A Definitive Guide on How To Hit a Flop-Shot

After playing a pedestrian approach shot, it’s not uncommon for the ball to come to rest in a rather precarious position.

If you have very little green to work with between your ball and the flagstick, getting the ball to stop within 6-8 feet of the cup can be quite challenging. If that few paces of green (between your ball and the hole) is sloping away from you (downhill), you must work even harder to get your ball to stop close to the hole.

When facing a green-side pitch shot with a forced carry (bunker, water, rough) to negotiate and very-little green to work with, stopping the ball within a few feet of the cup is no small feat. To do so, you need to be able to stop the ball on a dime by using a high/soft shot or any style shot that lands softly. The high-softy, better known as the flop-shot, is a kind of (specialty) pitch shot and not to be confused with a chip shot.

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By definition, a chip-shot travels a further distance on the ground than it does whilst in the air. The chip shot’s friendly counterpart, the pitch shot, travels a further distance in the air than it does on the ground. Most times, playing the flop means we’re sending the ball high in the air and having it land on the green with a little rollout.

Not unlike how the butterfly-with-sore-feet lands on the ground’s surface in a soft, delicate manner time and time again, a well-struck flop shot hits the green and stops abruptly. The (now) retired on-course television commentator for NBC, Roger Maltbie, referenced Tiger’s innate ability to play the right shot (especially around the green) by using the phrase, “Tiger is the best at playing the shot that’s required.”

When we’re green-side and need to use the (increased) loft of our lob wedge to stop the ball (quickly), the flop shot is the shot that’s required.

To hit the ball higher, we need to add loft to the club face. To do this, we must rotate the club face so it’s in a (more) open position and/or facing (more) towards the sky as opposed to (facing) the ground. Similar to the altered club-face-position we ought to employ in hitting green-side bunker shots, set up to your ball for the flop in the rough/fairway with an open face.

Depending on your preference, you may choose to employ a very wide stance in executing the flop shot, as Jordan Spieth does, or you may favor a narrower stance. Having said that, we don’t want to employ too narrow of a stance. Remember that flop shots demand substantial club-head speed depending on how much risk you’re willing to assume/the nature of the specific shot you’re facing.

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Along those lines, playing flops with too narrow of a stance promotes less use of our lower body which, in turn, can lead to less club-head speed than what’s optimal. In terms of ball position, I suggest playing the ball from the middle of your stance or forward of that (closer to your lead foot). The further up the ball is in your stance, the easier it is to get the ball in the air.

But, there still exists a decent amount of pros who decide to hit flops by positioning the ball a bit back of center or closer to their trail foot. Similar to how one plays other shots in this game, figuring out your individual flop-shot preferences regarding ball position/width-of-stance/etc., comes down to basic trial-and-error. You won’t know what works/doesn’t work until you try!

For whatever reason, an overwhelming amount of amateurs are (each) hesitant towards opening the club face in the bunker and on specialty shots like the flop shot. While I understand why people are afraid of executing flops by choosing to open/add loft (to) the club face to the same/similar degree that Tiger Woods sometimes does, getting the ball airborne in an optimal fashion requires increasing the loft of our wedge/club at address (and impact).

Without the added loft, we oftentimes can’t get the ball to stop on the green as fast as we need it to. Also, we need more loft to contact the ball with a glancing blow. On the flop shot, delivering a glancing blow is ideal to get the ball up as quickly as possible, limit the ball’s overall distance (traveled), and to maximize spin.

To deliver this glancing blow, we need to add speed to our swing and add loft to the club face. When adding loft to the club face, try rotating the face open without moving your hands further ahead of the golf ball. Remember that opening the club face, and adding-loft mean two different things. In other words, it’s possible to decrease the club’s loft while opening the club face simultaneously if I were to, for instance, place my hands way ahead of the golf ball as I open the club face simultaneously.

In a literal sense of the word “opening” the club face means we’re altering the face’s alignment so that it’s pointed further away from our body. Simply, opening/closing the club-face is a term/action that’s applied within the context of the horizontal (left-to-right or right-to-left) plane as opposed to the vertical plane (up-to-down or down-to-up) that applies to adding/subtracting loft. But, opening the club face often times promotes adding loft to the face at address and, more importantly, when it counts, (at) impact!

In simplifying this quest to hit the flop shot higher and softer thru opening the club face and/or adding loft, just make sure your club face is facing the target when you set up to the golf ball. To (better) play the flop, we want to pick a landing spot on the green where we want our ball to come down before it continues traveling on its own course as it rolls (hopefully not a lot) and (eventually) finishes in or near the hole! As we map out our game plan for the upcoming flop shot, do not overlook the fact that landing the ball nearer to the green’s edge means we’re inherently assuming more risk.

Playing a flop shot isn’t much different than playing out of the green-side bunker. Instead of trying to play the shot by striking the ground’s surface approximately two inches behind the ball, however, the flop shot demands more of a ball-first strike in addition to the utmost precision from a quality-of-the-strike standpoint.

After adding loft to our most-lofted wedge, we’ve also intentionally decreased the club face’s surface area. If you’ve ever seen a tour player execute a well-played bunker shot in slow-motion, oftentimes, the player’s club-face/head races past the ball (in relation to the target) post-impact. On the flop shot, we want to execute the shot by keeping the aforementioned (bunker) principles at the forefront of our mind.

Executing the perfect flop is extremely difficult, and judging the lie in an appropriate fashion is imperative. If the ball is sitting up in the rough/fairway, it’s easier to slide underneath the ball too much. If the ball is sitting down in the rough, it’s (more) difficult to create (enough) spin as there’s more grass to negotiate (positioned) between the club face and the ball at/near impact.

After you’ve grabbed the right wedge (typically your most-lofted wedge, whether that’s a 58, 60, 62, 64 etc.), be mindful of ball position and the club-face/head’s orientation (open/increased loft and in relation to your intended target) at address. During the course of the flop’s swing itself, you cannot shy away from the ball at impact. Like other shots around the green, we must be aggressive at the point of attack.

If we lack commitment/trust in the shot, oftentimes, we fail to remain aggressive. If we lose speed at impact as we play the flop, the ramifications of such failures can be quite costly. Because we’ve consciously exposed less of the club face thru adding loft, it’s more difficult to achieve an optimal strike. If we pull up ever so slightly at impact, we can skull the ball several yards over/past the hole/green.

If we add substantial loft to the wedge, we risk sliding underneath the ball and barely advancing it. Or, we can get too cute at impact and skull/chunk it over the green or short-of-the-green into back/front bunker. Despite any temptations to execute the perfect flop to within gimme-range of the cup, oftentimes (sound) course management all but demands a more prudent shot by way of executing a moderate flop that leaves us 15 feet for par.

Remember, even the best golfers in the world are oftentimes resigned to ensuring bogey rather than inviting those round-killing double-bogeys or worse. Don’t bite off more than you can chew by attempting to launch some sky-high flop-shot to a pin that demands too precise of a landing area to get the ball within a few feet of the cup.

Dissimilar to how one plays a standard pitch/chip shot, a flop shot requires more speed and a bigger swing. In creating an optimal amount of speed while also emphasizing contact on the flop shot, we should favor a wider base or a wider stance which means allowing for more space between our feet at address.

Add substantial loft to your wedge and remember to be mindful of your ball position. From there, you’re making a standard half-3/4 swing and remaining aggressive as the club head enters the turf. Ideally, we want to create a descending blow but not so much that we de-loft (subtract loft) the club head causing an over-hit. When you add loft to your wedge, ensure the club head remains flush against the ground’s surface. If it’s not, it’s difficult to make consistent contact.

Remember, by adding loft to the wedge, we also expose the club head’s bounce. We want to use the wedge’s full design to our own (increased) advantage. In the bunker, the bounce is our friend. On flops, we also want to use the club’s bounce. But we’re not trying to hit the ground before the ball on flops most times. Like every shot in golf (other than green-side bunker shots), achieving ball-first contact is paramount.

Similar to how one plays ALL specialty shots in golf, the name of the game is making quality contact. If we know we can trust the strike, we can pull off the flop in various settings related to distance/lie.

Over the course of the last 10-plus years of my teaching career, I’ve found that amateurs tend to confront the majority of their issues (in playing the flop shot) due to failing to trust their setup. Specifically, they don’t want to add enough loft (to their wedge) at address.

Consequently, they won’t be able to lift the ball high enough to stop it close to the hole (even if they make solid contact). In addition, several amateurs are reluctant to add enough speed at the point of attack. If the club face is oriented as it should be (with plenty of added loft), you need an abundance of speed at impact in order to allow for (both) the (properly-played) glancing-blow (to take place) and to carry the ball far enough.

If you contact the ball too flush or with too square of a club face (or not enough loft), the ball is going to travel too far/too low. Lastly (and thru attempting to add loft to the club face), amateurs place their hands too far ahead of the ball at address. Ensure the butt-end of your wedge’s grip is pointed directly at your belly button.

From there, swing the club back an adequate amount on the backswing before returning the club head (back) to the ball on the downswing while maintaining the (added) loft of your wedge thru the hit. In maintaining the club head’s loft thru the hitting area, you need to keep a stable lead wrist thru the hit. In other words, playing a solid flop shot involves exerting complete control of the club head during the course of the swing.

Without throwing too much golf teach in your direction, take notice of how the best players in the world each hit full-flop shots. Including the impressive amount of speed each generates whilst (also) using a wide stance and a wide-open club-face, pay close attention to the club-face’s orientation at the same moment when they each complete the swing (after striking the ball) on full flop-shots.

At the finish, the wedge’s club face is pointed in the player’s own direction or back at them. Why? Because they’re “holding the face-off” or not allowing the club head to shut down or close after successfully delivering a glancing blow with the (added) loft of their lob wedge.

On the challenging par 3-16th hole at Jack’s place during the final round of the 2012 Memorial Tournament, Tiger turned an all-but-guaranteed bogey/par into a birdie thru draining one of the greatest flop shots ever played in the history of the game. Check it out below!

Notice the (substantial) amount of club-head speed Tiger utilizes on this flop shot in order to carry the ball no more than a few yards. You can’t do it any better than that.

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