Flopping 'eck...

I'm trying to keep things simple and my chipping is slowly improving. Having looked at a recent thread on the GM forum regarding flop shots, I decided to give trying them a miss. Then a new thread emerged where one forumer had given the advice a whirl and it had proved a revelation. He'd just broken 100 so I thought I might as well give it a go on my lunchtime practice session. And stone the crows I struck every single one well. Off they flew miles into the air and landed softly, I was stunned.

Now I still have my issues with distance control, as I have with all my chipping and pitches, but direction was good and no thins. It's a shot that definitely needs work but I can think of at least two holes on my new club track where it will be a handy shot to know. At the moment it's a work in progress to be used on the par 3 course and practice sessions, but it may well make an appearance in competition later this summer.

Huge thanks to nowtfancy and jammydodger (for spurring me on), BrianDamage (for the original thread) and all the other forumers that offered their advice.

Comments:

Swinger
Glad to hear your over coming a ‘fear’ of flop shots mate. If you practise this it can be key in posting a half decent score when the swing is off. It can turn a bogey in to a par and a double in to a single. If your swinging well on the day you probably won’t hit any. You just need to be positive when things are off that you can still give your self a chance from behind that bunker or behind that hedge!!

It takes alot of practise to get good at but time practising this shot is time well spent as it will help bring you touch and feel on for all shots around the green. I do tend to practise this shot more than other chips and pitches and enjoy hitting these shots well on the course. On sunday I hit 3 fairways and about 8 greens in reg and walked off shooting my H/C of 4 after a very bad ball striking round. I wasn’t impressed overall but had some great up and downs and got away with a few really bad apprach shots with some great flop shots, that I enjoyed.

Stick with it mate and it’ll be a useful tool for all your golfing life. Don’t worry if you do catch a few thin mate, it’s all part of the learning process. Out of interest what club are you using for your flop shots?? I use a 60 deg Vokey with 4 deg of bounce on it. The low bounce makes it really easy to open up off tighter lies. If you are going to play flop shots off tighter lies then I would suggest you have a lob wegde with very low bounce like mine otherwise the margin for error is even tighter.

Tiger
Hey Swinger, I love the flop shot especially as there’s minimal roll. Seeing it just stop dead where you were aiming is a great feeling. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lob in the bag so at the moment I’m using my 52 with 8 degrees of bounce. I have to say I have no idea what I’m going to do when I review my bag at the end of May.

I’m currently thinking that I will end up purchasing 16 clubs and then chop and change depending on course and conditions. However, the critical question is what order…in fact I’m going to write a blog post about that now.

Thanks for the support and advice.