How to Hit a Flop Shot:
Setup, Technique & Drills That Build Real Confidence

Let me be honest upfront: the flop shot is a specialty shot. It's not something you should hit five times a round. In fact, if you're hitting it more than once or twice in 18 holes, you're probably making bad strategic decisions elsewhere. But when you genuinely need it, nothing else will do.

The classic flop shot situation looks like this: you've short-sided yourself. The pin is cut close to your side of the green, there's a bunker between you and the hole, and you've got maybe 8-10 feet of green to work with before the flag. A chip would roll 20 feet past. A pitch would still run too far. You need the ball to go up high, land soft, and stop almost immediately.

Other times a flop makes sense:

• Over a bunker to a tight pin — when you can't go around or play a bump and run
• Downhill to a fast green — where any rolling shot will race past the hole
• Over a ridge or mound — where you need height to clear the obstacle and still stop quickly
• Thick rough close to the green — where the grass will actually help you execute the shot (more on that later)

The key word in all of these is need. If a bump and run or a standard pitch gets the job done, play those shots instead. They're more forgiving and more consistent. I save the flop for situations where there's genuinely no other option that gives me a chance to get up and down.

You need loft — a lot of it. The flop shot requires an effective loft of 64-70 degrees at impact, which means you're starting with a high-lofted wedge and opening the face to add even more.

Lob Wedge (58-60 degrees)

This is the standard flop shot club. A 60-degree lob wedge gives you plenty of loft to work with, and when you open the face another 5-10 degrees, you're in that 65-70 degree range where the ball goes almost straight up. If you don't carry a lob wedge, it's worth adding one if you play courses with tight pin positions and greenside hazards. You don't need an expensive one — even a basic 60-degree wedge from a reputable brand will get the job done.

Sand Wedge (54-56 degrees) with an Open Face

You can hit a flop with a sand wedge by opening the face significantly. I've done this plenty of times when I've left my lob wedge at home (it happens). The trade-off is that you need to open the face more aggressively, which makes the shot harder to control. The sweet spot on the bounce gets wider, but your margin for error on face angle gets tighter. I'd only recommend this if your sand wedge has plenty of bounce (10-12 degrees) — low-bounce wedges don't slide through turf cleanly when the face is wide open.

Bounce Matters

This is something most golfers ignore, but bounce is actually more important than loft for flop shots. Bounce is the angle between the leading edge and the lowest point of the sole. More bounce (10-14 degrees) means the club slides through the grass rather than digging. For flop shots, moderate to high bounce is your friend — it prevents the dreaded "dig and chunk" that happens when the leading edge catches the turf. Low-bounce wedges (4-8 degrees) are harder to hit flop shots with because they tend to knife into the ground.

The flop shot setup is completely different from a standard chip. If you set up the same way you'd chip a bump and run, the flop will not work. Here's what needs to change:

1. Open the Clubface First, Then Grip

This is the most common setup mistake I see. Most golfers grip the club normally, then try to rotate the face open. That doesn't work — the face will snap back to square during the swing because your hands return to their natural position. Instead: set the club on the ground, rotate the face open 20-30 degrees (the toe should point well right of your target for right-handers), and then take your grip. Now the open face is your neutral position, and it'll stay open through impact.

How far to open it depends on how high and soft you need the ball to land. For a standard flop, I open the face until the clubface points almost straight at the sky. It feels extreme. That's normal.

2. Wide Stance, Open to the Target

Widen your stance beyond shoulder width. This lowers your center of gravity and creates a stable base — you need stability because you're making a bigger swing than a normal chip. Then aim your feet and shoulders 20-30 degrees left of the target (for right-handers). This open stance does two things: it creates room for the club to swing along your body line (which is left), and it counteracts the rightward push that the open face creates. The ball starts along the face angle, not your stance line, so when you combine an open stance with an open face, the ball flies roughly at the target.

3. Ball Position Forward, Weight Centered

Play the ball forward in your stance — off your front heel or even slightly ahead of it. This is the opposite of a chip, where you play the ball back. Forward ball position lets the club reach maximum loft at impact and encourages the shallow, sweeping motion you need. Weight distribution should be roughly 50/50 or just slightly favoring the front foot — not heavily forward like a chip. You want to bottom out right at the ball, not ahead of it.

Your hands should be roughly even with the ball at address — not pressed forward. Forward shaft lean delofts the club, which defeats the entire purpose. Neutral or even slightly behind is fine.

This is where the flop shot separates from every other short game shot. The swing is bigger, faster, and more aggressive than you'd expect for such a short shot. That's what makes it scary — and what trips up most golfers.

The Backswing

Take the club back steeply by hinging your wrists early. The backswing should feel like it goes up more than back — almost like you're picking the club straight up. This creates the steep angle of attack you need to slide the club under the ball. For a standard 15-yard flop, I take the club back to about three-quarter length. It feels like way too much swing for such a short shot, but the open face bleeds off so much energy that the ball only travels a fraction of the distance a normal swing would produce.

The Downswing: Accelerate and Commit

This is the non-negotiable part. You must accelerate through impact. Not maintain speed — accelerate. The club needs to slide under the ball with speed, using the bounce of the wedge to glide across the turf. If you decelerate, the leading edge digs into the ground and you either chunk it or blade it. I've seen more flop shots ruined by deceleration than by any other single factor.

Think of it like this: you're trying to slide the clubface under the ball, like you're scooping sand out from underneath it. The ball gets in the way of the club sliding through. You're not hitting the ball — you're swinging through the space where the ball happens to be sitting.

No Wrist Roll Through Impact

Keep the clubface pointing at the sky through and after impact. This is the hardest part for most golfers because every instinct tells you to rotate the face closed like a normal shot. Don't. If the face closes, the ball shoots forward low and hot — that's a skull. Maintain that open face position all the way through the finish. Your follow-through should be long and smooth, with the face still looking up at the sky. I think of it as "showing the face to the sky" through the hitting zone.

The Feel

A well-struck flop shot has a distinctive feel — the club barely touches the ball. It feels like the ball just floated off the face with almost no resistance. If you feel a solid "click" like a normal iron shot, you probably caught it too clean and it's going to fly lower and harder than intended. The perfect flop shot feels soft, almost effortless, like the ball just appeared on the clubface and drifted into the air.

1. Decelerating Through Impact

This is the big one. You take a big backswing, then your brain panics and slows down before impact. The result is either a fat chunk that goes nowhere or a thin blade that rockets across the green. The flop shot requires commitment. If you can't commit to accelerating through, don't hit the shot — play a chip or pitch instead.

The fix: In practice, focus on making your follow-through longer than your backswing. If the club goes back to waist height, the finish should reach shoulder height. That thought alone eliminates most deceleration.

2. Closing the Clubface at Impact

Your natural instinct is to square the face through impact like you do on full shots. But on a flop, squaring the face is a death sentence — the loft disappears and the ball screams forward at ankle height. This usually happens because the golfer gripped the club first and then opened the face, so the face snaps back to square during the swing.

The fix: Open the face first, then grip. And consciously keep the face open through the finish — feel the face point to the sky as the club passes through impact. Practice slow-motion swings where you stop at impact and check the face angle.

3. Hitting From the Wrong Lie

Not every lie supports a flop shot. From a tight, hard-pan lie with no grass under the ball, the bounce of the wedge will actually bounce off the ground and catch the ball thin. The flop shot needs some grass to work with — the club needs to slide through turf, not skip off hardpan.

The fix: Assess your lie before committing to the shot. Good flop shot lies: light rough, fairway-length grass, fluffy rough. Bad flop shot lies: bare ground, hard-pan, thin tight lies, divot holes. From a bad lie, default to a bump and run or standard pitch.

4. Playing the Ball Too Far Back

Ball position for a flop is forward — off the front heel. When golfers play the ball in the center or back of their stance (like a chip), the club reaches the ball before it's fully opened, which produces a lower, running shot instead of the high soft landing you wanted.

The fix: Move the ball to your front heel. It feels weird at first, but that forward position is what allows the club to present maximum loft at impact.

5. Swinging Too Easy

Counterintuitively, a soft, tentative flop shot is harder than an aggressive one. The open face bleeds off so much energy that you need real clubhead speed to get the ball airborne and carry it to the hole. I've found that most amateur flop shots come up short because the golfer didn't swing hard enough, not because they swung too hard.

The fix: Trust the loft. An aggressively swung open-face lob wedge sends the ball straight up, not forward. You'd be surprised how hard you can swing and still only carry the ball 15 yards with a wide-open face.

The flop shot is not something you should try for the first time on the course. It requires dedicated practice to build feel and confidence. Here are three drills that work:

1. The Towel Drill

Lay a towel flat on the ground about 3 feet in front of you. Open your lob wedge face wide and try to land the ball on the towel. The towel is close enough that you can't reach it with a chip or pitch — you have to hit the ball high to land it that softly, that close. This drill forces you to make the proper steep-and-slide motion. Start with 10 balls and count how many land on the towel. When you can hit 6 out of 10, you're getting somewhere.

2. The Headcover Landing Zone

Place a headcover on the green about 10 yards away. Hit flop shots and try to land the ball on or within a club-length of the headcover. This builds distance control, which is the real challenge once you've got the technique down. Vary the distance — move the headcover to 5 yards, then 15, then 8. Each distance requires a different backswing length and swing speed, and that calibration only comes from repetition.

3. The Lie Variety Drill

Drop 10 balls in different lies around the practice area — some in light rough, some on fairway grass, some in thicker rough, one on a tight lie. Hit a flop shot from each and observe how the lie affects the result. This teaches you which lies support a flop and which don't. You'll quickly learn that fluffy rough is your best friend for flop shots (the club slides under easily) and bare lies are the enemy (the club skips and blades). This kind of lie-awareness is something you can only build through deliberate practice — you won't develop it on the course under pressure.

A Garmin R10 launch monitor is genuinely useful for flop shot practice because it shows you the launch angle and spin rate on each shot. When I'm hitting flop shots well, my launch angle is typically 50-55 degrees with moderate spin. When I'm mis-hitting them, the launch angle drops below 40 and the spin goes haywire. Having that instant feedback accelerates the learning process significantly.

This section might be more important than the technique section. Knowing when not to hit a flop separates smart golfers from stubborn ones. Here are the situations where you should leave the lob wedge in the bag:

When You Have Green to Work With

If there's 30+ feet of green between you and the hole, a bump and run or standard pitch is almost always the better play. The ball rolls out predictably, and even a mediocre result ends up somewhere near the hole. A mediocre flop shot? Could be anywhere.

When the Lie Is Tight

Bare lies, hard-pan, thin turf with no cushion — the flop shot bounce will skip off the surface and you'll blade it. I don't care how good your technique is. From a tight lie, play the percentage shot: bump and run with an 8-iron or pitch with a sand wedge.

When You Haven't Practiced It

I'm serious about this one. If you haven't hit at least 50 flop shots in practice, don't try it on the course with a scorecard in play. The risk-reward math doesn't work in your favor. A bad flop shot can easily cost you 2-3 strokes (blade it across the green into a bunker, then you're hitting out of the bunker and two-putting for a double or worse). A conservative chip might leave you 15 feet from the hole, but you're walking away with a bogey at worst.

When the Downside Is Severe

If there's water, out of bounds, or a steep slope behind the green and you're flipping a lob wedge with a wide-open face — think twice. A slightly thin flop shot carries much further than intended because the lower launch angle means it rolls out more. If that runout takes you into a hazard, the stroke-and-distance penalty turns a potential bogey into a triple.

The best short game players in the world hit far fewer flop shots than you'd think. They play the simplest shot available and save the flop for situations where nothing else works. That's good course management — and it's how you actually lower your scores.

I can explain the flop shot mechanics in detail — and I think the breakdown above gives you everything you need to start practicing — but there's a difference between understanding the technique and ingraining it into your game under pressure. If you want structured guidance that goes beyond a single article, here are two approaches worth considering:

Launch monitor practice: Pairing a device like the Garmin R10 with your short game practice gives you objective feedback on every shot. Launch angle, spin rate, carry distance — data that tells you whether your flop shot technique is actually improving or whether you're just grooving the same mistakes. I started tracking my wedge shots with a launch monitor about a year ago, and the data showed me things I never would have noticed by feel alone — like the fact that my "flop shots" were actually launching at 42 degrees (way too low) because I was unconsciously closing the face through impact.

You can also build your own practice plan using the three drills I described above. Start with the towel drill to build the basic motion (10 minutes), move to the headcover drill for distance calibration (10 minutes), then finish with the lie variety drill to develop shot awareness (10 minutes). That's a 30-minute session that, done twice a week, will have you hitting confident flop shots within a month.

And remember — the best flop shot is the one you don't have to hit. Work on your approach shots, your basic chipping, and your putting, and you'll find that the number of situations requiring a flop shot drops dramatically.