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How to Stop Coming Over the Top
The downswing drills that fix your transition, whether it's costing you slices, pulls, or fat and
How to Hit a Flop Shot
A flop shot clears trouble and stops fast when you're short-sided. Here's how to hit one without blading it or chunking it into the ground.
When you're short-sided with no green to work with, a normal chip runs the ball straight past the flag. The flop shot is the answer: a high, soft-landing shot that clears the trouble in front of you and stops fast once it lands. Here's how to hit one without blading it over the green or chunking it 6 feet (1.8m).
- Open the face before you grip it: rotate the clubface open first, then take your grip. Gripping first and twisting the face open after tends to twist it back closed at impact.
- Play the ball forward: position it off your front foot to catch the club on the upswing of a shallow arc, adding loft instead of digging.
- Keep your weight forward and quiet: lean slightly onto your lead foot and leave it there through the swing. Weight that drifts back is the fastest way to hit this shot fat.
- Swing fully and keep accelerating: a flop needs a long, committed swing through impact. Deceleration, not a bad setup, is the number one cause of a fat or bladed flop.
- Commit to a landing spot, not a carry number: pick the exact patch of green you want the ball to land on and trust the loft to do the rest.
- Know when not to flop: if you have green to work with, a low running chip is the higher-percentage shot. Save the flop for when you're actually short-sided.
Open the clubface before you take your grip
The flop shot depends on loft you don't get from a standard wedge setup, and where that extra loft comes from is the first decision, before you even settle into your stance. Rotate the clubface open first, so it's aiming right of your target (for a right-handed golfer), and only then place your hands on the grip.
Golfers who grip the club normally and then try to twist the face open tend to lose that adjustment during the swing. The hands naturally want to return the face to square, so a face opened after the grip is set often closes back down through impact, turning what should be a soft, high flop into a low, hot line drive that skips through the green. Setting the face angle first and gripping around it locks the added loft in before the swing starts.
A 58 to 60 degree lob wedge is the standard tool for this shot. The extra loft compared to a sand wedge or gap wedge gives you more margin when you open the face further on top of it, so you're not relying on an already-maxed-out loft to do all the work.
Buy: Titleist Vokey SM10 Wedge (58° or 60°) on Amazon
Play the ball forward in your stance
Move the ball position forward, off your front foot, rather than centered or back like a standard chip. A forward ball position means you catch the ball slightly on the upswing of your swing arc instead of at the low point or on the way down, and that upward angle of attack is what turns clubhead speed into height instead of distance.
This is also where most flop shots go wrong for golfers used to a standard chipping setup. Ball position centered in the stance, which is correct for a bump-and-run, delivers the club on a descending path that digs into the turf and sends the ball low and hot. Forward of center for the flop lets the bounce of the wedge sole slide under the ball rather than digging in behind it.
Keep your weight forward and still
Set roughly 60 to 70 percent of your weight on your lead foot at address, and don't let it shift backward during the swing. This is a small, static adjustment compared to a full swing, but it matters more here because the margin for error on a flop shot is thin: any backward weight shift during the swing drops the low point of your arc behind the ball, and a low point behind the ball means the leading edge catches the ground first.
That's the fat flop shot, the one that moves the ball 2 feet (0.6m) and leaves you still short-sided with less green to work with than you started with. Keeping the weight forward and quiet through the strike keeps the low point of the swing in front of the ball, where the open face and forward ball position can do their job.
Make a full, accelerating swing through impact
This is the step that trips up more golfers than the setup does. A flop shot looks delicate, so the instinct is to swing gently, easing the club into the ball. That instinct is exactly backward. An open clubface has less effective loft to work with unless the club is moving through impact with real speed, and a swing that decelerates into the ball doesn't have enough energy left to get the ball up.
Deceleration is the single biggest cause of both a fat flop and a bladed one. Ease off coming into the ball and the club either stalls and digs (fat) or the open face and slowing hands let the leading edge catch the ball's equator instead of sliding underneath it (bladed, the one that skips across the green at knee height). The fix is a longer, fuller swing than the distance seems to call for, taken at a pace that keeps accelerating all the way through the shot rather than a short jab. Trust the wide-open face and the forward ball position to control the distance; let your swing length and speed stay full and committed.
Commit to a landing spot, not a number
Standard shots get planned around a carry distance: hit this club this far and let it release. A flop shot doesn't work that way, because so much of what happens after landing depends on how soft the shot comes down rather than how far it flew. Instead of a yardage, pick an actual spot on the green, a specific patch of grass, and aim to land the ball there.
Because a well-struck flop lands high and soft with minimal roll, the landing spot and the finishing spot end up close together, usually within a few feet (about 1m) of each other on a level green. That's different from a running shot, where the ball travels well past where it first touches down. Picking a precise landing spot rather than a target line also keeps your focus on the one variable the shot actually needs: height and touch, not distance control through roll.
When not to hit a flop shot
The flop shot solves one specific problem: no green between you and the flag, so anything but a high, soft landing runs through the green or into more trouble. That's a narrower situation than golfers often treat it as. If you have green to work with between your ball and the pin, a low running chip or bump-and-run is the higher-percentage shot almost every time.
A running shot spends more of its journey on the ground, where a slightly mishit strike is far more forgiving than in the air. The flop's technical demands (the open face, the exact ball position, the full accelerating swing) leave less room for error, so it should be the shot you reach for when the situation forces it, not the default short-game play. Our chipping vs. pitching breakdown covers the low-running option in more depth and is worth reading alongside this one if you're still sorting out which short-game shot fits which lie.
It's worth separating this from a rough-lie problem, too. A bad lie in the rough calls for a different adjustment, more loft or a steeper angle of attack depending on how the ball is sitting, not necessarily a full flop, and even knowing that distinction, the flop is still the shot I'm most likely to talk myself out of under pressure, since a bladed one across the green in front of a group is a specific kind of embarrassing. Our guide to hitting out of the rough covers lie-specific adjustments separately from the shot-selection question this piece is about.
How wedge choice changes the shot
A dedicated 58 to 60 degree lob wedge with a moderate to high bounce gives you the most margin for the technique above, since the extra loft means you don't have to open the face as extreme to get the same height, and a forgiving grind won't punish a slightly steep or shallow entry the way a low-bounce wedge will.
If you're building out a wedge set rather than buying a single lob wedge, the Cleveland CBX4 ZipCore is worth a look as a more forgiving option across the whole short game, flop shots included, particularly if you're still working on strike consistency. It trades a little of the shot-shaping control a tour-style grind offers for a wider margin on mishits, which is a fair trade for most weekend and improving golfers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What degree wedge is best for a flop shot?
A 58 to 60 degree lob wedge is the standard choice. The extra loft compared to a sand wedge or gap wedge gives you room to open the face further at address without needing an unrealistic amount of added loft from technique alone.
Why does my flop shot come out low and hot instead of high and soft?
This usually means the clubface closed back to square before impact, most often because the grip was set before the face was opened. Rotate the face open first, then place your hands on the grip, so the open position holds through the swing.
Why do I keep blading or chunking my flop shots?
Both misses trace back to the same cause more often than golfers expect: deceleration. Slowing the club down into impact either lets it stall and dig (a fat, chunked shot) or lets the open face catch the ball's equator instead of sliding underneath it (a bladed shot). A fuller, continuously accelerating swing fixes both.
Should I always use a flop shot around the green?
No. The flop is for when you're short-sided with no green to work with. If you have green between your ball and the flag, a low running chip or bump-and-run is more forgiving and the higher-percentage play in most situations.
Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This never influences what I cover or recommend. I link to gear I'd buy myself.
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