Is this the most practical shot in the world? No. Is it even the most useful? Probably not. Is it a shot that you should use often? Not that either—in fact, most of us should probably avoid trying to hit this shot.
But this shot looks cool, dammit. It's the flop shot off a tight lie, and Phil Mickelson claims it's not even that hard with his swing thought for it.
Lefty's tip came via an hour-long video called "The Art of Chipping with Phil Mickelson" on Phil's HyFlyers YouTube channel.
First things first, Phil recommends a few basic setup tweaks:
- Ball position forward
- Weight 65-35 on front foot
- High-lofted wedge
- Open face wide
After you make those adjustments, it's time for Phil's feel:
"When I'm hitting a flop shot, I'm basically just trying to drive the club into the ground. I'm going to lay that club flat, and feel like I'm trying to drive the back of the toe into the ground."
You can see Phil demonstrate the feeling here.
Then hit a nasty flop shot with it here.
It's the latter part of his quote that really stuck with me: The feeling of driving the back of the toe of the club into the ground. This allows you to use the bounce of the club, while delivering lots of loft to the ball.
You can watch Phil's full video below, or find a recipe for a more basic chip shot right here.