Time Off

I was able to be home in MN over the 4th of July. A good friend of mine had some extra frequent flyer miles and offered to fly me home so I could spend some time with my family and friends. I was very appreciative and had a great time.
The Egolf Tour is in it's last two weeks of the regular season. I am not playing in these events for the same reason I have been not playing in the prior events, money. I remain very positive and I am doing everything that I can to get back out there as soon as possible.
I am hoping to play in some of the fall series events that take place in September and October.
As for my game, it is improving. During this time off, I have had a lot of time to evaluate the year so far and the things about my game that were costing me strokes on the golf course. This time off has also allowed me to make some of the changes to my swing that I didn't want to venture into while I was in tournaments.
I was fighting an occasional hook. I figured out that it was due to my ball position and also my position at the top of my backswing. I was a little too far from the ball and my hands were not in front of the ball at address. At the top of my backswing, I was making a little extra move that was closing down my clubface. I have moved closer to the ball and my hands are now more forward. As to eliminating the closing down of the clubface, that is going to take a little more time because as I know from the past, this is something I have fought ever since I made my swing one that favored a draw.
So, I will be continually working on these changes and caddying as much as I can to make money. Other than that, there isn't much else that goes on down here.
I hope everyone is well and enjoyed Independence Day!!

Heat!

A lot of time has passed since my last post, but there is not much to inform everyone on. I have been caddying as much of possible to make money, and practicing whenever I am not working. My game is continually improving and I am excited to hopefully get back out playing in tournaments as soon as I can find the money.
The heat down here is something that is taking a little while for me to get used to. As I write this, it is 98 degrees with a heat index of 110. It's like a big oven, but I will eventually get used to it.
Since summer is well underway, I hope everyone is enjoying the outdoors and hopefully playing good golf!

So Close!

Well.....I shot even par yesterday. That put me at -2 for the tourney and not playing on the weekend. I had 1 bad hole yesterday. Hole 9 was a 202 yard par-3 that is a little downhill. I thought that if I hit a 7-iron, I would be in the middle of the green because it was 202 to a back pin and about 190 to the middle, downhill. Well that 7-iron flew the green by about 10 yards and went into a creek. That was pretty confusing, but it happens. Other then that, just a couple slip-ups to make a few bogeys. Again, I was putting a good roll on my birdie putts and started to get some to go in but not enough.
I am now going to have to take some time away from the tournament scene, due to lack of finances for the rest of this year to pay entry fees and travel cost. I am going to keep practicing and trying to caddy as much as possible to make money so that I can start playing again. It is a bummer that it worked out this way, because I feel like I am really starting to figure all of this out and was on the brink of really breaking through this barrier.
I will keep everyone updated on my progress and when I am going to start playing in tournaments again.
Thanks for your support!

Good Start!

Yesterday was a good start for me. I got off to a slow start, but finished pretty good to end with a -2, 70. I was on the course that was playing a little tougher.
I was hitting the ball pretty well yesterday, I just couldn't get the putts in the hole, until 14 when I figured something out. I then birdied 4 of my last 5(with a bogey on 17) to finish the round.
After missing my first 3 fairways, I didn't miss another the whole day. I only hit the driver 3 times. I hit my 3-wood pretty far and it's my favorite club, so I hit that as much as possible without leaving myself long irons into par 4's.
I hit 14 greens in regulation. I was making good swings with the irons and wedges.
I just need to go have another solid round today and try to move up the leaderboard!

Another Week

I shot a -2, 70 on Thursday. That put me at -1 for the tournament and the cut was at -3. I did play a lot better this week though, even though I did not make the cut. I just did not take advantage of the par 5's. I didn't put the ball in good position off the tee and that did not allow me to go after the short ones in 2.

The putting was "ok" the second day. I am still not making the amount of birdie putts that I need to. So I worked on that a little this weekend and hopefully it will be better next week.

Our tournament this week will be north of Charlotte. It is close enough that I can stay at home but it will be a little bit of a drive.

Better

Today was pretty solid tee to green. I shot +1, 72. I hit a lot of fairways and a fair amount of greens, but my putting struggled a little bit. I had 3 bogeys today and they were all 3-putts. The greens were punched a couple weeks ago and had some bumps. They were not bad enough to have that many 3-putts though. I just did not have a good feel for the speed out there. I left a couple birdie putts dead in the heart, just short.

All in all, I am pretty happy with the day. My comfort level is increasing every round and I am getting more accustom to the way it is out here. My confidence is improving and I am committing to all my shots.

I felt like I played very smart today, but just did not get the putts to drop. That will come, I just need to keep working on the putting.

I am going to have to play pretty well tomorrow to make the cut but I feel like I definitely have that in me right now!

Practice Practice Practice

Our next tournament is not until the end of May, so I have a lot of time to work on the things that I think are the reasons I have been struggling a little as of late. It feels good to be able to go out every day and work on things, instead of just a day here and day there.
I had my U.S. Open local qualifier up in Durham, NC earlier this week. I shot 73, which left my out of the 8 qualifying spots. I was +5 through 10, birdied 11, and then was in the middle of the fairway on 12 with a pitching wedge into the green. The pin was back left, with the green sloping from the back to front. Left of the green dropped off into a very low collection area. I missed the green deep left, which left me extremely short sided. After I hit the shot, I stood in the fairway and asked myself what in the heck I was doing! I realized that I really was not analyzing everything that I needed to going into every shot, and these were the things that I had been doing all year.
I somehow got up and down for par. I then went to the 13 tee at +4 and told myself that I needed to analyze each shot a lot more in order to put the ball where I needed to.
I then birdied 13, 14, and 15. I lipped out for birdie on 16, barely missed birdie on 17, and made a great up and down on 18 to shoot +1.
Even though I didn't qualify, I left the course feeling very satisfied! Now I am back in Charlotte practicing hard and doing a little caddying at Quail Hollow. I am going to work hard on my mental approach in the next two weeks to better understand what I need to do in order to position myself better and manage my way around the golf course in a better, more efficient manner.
On a side note, my boys of SJU are currently in 5th place at the National Championships going into the final round. Please keep them in your thoughts as they go out and try to win Saint John's their 3rd National Championship in 4 years!!