You may have seen the Mickelson flop on TV and he’s obviously unbelievable at it, but it’s a tough shot to compare yourself to. It takes a lot of manipulation with the hands, a lot of time, a lot of practice, and it’s just not going to be that reliable because of the amount of time it takes to do it consistently.
With the straight arm technique, you just have to make a couple of alterations in your setup in order to get the ball to do what you want it to do; go up in the air and land soft.
Start by taking a normal setup position for chipping and pitching now widen your stance out a little bit to make a bigger swing, you need to turn further so you want a solid base.
Next, open the club face up to increase the loft. For a right-hander, that’s going to point the club out to the right, which you then need to counteract by opening your feet up, left of the target. This will get the club moving along your foot line which will get the ball going toward your intended target.
The swing is going to feel like an extension of your pitching motion but may require some trail elbow bend, depending on the distance of the shot. Keep your wrists firm and your club wide.
The most important thing to remember when you make this swing: keep the club wide, shallow, and keep the chest moving. You need to accelerate into your downswing. If the chest slows down, you’re going to be in trouble. The club could get stuck in the ground or you could thin it across the green.
So, remember, big swing and keep the chest moving to get your desired outcome for distance with the straight arm flop.