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Re: Top Spin

• Yappy22 733 Posts

  Mon, Nov 21 2011 7:17 AM

  I agree with Jim. I use backspin everywhere except a few holes at St. A were I try to catch some extra yds. off one of the humps in the fairways. Also true for St. G. but to a lesser degree. I have had some looong drives catching the backside. The down side to this scenario is if you catch the front side the ball will stop dead and very short. LMAO sure are a lot of ups and downs in this post. 

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Mon, Nov 21 2011 7:24 AM

  It actually turns out everybody is right. LOL. It boils down to knowing the fairway and being able to hit spots in different winds. 

  The 9 hole monthly tournament is SA back 9. I went and played the first hole over and over to accumulate some numbers, restarting after the drive. Interestingly enough, SA is one place I use a lot of top spin myself because of the way the mounds are. RSG is similar.

  I managed to get 16 similar winds for 8 shots with full backspin and 8 with full top spin. The averages at the end were interesting. With full backspin the average carry was 27 yards greater (294-267) but the average total distance was greater with top spin (309-311.) The average rollout for backspin drives was +13 yards while the average rollout with top spin was +44!! That's to be expected at SA where the terrain is relatively flat but the other courses aren't this way and that's where the biggest difference in using backspin off the tee shows up.

  Heh-there was one drive I counted using backspin that landed on that upslope on the left of the fairway. It probably skewed the results a bit because like Yappy pointed out, it carried 279 and stuck.

  *edit-Callaway (s) ball off R11 driver

• Yappy22 733 Posts

  Mon, Nov 21 2011 6:15 PM

  The most fun I ever had with top spin was awhile back I was playing St.A #18, had a head wind somewhere around 15 mph. Used full topspin aimed for the cart path hit it some how, the ball took of like a rocket hit the back side of a hump and rolled onto the green 8 ft. from the pin.  Ya you guessed it I missed the eagle putt. Only time I was able to do that even though I have tried many times.

• chrisironsbones 3,524 Posts

  Tue, Nov 22 2011 2:52 AM

  Yappy22:

  The most fun I ever had with top spin was awhile back I was playing St.A #18, had a head wind somewhere around 15 mph. Used full topspin aimed for the cart path hit it some how, the ball took of like a rocket hit the back side of a hump and rolled onto the green 8 ft. from the pin.  Ya you guessed it I missed the eagle putt. Only time I was able to do that even though I have tried many times.

  There's a nack of doing this in any 17+ mph headwind, depending on the winds strength you need to aim more left or right, but its a bit risky aiming the right side as you might get a "hit" whilst ball is travelling north easterly, and is dicing with O.O.B