How To Spin A Golf Ball

Learning how to spin a golf ball can help you hit more accurate iron shots and lower your scores. Particularly on hard or fast greens, you need to be able to stop the ball quickly, and place it near the hole. You don’t want the ball bounding over the green into the rough, bunker or water hazard. Golf professionals are so proficient at putting spin, or back spin, on a ball that their shots sometimes back up ten feet or more. Creating spin involves club and ball selection, and striking the ball with a sharp, descending blow. 

1. Clean your clubs. Make sure the grooves in your iron clubs are kept clean and free of grass or dirt. The grooves help impart the spin on the ball. Use a lofted club, a 7-iron, 8-iron, 9-iron or wedge, for shots you want to spin. The higher trajectory of the ball flight with these clubs makes it easier to spin the ball.
2. Select the right ball. Golf balls with softer covers are easier to spin than those with harder covers. It used to be that using soft cover balls was more expensive because they could be easily cut and would have to be replaced more often, but that is no longer the case.  
3. Adjust your stance. Play the ball two inches farther back in your stance. Open your stance, meaning aiming your feet slightly to the left of your target line. Now that you have the proper alignment, how to spin a golf ball becomes a matter of making the correct swing.
4. Hit down on the ball. Your stance adjustments make it easier to hit down on the ball with a descending blow. Take an upright swing, not a rounded one as you would use with your fairway woods. An upright swing plane is a key technique in how to spin a golf ball.
5. Hit the ball first. Make sure you contact the ball before the turf. Your divot should be shallow. A deep divot is an indication you have hit behind the ball.
6. Keep your wrists firm. You want the feel of clean, crisp contact with the ball. Don’t flop or roll over your wrists. Keep them firm as you hit through the ball and you will have the satisfaction of watching your ball hit the green and stop quickly.