The straight arm shoulder stretch is a simple yet effective exercise for stretching the muscles in your shoulders and upper back. Here's how to perform the stretch:

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and maintain good posture, with your spine straight and shoulders relaxed.
2. Extend one arm straight out in front of you at shoulder height, palm facing down.
3. Keeping your arm straight, use your opposite hand to gently pull the extended arm across your body towards the opposite shoulder.
4. Feel the stretch in the back of your shoulder and upper back.
5. Hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds, focusing on deep and relaxed breathing.
6. Release the stretch and repeat on the other arm.
7. Perform several repetitions on each side, gradually increasing the intensity of the stretch as you feel more comfortable.
8. Remember to keep your movements smooth and controlled, avoiding any jerking or bouncing motions.

The straight arm shoulder stretch helps to improve shoulder flexibility, range of motion, and posture, which are all important for a fluid and efficient golf swing. It can be done as part of a warm-up routine before playing golf or as a standalone stretching exercise. If you experience any pain or discomfort during the stretch, ease off or stop the exercise and consult with a healthcare professional.

It's one key area in the golf swing that you'll often hear golf coaches banging on about, me in particular, I’m a real big fan of trying to keep the left arm straight for the right-handed golfer in the backswing, that front arm nice and straight coming through and often golfers particularly brand new beginners to playing golf tell me that they find that really difficult and it really stretches and that's because they're just not used to using this part of that muscle. I can amplify for that because when I make a left-handed swing which I don’t do all the time, that again feels so much tighter going to that way than it does my normal golf swings as I’m used to doing this more regularly so it's a really nice stretching exercise if you struggle keeping your front arm straight.

Stand up nice and tall, feet shoulder width apart, facing head on into a mirror or window. Take your front arm right out in front of your body and then pull it round across your body as far as it will go, just being careful that you're not rotating from the shoulders here. That's not the point. We’re trying to keep the shoulders square on and pull the arm across. Then take your right hand and pull the back of the elbow and pull it across your chest. Hold on to it for a few seconds. You're fairly stretched all down here, down the triceps as well as I’m pulling out across the body for a few seconds and then alternate other arm out in front and pull across. Although for the right-handed golfer pulling your right arm isn't necessarily as important as your left arm for your golf swing, you don’t want to get too imbalanced. You want to a nice body balance so pulling this arm across as well and holding it across your chest for a few seconds and again doing that, holding it for maybe 10 seconds, again not balancing it, not pulling across. Do that four or five times on each side. Great warming up exercise for your shoulders and it should pay dividends as you start to make your backswing.