What Does a Flop Shot in Golf Mean?

A golf ball sitting close to the hole, but with a bunker standing guard between you and the pin, can be one of the most stressful sights in golf. With no green to work with, a normal chip shot won't cut it. This is the moment for a specialty shot: the high, soft-landing flop shot. This guide will teach you exactly what a flop shot is, how to identify the perfect time to use one (and when not to), and the step-by-step technique to add this shot-saving weapon to your game.

What is a Flop Shot, Really?

Think of the flop shot as the short game's equivalent of a parachute drop. It’s a golf shot hit with a high-lofted wedge C and a unique technique designed to send the ball extremely high into the air and land very softly on the green, with almost no roll. Unlike a standard chip shot, which flies low and runs out toward the hole, or a pitch shot that has a medium trajectory and some release, the flop shot is all about vertical performance. The goal is to maximize air time and minimize ground time.

Phil Mickelson made this shot famous with his fearless creativity around the greens. When he pulls off a seemingly impossible recovery over a bunker to a tight pin, he’s demonstrating the power of the flop. It’s a high-risk, high-reward shot that relies more on finesse and technique than brute force. When done correctly, it can turn a sure bogey into an easy par. But, because it's so specialized, understanding when and how to deploy it is the most important part of the equation.

Pick Your Moments: When to Hit a Flop Shot

Pulling off a great flop shot starts with reading the situation correctly. It’s not an everyday shot, it’s a problem-solver for very specific scenarios. Here are the green-light situations where you should consider playing the flop:

• When You're "Short-Sided": This is the classic flop shot scenario. Being short-sided means you've missed the green on the same side the pin is located. For example, the pin is on the right side of the green, and your ball is in the rough just off the right edge. You have very little green to land the ball on and let it roll. You need to land the ball beside the pin and have it stop almost immediately.
• Getting Over an Obstacle: If there's a bunker, a patch of long grass, or even a sprinkler head between you and a tightly-tucked pin, the flop shot can be your hero. It gives you the height needed to carry the trouble and land the ball softly on the other side. A lower-running pitch might clip the obstacle or land and roll too far past the hole.
• Downhill Greens and Fast Surfaces: Hitting to a green that slopes away from you or is lightning fast can feel impossible. Any shot with forward momentum is likely to race past the hole. A flop shot, with its steep angle of descent, is like a drop of rain - it hits and stops, neutralizing the effects of the slope or speed of the green.

There's one non-negotiable requirement for all of these situations: you need a good lie. A proper flop shot requires you to slide the club under the ball cleanly. The ball must be sitting up on a nice cushion of grass. We call this a "fluffy lie," and it's your absolute best friend here.

The Danger Zone: When You Should NOT Hit a Flop Shot

Just as important as knowing when to hit a flop is knowing when to leave the high-lofted wedge in the bag. Attempting this shot from the wrong lie or in the wrong situation is one of the quickest ways to add strokes to your score. Put the flop shot away in these circumstances:

• Tight or Bare Lies: This is rule number one. If your ball is on hardpan, thin turf, or bare dirt, do not attempt a flop shot. The technique requires using the "bounce" of the club (the rounded sole) to glide under the ball. On a tight lie, that bounce has nowhere to go. It will hit the hard ground and recoil into the middle of the ball, sending a bladed "skull" screaming across the green at knee height. This is the shot that breaks hearts and windows.
• Deep, Tangled Rough: While a fluffy lie is great, buried in deep, gnarly rough is not. The long hosel and open clubface of the flop shot setup can easily get tangled in the thick grass, slowing the club down or twisting it shut. In this case, a steeper, more "V-shaped" chop with a squarer clubface is a much better play to just get the ball on the putting surface.
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The flop shot is a specialty shot, not a standard one. If you have plenty of green to work with between you and the hole, hitting a simple bump-and-run with a 9-iron or a standard pitch with a pitching wedge is a much higher-percentage play. The goal of golf is to score as low as you can, not to look as flashy as you can. Save the flop for when you truly need it.
• Into a Strong Headwind: Hitting a ball that hangs in the air for a long time directly into wind is asking for trouble. The wind can knock it straight down, or worse, blow it backward. Pick a lower, more piercing shot in windy conditions.

Choosing Your Weapon: The Right Club for the Flop

To produce maximum height, you need a club built for the job. Your standard pitching wedge (around 46-48 degrees) or even a sand wedge (54-56 degrees) typically won't provide a steep enough launch angle for a true flop.

• Loft is Your Friend: The most common tools for the flop are the Lob Wedge (LW), typically with 58, 60, or even 64 degrees of loft. This extreme loft is what generates that signature "fountain-like" trajectory. If you are serious about adding this shot to your arsenal, a 60-degree wedge is a great place to start.
• Understanding Bounce: Bounce is the angle on the sole of the wedge that prevents it from digging into the ground. For flop shots from fluffy lies, a wedge with higher bounce (10-14 degrees) is generally more forgiving. It helps the club skim nicely along the top of the turf, sliding under the ball without getting stuck. Think of it like the hull of a boat helping it glide over the water.

Master the Move: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Flop Shot

Alright, you've found the perfect fluffy lie, you're short-sided, and you’ve got your 60-degree wedge in hand. It’s time to execute. Follow these steps, and remember that this feels very different from a normal golf swing. That’s okay. Embrace the difference.

Step 1: The Setup

Your setup pre-programs the high, soft shot. It will feel strange at first.

• Go Wide: Take a stance that is wider than your normal pitch shot stance, almost as wide as for a mid-iron. This provides a stable base for the longer, faster swing required.
• Open Up: Aim your feet, hips, and shoulders significantly left of your a tually target (for a right-handed golfer). This open stance encourages you to swing the club on an "out-to-in" path relative to the target line, which helps cut under the ball and add loft.
• Open the Face: This is a big one. Before you even take your grip, rest the club on the ground and rotate the face so it’s pointing up towards the sky. Once the face is wide open, then you take your grip. If you take your normal grip and then try to twist your hands to open the face, your body will instinctively want to return to a square position at impact. Set the face open first.
• Ball Position: Play the ball forward in your stance, somewhere off the instep of your lead foot (your left foot for a righty). This will help you catch the ball at the bottom of the swing arc.

Step 2: The Grip

With the clubface wide open, take your normal grip. You don't need to do anything strange here. The one thing you might notice is that your grip feels "weaker" (your hands might seem rotated more to the left for a righty). This is a byproduct of gripping an open face, and it's perfect, as a weak grip makes it harder to close the face through impact.

Step 3: The Swing

The flop shot swing is longer, faster, and shallower than a typical pitch.

• The Takeaway: With a nice, relaxed feeling in your arms, take the club back on the line created by your open stance. Let your wrists hinge early and fully. Unlike a chip shot where you keep the wrists quiet, the wrists are active here to help generate clubhead speed and height. The backswing should be much longer than you’d expect for such a short shot - at least to three-quarter length, sometimes even fuller.
• The Downswing (Commitment is Everything!): Here is where it all comes together or falls apart. You *must* accelerate through the ball. The most common mistake is decelerating out of fear of hitting it too far. Commit to the shot. The feeling you want is to keep the clubface pointing to the sky for as long as possible, and slide the big, bouncy sole of the club under the golf ball. You aren’t hitting the ball, you are cutting the grass out from underneath it.
• The Follow-Through: As you accelerate through impact, continue rotating your entire body towards the target. Keep the clubface open and let the club swing up and around to a full finish. A great swing thought is to have the club face, even after the ball has gone, pointing back at you. This proves that you maintained your loft and didn’t flip your wrists shut. You should finish in a completely balanced position, with your chest facing the target.

Final Thoughts

The flop shot is a high-level finesse shot, a get-out-of-jail-free card that, when executed properly, turns a likely bogey into a brilliant chance at par. The entire move hinges on reading the situation correctly, choosing a fluffy lie, and then committing 100% to a long, accelerating swing where you trust the loft of the club to do the work.

Mastering a high-stakes shot like the flop comes down to practice and knowing exactly the right moment to pull it out of the bag. On the course, that decision can be tricky. That's why we built Caddie AI. When you're standing over a tough shot and are unsure if the lie is suitable for a flop, you can snap a photo of the ball. Our on-demand golf expert will analyze the situation for you, providing a smart, simple recommendation on the best way to play it. it takes the guesswork out of golf’s toughest challenges, so you can commit to every swing with total confidence.