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Tiger Woods once called Lee Trevino the greatest ball-striker ever, so yes, ‘The Merry Mex’ knows a thing or two about spinning a golf ball.
Amateur players around the world have plenty in common when it comes to their wedge game. Everyone wants their golf ball to spin on the green just like the pros do.
You know what I am talking about.
Seemingly every week on the PGA Tour, dozens of pros will fire a wedge about 10 feet past the flag and then, magically, their golf ball rifles back towards the cup, settling an inch or two away for an easy tap-in birdie. It’s awe-inspiring, really.
One trick to try to do so is to make sure your wedges have clean grooves. If your grooves are filled with dirt, sand, or other muck, you will have no chance to spin it, let alone stop it on the green. The other trick is to play a golf ball that naturally spins a lot, like a Titleist ProV1 or Taylormade TP5. Of course, you must hit the ball first and compress it to do so.
And yet, Lee Trevino put those notions aside last week.
Speaking ahead of the Simmons Bank Championship in Arkansas, which Padraig Harrington went on to win, Trevino explained why amateur players cannot spin their golf balls like the pros do.
Unsurprisingly, his reasoning has to do with ball speed.
“Golf balls today are manufactured a little bit differently. They’re harder, they don’t spin as much, they don’t go as crooked as the balata did. That’s why the amateur has a difficult time stopping the ball on the green. They don’t have enough speed to spin it. The pro has enough speed to spin it. That’s why you see the professionals still pulling the ball back,” Trevino said.
“When they hit the green, even though it is hard, they still—well, it’s because of their clubhead speed. They’ve got so much speed that even though the ball’s hard, they can still put spin on it, whereas a regular player who uses that golf ball won’t be able to stop it on the green.”
Unless you can generate a ball speed of about 100 miles per hour with your wedge, don’t expect to generate spin anytime soon. Most amateurs average about 70 miles per hour, for what it’s worth.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
