the path than the face on good contact with even the old wedge grooves - they might with a balata ball of old, but only barely and with grooves that would have completely shredded those balls in one swing), but more friction = more spin, yes. We know this from hitting chip shots from juicy lies. The best lie for a low spinner is actually nearly hardpan because it has no grass to get in the way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
birlyshirly 
I agree, he does say at some point that his students are having success hitting lower lofted wedges - but I didn't see any explanation as to why? Can anyone elaborate please?
Again my simple theory is that it inclines the groove corners at 45° or so (to the AoA), which creates more friction.
If we plotted a graph showing the contributions to launch angle of AoA and face we'd see a small peak at around those higher-friction conditions where the path contributed upwards of 45% or so, then dropping off where the face contributed more and more so.
We've done some testing of all of this on our own, too... ;)

Quote:
Originally Posted by
Stretch 
I think the shorthand answer for #7 should just be: Increase the spin loft, hit it harder or hit it lower on the face. I agree you got them all in there in the footnotes, but only by rolling out ceteris paribus. 
Yes, "swing faster" is one of the obvious ones I left out. We probably could have said give the best correct answers, but I think that was understood. ;) Still because we didn't say that we'd have given credit for any of the three legitimate reasons.