The Chicken Wing, Interrupted

I was over at my friendly neighborhood driving range the other day, and noticed something revealing about most amateur golfers. Most bend their forward arms in all the wrong places compared to the pros. Of course, it got me to wondering why this is. As Oscar Langman, the driving range pro in Philly who taught me how to play in 1960, emphasized, the forward arm is key to maintaining a measured swing, delivering the clubhead back at impact to the same spot at address. Without it, there is not much possibility of keeping the ball in position, hitting it far, and particularly hitting it high. Mostly, you’ll slice, pull, scoop, or top it. I know: the older I get, the more that arm bends somewhere in the back or forward swings. We’ve even given it an Oh-so special identifying tag: the chicken wing.

No need to believe me on this. Here’s what the Hawk himself, Ben Hogan, had to write on the matter, particularly in relation to the shoulder turn on the backswing: “…but the truth is that few golfers really complete their shoulder turn. They stop turning when the shoulders are about halfway around; then, in order to get the clubhead all the way back, they break the left arm. This is really a false backswing. It isn’t any backswing at all. A golfer can’t have control of the club or start down into the ball with any power or speed unless his left arm is straight to begin with. When he bends his left arm, he actually performs only a half swing and he forfeits half his potential power. More than this, he then is led into making many exhausting extra movements that accomplish nothing for him.”      from Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf

But why do higher handicap players persist in bending the right or left arm, depending if they’re a right or left-handed player? For one thing, most people have a hard time with this since keeping that arm as straight as it needs to be is not a natural position. Watch people walk or stand in line or jog or get on a bus or eat lunch: You’ll never see a perfectly straight right or left arm in most daily activities. And even if a teaching pro ever gets a beginner to do it, the outcome results in a deep gash made to that beautiful turf called a fairway. This is difficult for both women and men to accept what with keeping things tidy and tending to the grass at home. This may be the underlying cause of why golf is losing participants and courses are going under.

More likely is that most average amateurs have limited flexibility to keep the arm straight while completing a full backswing, And it doesn’t take a Hank Haney to predict that chunks, sculls, and tops will result. Without the measured swing, there’s no telling what will come next. But mainly, it’s highly that no divot will be taken with an iron, denying the club its ability to get the ball airborne with enough spin to hold the green.

Ah yes, the divot. I once attempted a full 9-iron as a boy in my living room and took a divot in the rug, hiding it from my mother by sewing it back together with heavy duty thread. I think I was 50 and she was 80 before I told her, and had a good laugh about it. We get the message early on that we shouldn’t put holes in pretty things where no holes are intended. And so when we’re told to replace divots on a golf course, our minds go back to childhood, telling us we’re really not supposed to make divots. We soon find that bending the forward arm will effectively let us scoop the ball off the turf without even a scuff to the lovely grass. The problem gets compounded when beginners see that more seasoned golfers often don’t replace their divots anyway, making the place look like hell. All they have to do is keep that forward arm bent and the problem doesn’t even get started.

But golf has a built in motivator to get people to change: the desire to improve. All golfers everywhere want to get better and have more fun, because, beside sex and Cuban cigars, there is just nothing quite like the feel of a well-struck golf shot. The answer to this bent arm conundrum is obvious but one which many golfers will have a hard time accepting and performing. You complete the backswing when the shoulders can no longer turn without the forward arm bending. The more you can turn the shoulders, the farther your ball will go, but only if you don’t bend the forward arm. Remember Mr. Hogan’s admonition. For you older folks, think Chi Chi, Trevino, Doug Sanders, and watch Jack closely when he makes straightening his left arm actually part of his forward press to start his swing. And for present-day examples there are J.B. Holmes, Steve Stricker, Robert Allenby, Tim Clark, and Mike Weir. Speaking of aging, by the way, the older and less flexible you/I/we all get, the shorter that shoulder turn will become. Same principle, though: Keep the forward arm straight through the hitting area. You’ll hit the sweet spot more often and the increasingly hi-tech clubs and balls will help you out (as they have for all the fortunate pros on the Champions Tour).

Of course, there’s more to a good swing than a measured, forward arm, but this is one essential that you can’t bypass in making progress in avoiding dubbed shots. An old Buddhist teacher of mine, after presenting his lecture, used to tell us, “But don’t just listen to me: Go out and try it for yourself.” Especially in my case, since I have a masters degree in psychology, played a couple years for my high school golf team, and taught junior golf in the summer of ’78 in New Hampshire.

And about those fairway divots? Straighten out those chicken wings and take those divots. Just like the good players do on the range. Just replace them on the course and everything will stay all neat and tidy.