Short Game
How to Hit a Flop Shot: High, Soft, and Under Control
The Setup, Technique, and When to Leave It in the Bag
July 14, 2026 · 8 min read · Stephen Pickering
The Setup, Technique, and When to Leave It in the Bag
July 14, 2026 · 8 min read · Stephen Pickering
Key takeaway: The flop shot trades roll for height — high launch, soft landing, minimal release — for when you’re short-sided or need to carry an obstacle and stop fast. Open the face before you grip, make a longer swing than the distance suggests, and accelerate down and through using the bounce. It’s a specialist tool, not a default: know when a simple chip is the smarter play.
The flop shot is the most intimidating shot in the short game — a wide-open face, a full swing, and a ball sitting inches from disaster. Learn how to hit a flop shot properly and it becomes a genuine weapon: the ball climbs almost straight up, lands like a butterfly, and stops next to the hole when nothing else can. Get it wrong and you’ve bladed it across the green.
The difference between those two outcomes is almost entirely setup and commitment. This guide walks through the technique step by step, gives you a safe way to practise it, and — just as importantly — tells you when to leave it in the bag.
A flop shot trades roll for height. Instead of landing and releasing like a chip, the ball flies high, lands soft, and barely moves. That makes it the shot for two specific situations: when you’re short-sided with little green to work with, and when you have to carry something — a bunker, a mound, deep rough — and stop the ball quickly on the other side.
It’s worth being honest about the trade-off. The flop has the smallest margin for error of any greenside shot because you’re adding loft, speed, and a longer swing all at once. That’s exactly why so many golfers fear it — and why learning a repeatable method matters more here than on any other short game shot.
Take your lob wedge (58-60 degrees is ideal) and open the clubface so it points well up toward the sky — much more than feels natural. Then take your grip. If you grip first and open second, the face rotates back to square through impact and you lose all the loft you were trying to add. Face open first, grip second, every time.
Set a wider, slightly open stance and lower your hands a touch so the shaft sits more vertical. Play the ball forward, around your lead instep, and keep your weight fairly centred rather than leaning hard into the lead side like a normal chip. This whole setup pre-loads height into the shot so you don’t have to manufacture it with your hands.
The flop is the high-risk end of a spectrum. Here’s how it compares to a standard pitch shot.
Golf Pitch Shot vs Chip Shot →Because the open face sends most of your energy upward rather than forward, a flop needs a surprisingly long, full swing for such a short shot. A tentative half-swing is what produces the dreaded skull. Commit to a bigger backswing than the distance suggests and let the loft — not a flick of the hands — do the work of getting the ball up.
The instinct to “help” the ball into the air by scooping is what ruins flop shots. Keep the clubhead accelerating down through the ball and finish high, trusting the loft you set up. The face stays open through impact so the club slides under the ball. Rehearse the feeling of the clubhead swishing through the grass under the ball a few times before you hit it for real.
With the face open, the wide sole (the bounce) is what should contact the turf, gliding under the ball rather than digging. This is why the flop works best from a decent lie with some cushion under the ball. On tight or hard lies the leading edge can catch first, and that’s when you thin it — which is exactly why lie selection is part of the technique, not an afterthought.
Thin contact isn’t unique to the flop. Here’s how to fix the most common cause of bladed short game shots.
How to Stop Chunking Chip Shots →Build the flop up gradually. Start from a fluffy lie with only a moderately open face and exaggerate accelerating through to a full finish. Once you’re making clean contact, open the face a little more and add height session by session. Trying to hit the highest possible flop on day one is how you learn to fear it.
The bigger skill is judgment: knowing when the flop is worth the risk versus when a simple chip gets you just as close with none of the danger. The only way to answer that honestly is to measure it. Scoring Zone’s Round Stats tracks your proximity to the hole and up-and-down percentage from around the green, so you can see whether your flop is genuinely saving shots or quietly costing them.
Not sure which short game shots to practise first? The Practice Assistant builds a session around your weakest areas.
Practice Assistant →A lob wedge of 58-60 degrees is ideal because it gives you the loft to launch the ball high and land it soft. You can flop with a 56-degree sand wedge too, just with a little less height. The key is a wedge with enough loft that you can open the face and still make solid contact.
Skulling a flop usually comes from trying to help the ball up and hitting it on the way past the bottom of the swing. With an open face and enough loft, you have to trust the club and keep accelerating down and through — the loft does the lifting. Deceleration and a scooping motion are the two biggest causes of the thin, screaming skull.
Avoid the flop off tight, hardpan lies or when a simpler chip or pitch will do the job. The flop has the smallest margin for error of any short game shot, so it’s a specialist tool for when you’re short-sided or need to carry an obstacle and stop quickly — not a default. If a bump-and-run gets you close, play that instead.
Start with a fluffy lie and a modest amount of face opening, and exaggerate accelerating through to a full finish. Build height gradually rather than trying to hit the highest shot possible on day one. Track your proximity to the hole from short game shots so you can see whether the flop is actually earning its place over a safer chip.
Stephen Pickering
3-handicap golfer with 25 years on the course. Built Scoring Zone to bring structure and pressure to short game practice. Writes about what actually works from the practice green, not the press box.
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