Hinge the Wrist Flop Shot by Tom Stickney
Hinge the Wrist Flop Shot by Tom Stickney Tom Stickney - A Top 100 Golf Teacher Tom Stickney – A Top 100 Golf Teacher

OK this is a situation where we have very little green to work with we've got a lot of rough up here so there's no way we can putt it you know we can't bump and run it because this grass is too long and the Greens kind of run away from a so this is a very interesting proposition because I'm on a little bit of a tight lie. So the only chance I have to get this close is to hit a little bit of a flop shot now there's a lot of confusion on flop shots whether we should hinge the wrist not hinge wrist take a low you know open up to all this kind of stuff let me make it real simple for you. What happens to most people in the flop shot is they tend to put the ball forward and they open up the blade which is correct but what most people do is they tend to take it back without any wrist hinge and when you take it back without a wrist and you don't come into the ball very steep you come into a very shallow. So what ends up happening is if you back up and you usually get that you can hit it fat or thin it tends to scoot across the green the problem with this shot is when you're on this tight lie we're going to have to set the club just a little bit more.

By setting the club we just cocked the wrist just live and form an L. between our foreams and the club shaft and what that does is that increases the angle of attack coming down so we drive the club more into the ground and that causes the ball to pop up more in the air with a little bit more spin. OK So what I want you to do is put the ball forward open up the blade just like you normally would do set the club just a little bit and then pivot through it. Now the only danger about setting the club is we don't want to set and flip it's a set and pivot you've also heard it described as hinge and hold it stays exactly the same type of concept. So here we go we put the ball more forward we open the blade a little bit we're going to set the wrist just a little bit pivot through it keeping our right shoulder moving here we go set pivot, and what's going to happen is you see that ball has a little bit wrist spin the green kind of runs away from us is going to trickle so I try to leave the ball under the hole so I can have an uphill right to left putt and that is a pretty doggone good shot from this particular scenario but the key is to make sure you hinge and pivot that is going to have the club go down through the turf it's going to spin the golf ball and it's going to have a chance to grab and stop a little bit. If you take the wrist out of the equation here going to have a real hard time hit it solid and it's going to come out low and flat and if you back up any you're going to have a lot of trouble. So remember on the flop shots make it real simple open the blade put the ball forward set pivot if you'll set a pivot with some tempo you're going to some really soft lob shots around the green regardless of the lie and you have a lot more fun a lot better chance of making putts on that green time after time.

2019-05-23

Tom Stickney - A Top 100 Golf Teacher Tom Stickney – A Top 100 Golf Teacher

OK this is a situation where we have very little green to work with we've got a lot of rough up here so there's no way we can putt it you know we can't bump and run it because this grass is too long and the Greens kind of run away from a so this is a very interesting proposition because I'm on a little bit of a tight lie. So the only chance I have to get this close is to hit a little bit of a flop shot now there's a lot of confusion on flop shots whether we should hinge the wrist not hinge wrist take a low you know open up to all this kind of stuff let me make it real simple for you. What happens to most people in the flop shot is they tend to put the ball forward and they open up the blade which is correct but what most people do is they tend to take it back without any wrist hinge and when you take it back without a wrist and you don't come into the ball very steep you come into a very shallow. So what ends up happening is if you back up and you usually get that you can hit it fat or thin it tends to scoot across the green the problem with this shot is when you're on this tight lie we're going to have to set the club just a little bit more.

By setting the club we just cocked the wrist just live and form an L. between our foreams and the club shaft and what that does is that increases the angle of attack coming down so we drive the club more into the ground and that causes the ball to pop up more in the air with a little bit more spin. OK So what I want you to do is put the ball forward open up the blade just like you normally would do set the club just a little bit and then pivot through it. Now the only danger about setting the club is we don't want to set and flip it's a set and pivot you've also heard it described as hinge and hold it stays exactly the same type of concept. So here we go we put the ball more forward we open the blade a little bit we're going to set the wrist just a little bit pivot through it keeping our right shoulder moving here we go set pivot, and what's going to happen is you see that ball has a little bit wrist spin the green kind of runs away from us is going to trickle so I try to leave the ball under the hole so I can have an uphill right to left putt and that is a pretty doggone good shot from this particular scenario but the key is to make sure you hinge and pivot that is going to have the club go down through the turf it's going to spin the golf ball and it's going to have a chance to grab and stop a little bit. If you take the wrist out of the equation here going to have a real hard time hit it solid and it's going to come out low and flat and if you back up any you're going to have a lot of trouble. So remember on the flop shots make it real simple open the blade put the ball forward set pivot if you'll set a pivot with some tempo you're going to some really soft lob shots around the green regardless of the lie and you have a lot more fun a lot better chance of making putts on that green time after time.