Soren Kjeldsen: My keys to hit the flop shot

The flop shot is a spectacular shot. But, if you don’t know how to play it correctly, it can go spectacularly wrong. These are my keys to hitting it properly, and getting up and down more often.

It might not always be the most sensible shot to play, but if you find yourself with a bunker between you and the hole, then sometimes the flop can be a useful shot, especially if you need to get up and down.

Before you play the flop shot, here’s what you need to think about.

Assess the lie

How you play this shot really depends a lot on the turf that you’re playing on.

With firm ground, I would still hit this shot in the bottom of the ball. I would still hit it with no divot. If we had a softer surface, I would actually play it more like a bunker shot and hit into the ground and not actually hit the ball first.

I would flop it that way, taking a lot of a divot. But, when it’s firm on a links course, I don’t want to do that. I’m hitting this like I would with a short bunker shot, but the only difference is I’m going to go straight at the ball.

On links courses, you don’t see many people hitting full flop shots like this. There’s not a lot of margin for error. On a softer surface, this becomes a lot easier.

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Open the face

Before I start the swing, I’m going to lay the face really open. As always with me around the greens, there’s no lean on the shaft.

I want the clubface to be in line with my hands when I hit the ball. You need to be confident to keep the speed through the ball.

Trust yourself

I don’t get scared by this shot because I have trust in myself. You do need to trust that you can pull this off.

But, when you think about it, there is a lot of things that could go wrong. I do have that feeling through the ball to know that even if I don’t perfectly pull it off, I know it won’t be a disaster.

I still remember the flop shot Phil Mickelson hit at Castle Stuart on the 18th, that was special and it shows that this shot can be useful, but not everyone can pull it off.

This piece of instruction first featured in issue 213 of bunkered. You can subscribe to the magazine here.