At address place the ball in a position where it is slightly behind where the club will make contact with the ground - keep your hands slightly ahead of the club. This allows the club to connect with the ball on the downswing creating a divot after you have struck the ball. This forces the ball either into the ground or to “climb” back along the club face over the grooves. As the ball cannot go into the ground it is forced to climb over the club face where the grooves grip the ball and create the backspin. One of the reasons it is so difficult to get spin out of a fluffy lie is because hitting down on the ball allows the ball to go forward into the grass (rather than back over the grooves), and the grass getting between the grooves and the ball limits or negates backspin.

  Accelerate through the ball with confidence. This is so important. So many amateurs decelerate before striking the ball. To get backspin you must have confidence to commit to the shot. If you have selected the best club for the job, if the club designer has done his job, your grooves are clean, you have a quality golf ball and you have placed the ball correctly at address you can launch into it with confidence.

  And finally - Practice. It cannot be stressed how important this is. So many of us go to the driving range intent on “practicing” but land up lashing a bucket of balls as hard and as fast as we can. If you are a very good golfer a round of golf will take about 72 shots and 4 hours to complete. Why then do we go to the range and belt 50 balls in 15 minutes? When practicing work on one thing at a time and if it is getting backspin then take your favorite iron, preferably a mid iron, and concentrate on connecting the ball at the right place in the swing arc. Once you have got it right with one club introduce the others, adjusting the ball position as necessary.

Getting backspin on your golf ball allows you, as a player, to attack the pin with confidence.

Tags: spin, Tips