Lee Westwood's Flop Shot Technique

This is the "extra" that GC did for last night's Playing Lessons show. Lee Westwood shows Holly Sonders how to play a flop shot... and I'm posting it because his technique is a bit different from other players I've seen.



Westwood plays from a wide square stance, rather than the narrow open stance preferred by many players. I guess this is because he wants to make sure he's steady as he swings; if you want to pull off a successful flop shot, accurate contact is essential.

Although he doesn't mention it, it appears that Lee has the ball just slightly ahead of the center of his stance. It's almost (but not quite) under his lead ear. I grabbed this image from the video; it appears that he sets up with the shaft vertical and pointing at the ball and his lead ear (remember, the club face is open so he's probably hitting this shot slightly off the toe of the club). His weight is slightly on his trailing side.



Otherwise Lee is pretty orthodox, playing with an open face, a waist-high swing, and catching the ball at the very bottom of his swing arc so the club face is pointing almost straight up to the sky. You do NOT want to hit down on the ball when you flop. If you do, you'll get a rocket over the green!

This shot will certainly take a little practice to learn but Lee's method looks very simple.

If for some reason the video didn't embed properly, you can find the original here.