Whats the secret to hitting a flop shot? (Video) - by Pete Styles
Whats the secret to hitting a flop shot? (Video) - by Pete Styles

One of the most impressive shots that you will see anyone play on a golf course is that little 20 yard flop shots around the side of the green. When they lift it delicately over the bunker and land it softly on the green and it just rolls nicely up to the flag. One of the crucial parts of playing that shot efficiently is making sure you have enough loft on your club. So we take the most lofted club in your bag to start with which for me is a lob wedge. But even if I don’t feel I’ve got enough loft on this already I can add a bit of loft. I can do that by opening the clubface. So if I point the club towards my target that would be classed as a square setup. But then if I turn the clubface to the right for the right handed golfer, that now classed itself as an open clubface. I then go ahead and make my grip and the club points to the right. Now if I can shuffle myself around to the left slightly, the club now points at the target. If I hit the shot the balls pops up nice and high nice and soft and lands on the green.

One of the biggest issues I see with people when they try and open the face is they do it while they are already holding the club. So they would make their grip, square the club up nicely, then try and open it. The problem here by opening it now, is your hands will just turn back to normal anyway. They will always roll back over to square and they will probably just hit the ball too far, maybe too far left as well. So, if we want to open that clubface, we need to do it by twisting the club then making the grip. So it’s just making sure the sequence in the address position is right, open the face, make your grip, move round it so it points square and then slide its legs off. And when you chop its legs off, the ball will come out nice and high, following the angle of the clubface. So when you are hitting the flop shots, open the face and then grip it, and that’s the order to get the most successful shots. 2015-03-31

One of the most impressive shots that you will see anyone play on a golf course is that little 20 yard flop shots around the side of the green. When they lift it delicately over the bunker and land it softly on the green and it just rolls nicely up to the flag. One of the crucial parts of playing that shot efficiently is making sure you have enough loft on your club. So we take the most lofted club in your bag to start with which for me is a lob wedge. But even if I don’t feel I’ve got enough loft on this already I can add a bit of loft. I can do that by opening the clubface. So if I point the club towards my target that would be classed as a square setup. But then if I turn the clubface to the right for the right handed golfer, that now classed itself as an open clubface. I then go ahead and make my grip and the club points to the right. Now if I can shuffle myself around to the left slightly, the club now points at the target. If I hit the shot the balls pops up nice and high nice and soft and lands on the green.

One of the biggest issues I see with people when they try and open the face is they do it while they are already holding the club. So they would make their grip, square the club up nicely, then try and open it. The problem here by opening it now, is your hands will just turn back to normal anyway. They will always roll back over to square and they will probably just hit the ball too far, maybe too far left as well. So, if we want to open that clubface, we need to do it by twisting the club then making the grip. So it’s just making sure the sequence in the address position is right, open the face, make your grip, move round it so it points square and then slide its legs off. And when you chop its legs off, the ball will come out nice and high, following the angle of the clubface. So when you are hitting the flop shots, open the face and then grip it, and that’s the order to get the most successful shots.