Winter 2025

TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT B Y L A I RD SMA L L Making an Impact ack Nicklaus once told me at a Nicklaus/Flick Golf School that he felt like he was trying to “apply the club to the ball” in a way that made it do what he wanted. In my opinion, he was using his mind and body—both past and present—to create a future shot.What a word: apply. No wonder he’s the GOAT in my eyes. Spend any time around a skilled golfer and you’ll notice something unmistakable—the sound of a pure strike. Though the ball only stays on the clubface for 0.0004 of a second, within that tiny window, magic hap- pens. The feedback shoots up the shaft, through your arms and—many would say—right into your soul. Solid impact is more important than direction. If you strike the ball consistently well, you’ll know how far each club carries. For example, if your 7-iron reliably goes 150 yards and the flag is at that distance, you can swing freely, without fear of coming up short in a bunker or water hazard at 135 yards. It’s often said that the entire golf swing exists to produce one thing: correct, repeatable impact. How you get there doesn’t matter nearly as much. Your grip, backswing, or tempo are secondary to how your club meets the ball. That idea is free- ing—especially when you notice that no two great swings look alike. But their impact positions? Nearly identical. The challenge lies in how you think about impact. Many amateurs mistakenly try to return to their setup position, but impact is dramatically different. It’s not a frozen position— it’s a dynamic motion the club moves through. The quest is to find out how impact feels, not just how it looks. Scott Ford’s “Integral Consciousness” approach explores this shift—from thinking about positions to entering a state of awareness where movement arises naturally. He encourages athletes to move from swing thinking to swing awareness. In this mode, the mind, body and motion are synchro- nized. Impact becomes less of a goal and more of a natural outcome. Ford’s model is built around cultivating awareness.You’re not trying to hit the ball—you’re allowing the swing to express itself. In this state, impact is anticipated and remembered before the club meets the ball. When you feel impact from the inside out, this is how the swing becomes both repeatable and magical. Although Ford was a tennis player, his model fits golf remarkably well. In tennis, the ball is moving; in golf, the club is. Yet in both, impact is the moment of flow. His teachings help golfers shift from mechanical thought to awareness, leading to greater consistency, creativity and enjoyment. Drill: Contact Awareness To access this state, try a simple awareness-based drill. Use a mid- iron and a target on grass or a mat that provides feedback. Before swinging, recall one of your best-feeling shots. Remember the sound, the sensation, the rhythm of that perfect contact. Don’t analyze—just relive it. This activates your “past stream,” the memory of success already within your system. Next, visualize the upcoming shot. See the ball’s flight, hear the com- pression, feel the clubface meeting the ball. This builds your “future stream,” a sensory map for your body to follow. At address, allow both sensations—past and future—to coexist in your awareness. You’re not remembering or predicting, just feeling both at once. Let your attention settle around where impact will occur, not only physically, but inter- nally. Then swing—not by forcing the motion, but by allowing it to emerge naturally. After each shot, resist the urge to judge the result. Instead, ask:What did that feel like at contact? Evaluate the quality of your awareness, not just the outcome. By repeating this process, you train your brain to prioritize attunement over analysis. Golf is ultimately a game of feel.The key question becomes: Do you have the correct feel? With awareness-based training and feedback, you can unite the worlds of mechanics and artistry to produce truly magical shots. Have fun learning—and even more fun feeling. 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. After each shot, resist the urge to judge the result. Instead, ask: What did that feel like at contact? J 102 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 5