The dreaded flop shot in golf is one of the most difficult skills an amateur golfer can try to master so it’s good to know that someone as good as Tiger Woods is out there giving tips.
Playing a flop shot over a bunker or onto the green with little room to work with is one of the most feared shots in all of golf and it’s little wonder so many amateurs struggle.
With an open club face and so much room for error, those who play regularly can probably recall numerous times the ball has been thinned over the green or even gone a few yards in a chunk.
Luckily for us amateurs out there, 15-time major winner Tiger Woods is more than comfortable with hitting the old flopper, and he’s given out some useful tips in the past.
Tiger Woods’ tip for hitting a flop shot
After winning The Masters again in 2019, Tiger was hot property and there is plenty of content from him around that time.
However, one interesting piece on TaylorMade’s YouTube is his instruction video on how to hit a flop shot just like he does.
And for any amateur, it’s a tip worth listening to.
“So you may have hit an errant shot or even a good shot to get to this spot. Short-sided, or over a bunker,” Woods explains.
“For me, this is all depending on lie. I’ve got a tight fairway lie, down grain, I need to hit the ball high.
“Now for me, when I hit these shots, I always try to feel that the heel of the club is accelerating, and the toe of the club is never shutting down. So it’s important for me, I swing the hosel and I try to feel that the hosel and golf club is really moving at speed, like it gets faster as it gets towards the golf ball.
“I try and feel like the heel moves and then accelerates to a finish.”
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How Tiger Woods hits his famous stinger shot
While most golfers in the world can hit a flop shot and Woods’ advice here is worth heeding, Woods also has a few in the locker that not everyone can manage.
One of those is the famous ‘stinger’ shot he has hit all his career, where Woods fires the ball low, under the wind and like a bullet down the fairway.
Indeed, Woods has also given advice on the stinger before as well.
“I’m sure most of you have seen this shot. It’s a shot I’ll play quite often just to get the ball in play, whether it’s a three iron, four iron, or five wood, three wood, even sometimes a driver, it’s the same kind of shot.
“Because I’m hitting down on it, I like hitting a low draw with this one, so the more back I play it, obviously the more draw I’m going to have on it.
“So I go back just a little bit of my stance, really try and feel as if I make a normal back swing. I still get behind the ball, still load the right leg, but I really try and feel like this right shoulder gets on top of that golf ball. “It feels high, it feels like it’s covered. And one of the things that depends on how far I want to get down, or how low I want to hit it is how much I’ll take out on the follow through. And sometimes that’s one of the things that… I may hit it quite short, but it’s at the trajectory that I want.
“So I’ll hit down on it, but I’ll stop it quickly here. It’s not going to go as far, but it’s going to have a low height. It’ll be lower than tree height out there.
“So it stays out of the wind, never gets above the tree height. Go a little bit further, maybe a little bit higher, it would be right on tree height. So I really try to feel like I cover it, I get on top of it, now I’ll shut it off after that.”
With Woods now into his 50th year, it’s worth listening to such advice and while the execution might not be the same, anyone can improve from listening to one of the greatest to ever do it.
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