The Flop Shot is Dead

This has actually been going on for a while, but it stood out on Tuesday when I was at Bay Hill watching the practice round and then watching various golfers on the short game green.

For all intents and purposes...the flop shot is dead.

There's little reason to hit the flop shot as pros have discovered and mastered the high spinning pitch shot instead.  I use Calvin Peete's definition of a 'pitch shot' as any time the wrists bend and start to cock.  A chip shot has little to no bend of the wrists in the backswing.

With Tour players, anytime they get into the pitch shot territory the last thing they want to do these days is to hit a flop.  They would just rather hit a lower trajectory shot that spins a ton and stops on a dime.  My guess is that when you get at lower trajectories, it's easier to control the distance than the high launch flop shot.  One of the players I noticed doing the high spinning, low trajectory pitch shot beautifully was Matt Every.  Every even opens the club face a bit, but still gets a lower trajectory that stops in a hurry.

Here's a video from Martin Chuck discussing this shot and hopefully you can add this shot into your game for better and more predictable results:







3JACK