Having revealed the flop shot to several players in game with great results, I thought it might be beneficial to summarize it here.
The flop shot is characterized by a steep angle of attack in order to generate a high trajectory shot in the hopes of either dodging a steep bunker lip and/or landing the ball softly. The dynamics of a real flop shot are very well represented in WGT: When you switched into the flop category, you'll notice that your character will significantly open his or her stance and also open the club face. These variations allow the player to get the ball in the air quickly and land the shot softly.
How to prepare for an effective flop shot:
1. Considering the open stance and open club face, it follows that the shot is going to naturally spray the ball to the right, and indeed it will. You must accomodate for this by moving your target left of the pin anywhere from 10 to 40 degrees, depending on the length of the shot. Get a feel for how far left you need to set up in practice mode before taking the shot into ranked play or tournaments.
NOTE: Many players resort to clicking the swing meter early in order to hit the ball left as opposed to manually moving the target line. *This will not apply for the flop shot* If you make an attempt to accomodate for the push by clicking the swing meter early, you will practically duff the shot, and it won't even get airborne. Remeber that the swing meter not only determines how straight you hit the golf shot, it is also responsible for measuring how solidly you hit the shot.
Conditions that warrent the flop shot:
1. Uphill shots, especially into greens that slope away: The No. 4 Par 5 at Beth Page is a great example. Most second shots leave you with a nasty uphill shot to a pin placed on a steep downslope. These kinds of shots are taylormade (no pun intended) for the flop shot.
2. Steep bunker shots: I would imagine that, like me, most of you have gotten frustrated at a bunker and hit too delofted of a club, resulting in the ball slamming into the lip of the bunker and quite often putting you right back in the sand. If you haven't had an experience like this, you will when the Old Course at St. Andrews is implimented into WGT. Many elevated green side shots, either elevated by the depth of the bunker or otherwise, can be simplified by hitting a flop shot. Not only will you take the burden of reading the green out of play for a hopeful pitch shot, but you'll often be faced with shorter putts and will get up and down more consistently.