Fall 2024

The three key elements of a pre-shot routine—seeing, feeling and trusting—will help you to relax your conscious mind, allowing the subconscious mind to take over so that you can let it go, run the program and execute the shot. the hitting area; you’re brushing the turf where the ball is; you’re going to make a very high finish; you’re landing on your lead leg in perfect bal- ance.Those are up to you and they are part of the shot. TRUST Here’s the most difficult part. Can you trust what you just created in your mind and the feel of the shot? Which now means you’re going to walk into the shot, place the club behind the ball, have one last look at the target, and then swing your golf club freely. It doesn’t mean that you get up over your golf ball and then have 10 thoughts about your swing mechanics before you pull the club back.That check down list paralyzes our freedom of motion and is nowhere to be found at this time. The motion and shot which you created and has purpose, is what you are prepared to execute on. It does require some intentional practice to learn the pre-shot rou- tine on the range. First try it without a target, just the process. As you become more comfortable, add a target to the process, then choose other targets, then change clubs to different targets. You will be sur- prised at how fast this will become a part of your game as you see shot after shot flying towards your target! You may even hear your fellow golfers saying as they hit the shot—“SEE IT, FEEL IT,TRUST IT!” Golf is a game we play for a lifetime—be a lifelong learner. Laird Small recently retired from a nearly half-century career as a golf professional. Most well known for his 19 years of leadership of the Pebble Beach Golf Academy, Small is a PGA Master Professional, one of GOLF Magazine’s top 100 teachers in America and was 2003 National PGA Teacher of the Year. C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • F A L L 2 0 2 4 97 Photo: Sherman Chu