MA Swing: Arnold Parlmer Through the Years

 

The video above shows clips of Arnold Palmers golf swing through the years. Arnold was one of the prototypical Muscular Advantage (MA) players. During his prime, Palmer was criticized by golf commentators and instructors for having an "ugly" swing given the golfing style standards of the day. Tour players were simply not very muscular and needed long, flowing, smooth, syrupy wings to hit the ball well. Things have changed!

Golfers of all body types have embraced strength training and, today, they look more like Arnold Palmer than Sam Snead. If you are a golfer and a gym rat, the Palmer Swing is worth serious study. 

In other posts, I will take the swing apart (it's a simple swing, not many moving parts) and explain the details. For this post, here is a guide for repeated viewing of the clip above:

• First Viewing Study the swing length. It is essentially a half swing in the width dimension. When Palmer was younger, he could swing a bit more in the depth and height dimensions. As he aged, it became a pure width swing. 
• Second Viewing Study the tempo. This is a fast, hard swing. Palmer always said: "Hit the Ball Hard". Too many of the Amateurs I play with have been told to "swing smoothly". If you are not an MA player, a smooth, syrupy swing is necessary. If you have developed muscular strength by spending time in the gym, hit the ball hard and use your muscular advantage. Palmer hit the ball hard all through his life, the swing just got a little shorter.
• Third Viewing Study the left knee. Palmers left knee moves forward on the backswing. He's not doing this for style points and he's not deliberately doing anything with his left knee. The Knee moves out as he stays centered over the ball. Many MA players, myself included, have a problem hitting fat shots, that is hitting behind the ball. This is because our upper body moves into the width dimension but does not return, centered over the ball. I prefer to preset the left knee outward with my weight on my left side.**
• Fourth Viewing Study the right elbow, it stays very close to his body. This part of the swing becomes easier to see in the later videos, as the swing gets shorter. You should feel the right tricep in contact with your body until the moment when you hit the ball (it will actually leave a little earlier). This is what it means to keep the swing connected to your body. The right elbow makes sure that the swing stays short and on plane, allowing you to hit the ball hard. If you are an MA player that has trouble hitting over the top or pulling shots to the left, the fix is to keep you right elbow connected.

The video clips above are always worth repeated viewing, checking your swing length (short, width dimension), tempo (hit hard), left knee (out to stay centered) and right elbow (stay attached for inside path). For more detail, see the posts below.

Notes

** I am a left-side dominant player. You might not be, my hitting the ball with your eight on the left side produces a very solid hit, perfect for the MA player. You can hit off your right side or stay centered when the ball is teed up, if that feels more comfortable.

• One-Piece Takeaway, inside path No wrist rotation.
• Posture Bend from the hips.
• Grip Long thumb.
• Leg Action Knee shift or preset.
• Learning the Half Swing
• Muscular Advantage
• Left Arm at Impact Not Straight!
• Calvin Peete Everything moving forward, half swing.
• Stack and Tilt It will help you stay centered!
• My Arnold Palmer Story

MA Swing: Arnold Palmer

 

Golf Swing "Flaw" Shared by Speith and Palmer

Jordan Speith just won the British Open to give him three Major championships plus winning the 2015 Fed Ex Cup. He is 23 years old. Speith's career is interesting because he has so quickly risen into the ranks of Golf's great players, comparable to Tiger Woods great career at this point, But what is even more interesting is that Jordan's golf swing has a swing flaw, called the chicken wing. What is even more interesting is that he shares that "swing flaw" with Arnold Palmer.

In the two images above, Arnold Palmer and Jordan Speith's swings are captured at the moment of impact. Both players have a very slight bend or bow in the left arm. Conventional golf instruction (here) holds that the left arm should form a straight line with the club at impact. Ignoring why golf instructors call the chicken wing a flaw, Palmer and Speith had very good reasons for what they were and are doing.

I followed Palmer in a exhibition match he played in the 1960s at Brown Deer Municipal Golf Course in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (my story is here as is a great video of Palmer's golf swing). My impression of Palmer's play was that he was very accurate, always hitting his drives down the middle, always very accurate with his irons. At the time, I had no idea why Palmer was such an accurate player. To a young high school-age kid, he was just "the King".

A few years ago, I found Plamer's instructional book Play Great Golf: Mastering the Fundamentals of Your Game in a dusty antique shop, bought it and read his first chapter ("The Five Fundamentals") very carefully. His fifth fundamental, accelerate through the ball, especially caught my attention and had a big impact on my game.

However, it was not until I viewed the video above on Jordan Speech's swing and recalled the first image above from Palmer's book (page 35) that I put it all together. Both Speith and Palmer used the "chicken wing" to hold the face square at impact, greatly improving their accuracy (the video explains very clearly the negative consequences of rotating the hands open on the backswing and closed on the follow through). I cannot do a better job of explaining this than is done in the video, but I can say that adding the "chicken wing" to Palmer's "acceleration" fundamental has greatly improved my accuracy and distance control.

EXERCISES

If you have been convinced by this discussion of two great golf swings (remember that Palmer's swing was also criticized by golf professionals of his day here), the next question is how to learn the chicken wing. Interestingly enough, this was easy for me because I was trained by Howie Atten, a local teaching pro outside Milwaukee (his Edgewater golf course in Grafton, WI is described on page 18 of this article) to use the chicken wing when hitting all my partial wedges (quarter- and half-swing).

Also, surprisingly enough, this is how Jordan Speith hits his wedges (images above and video here). My suggestion is to begin learning the chicken wing with pitching and chipping. Set up with the left arm bowed outward away from the body. Take the club back by first moving the clubs with your wrists (for very short chips, this is all you have to do) and the swing forward holding the angle of your wrists, maintaining the bow in your left arm while hitting down on the ball and through. You are concentrating on maintaining the club face square (as described in the video above) back and accelerate through impact smoothly.

The chicken-wing chip is very similar to Phil Mickelson's hinge-and-hold method (here) and Berhard Langer's chipping technique (here). It should also be noted that in Palmer's Five Fundamentals he comments (in the section on the grip, page 23):

To score well on the golf course, however, you have to be precise, both in the distance and the direction you hit the ball. You have to make contact squarely on the club face every time to get it airborne on a desired trajectory. Because so much more precision is required in golf, there is little room for error in the wrists. Remember, the correct grip controls the wrists. It prevents them from making excess movement, which ruins ball control.

In a future post, I will discuss the grip. If you are having trouble working the chicken wing into your full swing, it is probably your grip that is the problem. For the time being, concentrate on pitching and chipping.

My Arnold Palmer (1929-2016) Story

In some ways, history has been unkind to Arnold Palmer. He is remembered for blowing a seven shot lead at the 1966 U.S. Open and his early-career swing was often criticized as "far from pretty," "will never win any prizes for aesthetics or grace," and lacking in "style points". His swing today gets even more criticism for poor setup and excessive head movement (here).

Palmer himself has been very self-depricating about his golf swing. Some comments I have heard him make include "I didn't really understand the golf swing very well," "My iron play was a detriment to my golf," "I hit the ball too low," "I really didn't win that much," etc.

I have a few Palmer stories. In the 1960s, I saw him play an exhibition round (I think with Gary Player and George Bayer) at the Brown Deer Golf Club in Milwaukee, WI. What struck my high school golf team and me was Palmer's ball flight. His drives started off low and took off like an F-80 jet fighter plane. Palmer also gave an exhibition (probably during the same time period) at the Odana Hills Golf Club in Madison, WI. On the 16th hole, a rock was placed for many years where Palmer hit his drive well over 300-yards in the left rough. Although the course was not watered during this period, the hole does play into the prevailing winds and Palmer was using a wooden-headed driver and a wound balata ball! It brings to mind Palmer's 346-yard drive on the first hole of the final round in the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills.

Unfortunately, for my high school golf team and me, Palmer did not write an instructional book until I was an adult (however that book, Play Great Golf: Mastering the Fundamentals of Your Game, is worth detailed study by every golfer). In the 1960s, we were pretty much limited to learning what we could (which was a lot, especially about course strategy) from the Niklaus instruction books. The Niklaus swing, however, was not well suited for me (right now I agree with Zach Johnson, never hit a fade). Looking back on my golf career, copying Palmer would have been more appropriate.

The video, above, is really fun. It shows Palmer's early career swing (you can see Palmer's current swing here) with a lot of fun analysis including the launch of a five-stage rocket. The assertion in the video is that Palmer had the most efficient golf swing they have ever analyzed in slow motion.

A few things I can point out that are not part of current golf instruction except Stack & Tilt, Shawn Foley, the new (old) Tiger Woods swing and a few others (here): (1) Head steady and centered, (2) right leg straightens on the backswing and left knee moves out toward the ball, (3) swing starts with the lower body (specifically, the left knee moving toward the target), and (4) the hands are the last swing component (stage 5 of the rocket launch) to move on the downswing. It's important to note that the swing is not a "hit" but rather a "move" starting with the lower body. If Palmer was really "hitting it hard" there would have been less leg movement and less shoulder turn. Palmer did hit it hard but it was a result of the complete move.

By the way, where did the current received wisdom about "moving your head 12 inches behind the ball" on the backswing come from? Certainly not from the swings of either Arnold Palmer, Jack Niklaus or any of that generation except possibly Trevino. And, more importantly, why is the lateral head movement superior or even necessary? Questions, questions, so many questions!

Let's also keep in mind that Arnold Palmer was still playing a lot of golf at Bay Hill Country Club right up to this January, still loved to play and has had no major career golf injuries of which I'm aware. In a sport that generates a lot of back, wrist, shoulder and elbow injuries, Palmer's swing and physique definitely allowed for longevity.

Finally, let's not forget Arnold Palmer's record (here): Amateur Wins (26), Professional Wins (94), Masters (4), U.S. Open (1) and British Open (2).