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Question - does using backspin decrease the distance of your shot?

• pukiebear 72 Posts

  Thu, Jun 7 2012 12:08 AM

  Sorry if this is a dumb question.  I'm still a learning newb.  Thanks for any useful replies.

• piztaker 5,743 Posts

  Thu, Jun 7 2012 12:14 AM

  It can do. But the wind can also play a part.

• MBaggese 15,367 Posts

  Thu, Jun 7 2012 12:15 AM

  Depends on club and balls, but for the most part it will.

  Find a nice fairway with no wind, practice it a bit:)

• mgh221 545 Posts

  Tue, Jun 12 2012 8:41 AM

  i've found if you don't go to full backspin (put the dot just a hair above the bottom of the ball) your loss of distance is negligable.... like the other guys said wind plays a big part. remember that backspin creates a higher ball flight. also you'll find that with woods your carry will increase with backspin where topspin will carry less. oddly enough you'll get more dstance using topsin w/ an iron. of course the ball won't stop either lol. as the last post said practice pratice practice. hope this helps a bit :)

• zzturk 150 Posts

  Fri, Jun 22 2012 2:14 AM

  Which has more resistance ... the ground, or air?

  If playing into the wind, I always play slight overspin to keep the ball from climbing and letting the wind kill it.

  BUT, if the wind is behind me, I find that backspin often allows me longer drives because the ball stays aloft longer and rides the wind. The only exception Is if I'm hitting to a down sloped fairway where roll might come into play. Backspin will make your ball pretty much check up after landing whereas over spin gives better roil after landing.

  Back when I had starter clubs only to use, there was a hole at St. Andrews (7th, I think) where you couldn't even reach the fairway into the wind, and the only chance was to hit that narrow walkway with overspin and hope that if it landed in rough, the overspin would allow to run just far enough to reach the fairway grass.

  It's why the first purchase I ever made on WGT was to get a 250 yd driver (I believe the G10 was the cheapest - it was so many months ago, I don't recall what I bought, back then).    ... hope this helps...