Forums

Help › Forums

Some questions for the pros! Well... the masters, anyways.

rated by 0 users
Wed, Aug 4 2010 10:06 AM (20 replies)
  • jakestanfill7
    949 Posts
    Sun, Aug 1 2010 8:34 PM

    CharlemagneRH:
    On my drives, in order to maxmize distance, should I be leaving the dot where it is, or should I be moving it up a tad to get top spin?

    The key is knowing the fairway of the hole you are playing and the wind.  I use a combo of all but mostly backspin driver if wind is less than 12 in face.  More carry almost always equals more distance with the exception of STA where the fairways are rock hard.  Will backspin occasionally on STA to carry a hump.

    If you have to carry a bunker like BPB 4,6 and 7 for instance backspin it even into a big wind to ensure clearance of hazard.

  • tdexpress
    76 Posts
    Tue, Aug 3 2010 2:31 PM

    [

    jakestanfill7:

    The key is knowing the fairway of the hole you are playing and the wind.  I use a combo of all but mostly backspin driver if wind is less than 12 in face.  More carry almost always equals more distance with the exception of STA where the fairways are rock hard.  Will backspin occasionally on STA to carry a hump.

    If you have to carry a bunker like BPB 4,6 and 7 for instance backspin it even into a big wind to ensure clearance of hazard.

     

    I understand using backspin to clear hazards. But if the wind is in your face on the drive wouldn't  backspin decrease your distance? It seems to me the wind would have more affect on your ball due to the added loft.

  • YankeeJim
    25,827 Posts
    Tue, Aug 3 2010 2:49 PM

    The spin off the tee was discussed a short while ago and one of the poster pointed out something interesting to me. You don't actually put back spin on the ball, you just put less topspin on it-something like that. This would mean the wind would affect it less.

    I may have said it differently than he did but it made sense. (I'm going to try and find that thread.)

     

    *edit*  Found it-it was infinito  http://wgt.com/forums/t/10165.aspx?PageIndex=2

  • VanHalenLover
    1,422 Posts
    Tue, Aug 3 2010 2:54 PM

    tdexpress:
    I understand using backspin to clear hazards. But if the wind is in your face on the drive wouldn't  backspin decrease your distance? It seems to me the wind would have more affect on your ball due to the added loft.

     

    In real golf, yes. Here, at least from what I have seen, there is little difference between the carry-distance, and the wind generally seems to only affect the roll-out. Full back spin is a definite must when every inch on the drive is needed to clear an obstacle.

    This applies only to the driver, by the way, irons seem to be affected more normally by back spin, and the distance loss is more prevalent.  I can't comment on any other woods or hybrids, never really had a need to test those off the tee.

  • neildiamond11790
    1,115 Posts
    Tue, Aug 3 2010 3:20 PM

    YJ, I remember the thread you are talking about and we were discussing this.  No golf ball has top spin, it only has less spin.  Try going to a Golfsmith and produce anything but backspin, its impossible.  You may get more side spin, i.e. draw or fade.  But the ball will never go back over front, only back under front.  The clubs loft will not allow it.   Its not like tennis where you can impart an upward swing on a shot and roll your wrist over the ball hitting the ball up, but the spin digs it back down. 

    So for drives more backspin allows for more air time, air having less friction that the ground will let the ball travel more at a higher speed, but into the wind more air time means more time for the wind to impact the ball (which is why in higher wind areas knock downs and low trajectory shots are easy to control).  Not much wind and you can still get the benefit of a better carry, imagine 2 exact length drives of 300 yds, one carries 295 and rolls out 5 more, the other carries 265 but rolls out 35, now place a bunker 270yds to 285yds out, you want the carry.   Less backspin (moving the dot up) will cut through the air but not climb the air as well producing a flatter trajectory.  Mythbusters did an interesting test with golf ball dimples on car, but they did show it in for a golf ball, and the dimples are the reason balls fly further, probably because the dimples allow some friction to the air that will allow it to climb the air.

    Only a generous bounce on a down slope or hard as nails fairways will give you the benefit of a better roll (St Andrews).  But softer fairways will not yield much roll, and sometimes no roll (Bethpage). 

     

  • Snaike
    3,678 Posts
    Wed, Aug 4 2010 1:11 AM

    neildiamond11790:
    YJ, I remember the thread you are talking about and we were discussing this.  No golf ball has top spin, it only has less spin.  Try going to a Golfsmith and produce anything but backspin, its impossible.  You may get more side spin, i.e. draw or fade.  But the ball will never go back over front, only back under front.  The clubs loft will not allow it.
    Gonna disagree with you, Neil...

    I've put on some mighty top-spin off of the tee box.  Usually with my driver and usually after dropping my shoulder and 'topping' the hell out of the ball...

    I've seen 200+ yard drives never get more than 2' off of the ground, with 50% of that distance in roll.

    lol!

     

  • trumpy959
    99 Posts
    Wed, Aug 4 2010 1:44 AM

    YankeeJim:
    This would mean the wind would affect it less.

     I find this to be true as well and with the GI SD ball im using i typically move the dot to the bottom of the square logo for mostly all shots and notice much less of a wind effect. If i want to hit an intentional fade or draw I'll ding in the dark blue area of the swing meter and leave the ball spin dot in its middle position which helps it to curve even more. Of coarse the wedge shots have different degrees of backspin or topspin depending on the conditions and what im trying to do.

  • blackbeard
    288 Posts
    Wed, Aug 4 2010 5:13 AM

    CharlemagneRH:
    I made master (though not for long if I keep shooting the scores I have in the past two days,)

    Don't forget that once you make Master, you never go back to being a Pro, no matter how bad your scores. Sad fact of WGT life

  • neildiamond11790
    1,115 Posts
    Wed, Aug 4 2010 6:21 AM

    snaike, i dont doubt what you saw, but figure the club was 9.5 degrees, the ball was tee up high enough that you could hit it on an upswing, the club face would have to be at least closed to 0 degrees while hitting up on the ball.  So to close that club face to 0 degrees your hands would have to be way ahead of the ball to angle the shaft then the clubhead to a 0 degree angle.  So that would mean you are hitting up on the ball but your hands are out in front?  I dont think its possible.  To hit up on the ball means the club head is leading your hands. 

    What you are describing sounds like what Tiger used to do with his stinger 2 iron.  I can hit a really low ball if the ball is tee'd really low and I hit the ball on the lower part of the clubface.  Much less spin is created, making for a flatter trajectory that will roll out.  If you think of it in terms of rebounding energy, a ball that is landing at 45 degrees will lose much of the speed from the ground absorbing the impact.  A ball landing at say 10degrees to parallel will not lose as much speed since the ground is not taking a more direct hit.  Its like skipping a rock on a lake, low angle underarm throw it skips.  Overshoulder throw plunks the water.

     

     

  • Snaike
    3,678 Posts
    Wed, Aug 4 2010 9:59 AM

    neildiamond11790:
    snaike, i dont doubt what you saw, but figure the club was 9.5 degrees, the ball was tee up high enough that you could hit it on an upswing, the club face would have to be at least closed to 0 degrees while hitting up on the ball.  So to close that club face to 0 degrees your hands would have to be way ahead of the ball to angle the shaft then the clubhead to a 0 degree angle

    Actually, my post was mostly in jest.  Your theories are correct, as far as I can tell, when club face meets ball. 

    "Topping" the ball off of the tee has nothing to do with the clubface.  It's that shot you get when you take a mighty swing and raise the club just short of a "whiff", catching the very top of the ball with the very bottom of the club, watch the ball hit the ground 4" in front of your tee and take off like a scalded monkey...  Yea, that topspin.  This isn't a planned shot, it's a flub.

    Just the other day I topped and rolled one a good 175.  First contact with the ground about right at the tee.  (Someone on the next fairway yelled "FORE!" in my downswing!!)  =)

RSS