I get no spin on wedges or 8 through 9 irons?

[Mike Boatright]

Despite using spins balls I rarely get spin on my clean shots from 70-to 140 yards? I pick them clean or take divots both have similar results being stop and drop but no real backspin why is this could it be i'm just not taking hitting the ball down enough or just to cleanly?

[DrvFrShow]

You have a lot of backspin, but not enough to back up the ball. The greens probably aren't soft enough. You probably don't have high enough swing speed. I can't back up the ball either with similar distances. You can open the face on your lob wedge a bit more and do it.

See if I used a sand wedge for a 115 yd shot I could probably back up the ball. But I use a pitching wedge for that shot, and I bet you do too. Still if the green is sufficiently sloped toward the tee, I can back up the ball, and it's not always a good thing.

I used to be able to get sufficient backspin to back up a ball in the early 1970s with the balata balls.

[Dave2512]

Soft public greens are hard to spin balls back on because the ball leaves a huge crater and loses energy. I spin the ball back but only at private clubs with fast greens and when our public courses bake to crispy dry in the dead of summer.

[shooter]

To have the ball back on short iron shots, while already using a soft urethane ball, will require a HIGH trajectory. That way, your angle of decent will we steep and any spin on the ball will be used to spin her back not just used to get it to stop.

[DaveP043]

In my opinion, backing a ball up is showy, but not all that useful.  If you can make the ball stop pretty close to where it lands, you're doing just fine.

[dkolo]

Despite using spins balls I rarely get spin on my clean shots from 70-to 140 yards? I pick them clean or take divots both have similar results being stop and drop but no real backspin why is this could it be i'm just not taking hitting the ball down enough or just to cleanly?

Try getting on a launch monitor to measure your descent angle and your spin rate for wedges. You'll need somewhere around 10,000 RPMs to back the ball up and the steeper the descent angle the better. The quality of your strike, the sharpness of your grooves, and the spinny nature of the ball cover (urethane is spinniest) will all have a big impact on how much you spin the ball. Whether the ball backs up will further have to do with the receptiveness of the greens and your descent angle. I tend to have the ball back up about 6 inches with my SW, which I'm very happy with. I've had it spin off the front of the green when I've tried to go after it hard, and that's no fun either. Drop and stop is all you need unless you're a plus handicap and can consistently get the ball behind the pin to pull it back when called for. If I have to decided between a very hard SW or a softer GW from a clean lie, I'll go GW just to limit the spin.

[Lihu]

Despite using spins balls I rarely get spin on my clean shots from 70-to 140 yards? I pick them clean or take divots both have similar results being stop and drop but no real backspin why is this could it be i'm just not taking hitting the ball down enough or just to cleanly?

Did you try opening the face up? That might give you more spin and loft, but shorter distances. 4 degrees is about 10 yards at this distance. Even though I'm not at the point where I can use this skill yet, but if I open the face I can get a lot more spin and loft on the flight.

In my opinion, backing a ball up is showy, but not all that useful.  If you can make the ball stop pretty close to where it lands, you're doing just fine.

Agree.

[Gator Hazard]

In my opinion, backing a ball up is showy, but not all that useful.  If you can make the ball stop pretty close to where it lands, you're doing just fine.

feel the same way. More often than not I have seen the backspin pull ball way out of range. Reminds me of billiards, when someone learns to draw a ball backwards they become obsessed with it and do it more than they need too only because they can

[DrvFrShow]

A more useful shot is the high lob shot I hit Sunday from the tall cabbage up onto the green that died and rolled slowly toward the hole and stopped about 3' past it.

[mdl]

In my opinion, backing a ball up is showy, but not all that useful.  If you can make the ball stop pretty close to where it lands, you're doing just fine.

+1  Drop and stop is exactly what you want on approach shots.  Not shooting and rolling off the back, not over-spinning and zipping back off the front.  Why choose to add another source of variation in distance control?  If you can hit the ball to carry the right yardage and your stock spin means the approach is going to end up almost exactly where it carries to, that seems perfect, not something you need to improve.

[Mike Boatright]

Soft public greens are hard to spin balls back on because the ball leaves a huge crater and loses energy. I spin the ball back but only at private clubs with fast greens and when our public courses bake to crispy dry in the dead of summer.

maybe thats it I hit my sw 95 yards.

[taxgolf]

+1  Drop and stop is exactly what you want on approach shots.  Not shooting and rolling off the back, not over-spinning and zipping back off the front.  Why choose to add another source of variation in distance control?  If you can hit the ball to carry the right yardage and your stock spin means the approach is going to end up almost exactly where it carries to, that seems perfect, not something you need to improve.

+1 (or is it +2?)