LINDSAY GOLF… seriously superior™


TOPSPIN

WHY GOLFERS WANT TOPSPIN
The ability to impart topspin, overspin or ‘ball roll’ has long been regarded as one of the secrets of successful putting………

“My first objective in putting has always been to impart topspin to the ball…...without any skidding, sidespinning or hopping.”
Bobby Locke – rated by some as the finest putter of any era.

“Maximising the weight low in the head improves overspin at impact….”
Karsten Solheim – pioneer of modern putter design, writing in Golf the Scientific Way.

“Our putters will be the best-engineered to get the ball rolling sooner to keep balls on line…”
Ely Callaway – founder of the world's largest golf equipment company.
Callaway Golf Company 2000 Annual Report.

The above is a tiny selection from a huge collection of articles and quotations by highly revered people in golf, who all advocate topspin. So it’s not surprising that golfers want topspin and manufacturers are forever bringing out new putters that claim to eliminate backspin or impart topspin.


THE FACTS
Sometimes manufacturers push credibility too far and suggest that their putters give “immediate pure forward roll” or “immediate, no skid forward roll”. This is possible using a snooker cue, but impossible with a legal putting stroke.

The facts are:

  • All conventional putters impart backspin.
  • Some can also generate a little topspin.
  • The amount and direction of spin depends on where the ball impacts the striking face.
  • With any golf club (from putter through to driver), the higher the point of impact on the clubface, the less the backspin.
  • With a putter – if the design is right – the spin becomes topspin for impacts near the top of the face.
  • A badly designed putter can give so much backspin that the ball loses 35% or more of its initial energy through skidding before it gets rolling. (High topspin putters can reduce this to 20% or less.)

Lindsay putters impart high topspin over the entire striking face, providing modern-age performance that would enthral bygone masters such as Bobby Locke. This unique achievement is the result of expertly combining the only two mechanisms that genuinely put spin on a golf ball, namely;

  • Gear-effect, which relies on the putter-head weight distribution, but is also critically dependent on the way the shaft attaches to the head.
  • Oblique impact - the workhorse of golf shots. This shapes flight trajectory and puts backspin on the ball. Backspin is essential for distance in long shots and control in approach shots. In putters, it can be used ‘in reverse’ to give topspin.

There are no other means of imparting topspin on a golf ball with a golf club.

This fact is fundamental and is easily proved using simple, direct measurement.

WHAT GIVES TOPSPIN?
  • Vertical gear effect
    It’s well known that hitting the ball off the heel or toe of a driver puts sidespin on the ball, even if the clubface is square at impact. The same happens with a putter. What’s less well known is that vertical spin changes with impacts above or below the sweet spot. Hits above the sweet spot (on a putter) give topspin. Hits below the sweet spot give backspin.

  • Low centre of gravity
    The sweet spot must be low to ensure vertical gear effect works to give topspin. In most putters the CG is not low enough to place the sweet spot below the centre of the striking face. Lindsay putter-heads have exceptionally low CG with the sweet spot well below centre. For hits at or near the centre, topspin compensates for linear ball velocity changes, giving superb putt length consistency.

  • Deep centre of gravity
    Gear effect is proportional to the depth of the CG behind the putter face. For good topspin you need the putter-head CG positioned from half to two inches behind the face.

  • Low minimum inertia
    Low minimum inertia (front-back weighting) assists vertical gear effect, giving higher topspin. At the same time it’s important to have high heel-toe weighting (i.e. high maximum inertia).

  • Variable face loft
    Gradual loft reduction (face roll) can be used on the bottom of the putter-face to introduce a small amount of negative loft. This generates topspin by oblique impact, even though the ball is hit on the upswing on this part of the putter-face. This arrangement is especially beneficial for length control on long putts.

  • Centred shaft axis
    Lindsay’s recent pioneering research into putter impact has revealed a major problem - the position of the shaft axis is critical for vertical gear effect. Aligning the shaft axis with the putter-head CG ensures the best performance for topspin and feel.

  • Lindsay putters
    Lindsay putters combine all the above features in Patent Pending designs creating the world’s first ALL-TOPSPIN PUTTERS.

 WHAT GIVES BACKSPIN?
  • High centre of gravity
    With high CG the ball is usually hit below the sweet spot. Backspin increases and ball velocity reduces as the impact point gets lower on the putter-face. These effects combine to give poor length control, and this can get really bad if the CG is both high and deep.

  • Face loft
    Some loft is necessary to lift the ball at impact, particularly on slow greens. But loft generates backspin and raises the sweet spot, so choose a putter with the minimum loft that suits you. As well as imparting topspin, vertical gear effect lifts the ball slightly so less loft is required.

  • Offset neck and hosel
    Offset hosels on long neck extensions joined to the front flange are a very common feature in putters. This design increases minimum inertia and raises the effective sweet spot, making backspin more likely.
WHAT GIVES NO SPIN?
  • ‘Dwell time’
    Research presented at the World Scientific Congress of Golf gives rigorous experimental proof that ‘dwell time’ (impact duration) obeys established physical laws. From this, it’s known that only marginal changes in dwell time are possible (for the range of impact surfaces allowed by the Rules of Golf). The notion that some putters give longer dwell time and thereby magically impart topspin is simply wishful thinking, invented by marketing departments.

  • Grooves, pimples or insert materials
    It’s frequently claimed that grooves, ridges, pimples, other surface shapes or even surface chemistry can impart topspin. As it happens, grooves assist backspin in high lofted clubs where additional surface friction is needed. In putters additional friction is redundant. Simple, direct measurements on putters show that grooves or different face materials do not contribute spin in any direction.

  • "Natural vibrations"
    The “natural vibrations” of a putter have been linked to the way a golf ball rolls. Again, this is just a whimsical theory, dreamt up to impress the golfing public.