HOW TO GET MORE SPIN FROM YOUR BALL
The answer is easy: Play a ball with a urethane cover. Today's urethane models feature covers soft enough to produce high spin from typical wedge swings, and spin about twice as much as Surlyn (the choice for 70% of amateurs). True, urethane balls are more expensive, and Surlyn models are slightly longer off the tee, but check out the amount of spin you will sacrifice with Surlyn (chart, right). The only reason I see for so many amateurs playing Surlyn is their lack of knowledge on how much spin they lose (a factor of two!) by doing so.

URETHANE SPINS MORE THAN SURLYN
Spin rates for 8-iron shots, balls in one-inch rough with half of ball above the grass surface. Data courtesy USGA.

There's a reason why PGA Tour players don't use Surlyn balls: Backspin and short-game control are more important to their scoring than distance off the tee.

FOR MORE SPIN PLAY URETHANE-COVERED BALLS

FOR LESS SPIN PLAY SURLYN-COVERED BALLS