How and Why Hit a Flop Shot - Senior Golf Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler
How and Why Hit a Flop Shot - Senior Golf Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler

Okay. I’m going to talk to you about how and when to play a flop shot. A flop shot is a ball that lets you go straight up in the air, drops down with maximum sort of spin. So, we’re not after a distant shot. This shot will be played from literally maybe 5-10 yards away from the green to maybe, say, 20-30 yards away. It’s a very short shot and the whole idea of this is when you’re faced with something like a bunker that’s cut right into the green and the pin is just on the other side, so your option of playing the conventional shot onto the green let’s say roll up is not an option. So we’ve got to literally, it’s almost like getting the ball in your hand and throwing the ball up in the air and landing it soft as anything. So, that’s basically when a flop shot should be used and, of course, the most lofted club in your bag.

If you’ve got a 56-degree or 54-degree sand wedge, which is, like, the norm nowadays, to be quite honest of you, you’re not going to achieve the flop shot, you really do need to go and get a 60-degree, which I’ve got here, or even a 62 or 64, the more loft you got the more chance of actually getting that ball up in the air and dropping it and stopping it. So, first of all there is the club, there is the weapon and that’s what we need. If you’ve not got that 60 degree and you’re playing with a 56, 54, 58, you’re going to find it much, much, much harder and you’re not really going to get the full benefit of what I’m actually going to describe to you. So, we’ve got the tool. So, how do we play the shot? The first thing is that we want to put this ball right forward in the stance, towards that front foot, put that ball position forward and keep that weight on the left-hand side.

We’re putting the ball a long way forward, because we want this club to literally slide right underneath the ball. We want to hit the ball as late as possible and if you think about it, we hit the ball very, very late, we hit the bottom and the ball is rotating backwards, so we’ve got that backspin, so when that ball lands, it’s going to land and it’s going to pull up pretty sharpish. If we have the ball back in sort of normal sort of territory for that sort of shot, the ball is in the middle, we’re hitting down a bit more and there is a little bit more sort of rotation, a bit more sort of topspin on it. So, ball off your front foot, let’s have a slightly sort of open stance, I mean, just aiming slightly to the left-hand side, because we want to really come across this ball, so the feet are now aiming to the left-hand side of the target.

The ball is off the front and we’ve got the weight now, 70-30, so we really are leaning on this left-hand side. Now, from here, I want you to focus on just hinging the wrist, so notice that as I hinge the wrist, I’m not bending my arms as many club golfers do, okay? I’m just going…my left arm is straight, I’m going to hinge my wrist and then from here, I’m going to try and deliver that club to the base of that ball and I’m going to slide that club through and I’m going to try and hold this clubface in the position as it was at impact. So, I’m not going to try and release my hands. I’m going to try to hold it there and a good idea of sort of an image in your mind is imagine if you had a frying pan in your hand with the eggs in it and it was down here. If you went through and did this then everything will trip out of the frying pan, so this club head is like a frying pan, everything is in it and we need to hold that frying pan into this position.

Remember, we’re trying to get maximum height and maximum backspin, so let’s play the golf shot. So, ball position forward, weight 70-30, leading on the left-hand side with the hands forward, so from here I’m now going to break my wrist and then execute the shot. So, here it goes. From here I’m going to break my wrist…wow! That has gone really high and we’re actually in a driving bay here and that ball has just missed hitting the actual shutter here, so it gives you an idea of high that ball went and how quick it actually got up there, so, again, it’s not a difficult shot, it’s just a case of getting the fundamentals, getting the positions right and then from here trusting your swing, breaking that wrist there and going through and holding that clubface in that position. That’s the key for the flop shot.

 2013-08-07

Okay. I’m going to talk to you about how and when to play a flop shot. A flop shot is a ball that lets you go straight up in the air, drops down with maximum sort of spin. So, we’re not after a distant shot. This shot will be played from literally maybe 5-10 yards away from the green to maybe, say, 20-30 yards away. It’s a very short shot and the whole idea of this is when you’re faced with something like a bunker that’s cut right into the green and the pin is just on the other side, so your option of playing the conventional shot onto the green let’s say roll up is not an option. So we’ve got to literally, it’s almost like getting the ball in your hand and throwing the ball up in the air and landing it soft as anything. So, that’s basically when a flop shot should be used and, of course, the most lofted club in your bag.

If you’ve got a 56-degree or 54-degree sand wedge, which is, like, the norm nowadays, to be quite honest of you, you’re not going to achieve the flop shot, you really do need to go and get a 60-degree, which I’ve got here, or even a 62 or 64, the more loft you got the more chance of actually getting that ball up in the air and dropping it and stopping it. So, first of all there is the club, there is the weapon and that’s what we need. If you’ve not got that 60 degree and you’re playing with a 56, 54, 58, you’re going to find it much, much, much harder and you’re not really going to get the full benefit of what I’m actually going to describe to you. So, we’ve got the tool. So, how do we play the shot? The first thing is that we want to put this ball right forward in the stance, towards that front foot, put that ball position forward and keep that weight on the left-hand side.

We’re putting the ball a long way forward, because we want this club to literally slide right underneath the ball. We want to hit the ball as late as possible and if you think about it, we hit the ball very, very late, we hit the bottom and the ball is rotating backwards, so we’ve got that backspin, so when that ball lands, it’s going to land and it’s going to pull up pretty sharpish. If we have the ball back in sort of normal sort of territory for that sort of shot, the ball is in the middle, we’re hitting down a bit more and there is a little bit more sort of rotation, a bit more sort of topspin on it. So, ball off your front foot, let’s have a slightly sort of open stance, I mean, just aiming slightly to the left-hand side, because we want to really come across this ball, so the feet are now aiming to the left-hand side of the target.

The ball is off the front and we’ve got the weight now, 70-30, so we really are leaning on this left-hand side. Now, from here, I want you to focus on just hinging the wrist, so notice that as I hinge the wrist, I’m not bending my arms as many club golfers do, okay? I’m just going…my left arm is straight, I’m going to hinge my wrist and then from here, I’m going to try and deliver that club to the base of that ball and I’m going to slide that club through and I’m going to try and hold this clubface in the position as it was at impact. So, I’m not going to try and release my hands. I’m going to try to hold it there and a good idea of sort of an image in your mind is imagine if you had a frying pan in your hand with the eggs in it and it was down here. If you went through and did this then everything will trip out of the frying pan, so this club head is like a frying pan, everything is in it and we need to hold that frying pan into this position.

Remember, we’re trying to get maximum height and maximum backspin, so let’s play the golf shot. So, ball position forward, weight 70-30, leading on the left-hand side with the hands forward, so from here I’m now going to break my wrist and then execute the shot. So, here it goes. From here I’m going to break my wrist…wow! That has gone really high and we’re actually in a driving bay here and that ball has just missed hitting the actual shutter here, so it gives you an idea of high that ball went and how quick it actually got up there, so, again, it’s not a difficult shot, it’s just a case of getting the fundamentals, getting the positions right and then from here trusting your swing, breaking that wrist there and going through and holding that clubface in that position. That’s the key for the flop shot.