Ever been jealous of those trick shot golfers who could skip a ball across water? It looks hard and, honestly, it is. In addition, it doesn’t really serve any practical purpose. But it’s a great way to impress your friends during informal rounds and, if you have a pool at home, you can perhaps practice it enough to reliably pull it off.
The trick is spinning the ball the right way, while maintaining a low angle. Too much topspin will pull the ball down into the water, while backspin will make it pop up just enough to skip. But normally, the only way to put backspin on the ball is with a wedge or high iron shot, that won’t get the angle on the ball you need to hit it off the water.
The key is to take a lowish iron and sort of chop downward to give the ball the spin it needs to make it across. Make sure your shot is accurate; the tricky part is making the ball come down on top of the water. Pull this off, and you might just be able to win a bet with some of your golfing buddies and get them to buy you a beer when the round is over.