We call it a Phil’: How to hit this flop shot, according to …

Brendan Steele has a name for the shot he was having a few attempts at. A first name.

He told that to the first name’s owner, who was standing a couple of yards to his right.

“I picked this shot up in watching you,” Steele said to Phil Mickelson.

“We call it a ‘Phil.’ And I use it when it’s extreme. …

“Do I need to ‘Phil’ this?”

To his fellow pro and LIV Golf teammate, Phil answered. They were talking on a recently released video, where Mickelson and Steele were 25 or so yards away from a practice green and Steele was seeking counsel. He’d likely hit one of Mickelson’s specialities before, a high-arcing flopper from an into-the-grain lie, toward a putting surface with little room to work with and an upslope in front of it. Steele had named the shot, after all. But he was seemingly curious, and Mickelson seemingly obliged.

Here, you should watch the video, and it’s below. Below that, we’ll offer a few notes.

Mickelson’s first steps were a few, and they saw first that the ball was into the grain of the grass. Mickelson said Steele had to commit to the flop. Mickelson also said Steele wouldn’t bounce his wedge into the shot. The club would go underneath the ball, and it would come off “slow.”

“And drive it down in there,” Steele said. But he didn’t have to.

“You don’t have to go too hard,” Mickelson said, “because it’s not going to bounce in the ball.”

Here, with a mostly square stance and his club going back about 75 percent, Steele hit, and his ball came up short.

Mickelson saw an issue.

“You have to use speed, though,” he said.

Steele tried again. Mickelson again said he didn’t have to go as far into the ground “because the grain is going to keep it under; it’s not bouncing into the ball.” Because it was downgrain, too, Steele would also have to keep some weight forward “because the club wants to bounce.”

Steele, Mickelson said, “would also have to commit to the speed.”

“So I want you to try and fly it,’ Mickelson continued. “Like, it’s going to fly 15-20 feet short of where you’re thinking. So try and fly it almost halfway to the hole.”

Steele hit. His ball finished closer to the target.