One of the best feelings in golf is having a tough shot over a bunker to a tight pin that requires a delicate “flop shot”, and you take a mighty rip and the ball floats out softly and rolls up next to the pin.
It’s a sense of accomplishment for sure, but few people actually know how to hit these type of shots or actually what happens. In this article I am going to show you information you have never seen before, so you can actually see how to hit the “flop” in efforts to channel your inner-Phil around the greens!
Let’s take a look at the “normal” pitch shot around the green on the TrackMan 4
- The path mirrors my normal swing at a touch in to out at 2.3 degrees
- The face is slightly left of the path (but right of the target) at 0.3 degrees
- This ball carried 34.2 yards with a spin rate of 6195 rpm’s
- The height of this shot was 18.4 feet with a landing angle of 38.3 degrees
Now let’s look at the average “flop shot” (not the super-duper flop!)
- The path changes to excessively out to in at -7.4 degrees
- The face is right of the path AND right of the target at 0.7 degrees giving us an excessive face to path ratio of 8.1 degrees
- Club speed was much higher in the flop versus the normal shot at 51.2 mph versus 44.1 mph. As was the dynamic loft at impact at 57.3 degrees versus 46.4
- BUT the ball carried only 27 yards on the flop shot versus 34.2 yards on the normal shot
- The height of this shot was 25 feet with a landing angle of 51.4 degrees which will help the ball stop as the spin rate drops (3702 rpm’s) as your spinloft increases
My five simple keys to hit flop shots effectively!
- Aim your body left of the target so you can shift your swing direction and swing path more out to in
- The face will be open at address relative to your body alignments…pointing at or just a touch right of your target depending on the loft needed
- Allow the swing to follow the alignments of your body, so the club moves up and away off the start and cuts across the target-line through impact
- STAY in your posture through impact, and keep rotating through so the handle does not raise through impact causing shanks and “wiped” shots. (The more the handle lifts the more the hosel is pushed towards the ball, and the more the blade opens as well)
- Allow the rotation of the right shoulder to ensure that you keep “moving through imapct!”
Feel free to use the comment section below!
Great article! Ate there any data on a superduper flopshot? Is there a comparison made between the spinloft mountain shot and the fopshot in stopping power? Would love to see those!
Just wondered where he hit the ball realities to the centre of the club? And how many shots were hit! The more left through impact usually lessons the chance of centred contact!