Changes!

Hello Everyone!

It has been quite a long time since I last posted on my blog. I have had a very busy last month or so and have had some big changes take place in my life.
A little more than a month ago, I was contacted about an opportunity to work for a rising golf company called Hot Stix Golf. The CEO is a Saint John's Alumni. I was kind of skeptical at first about leaving the Carolinas and a full playing schedule. After some phone interviews, a one day trip to Scottsdale, AZ, and some serious thought, I decided to take the job. My good friend, Clinton Dammann, also took a job with Hot Stix.
Hot Stix Golf is a custom club fitting company. They specialize in being able to provide people with superior fittings due to the top technology in the business. Also, they have no bias towards any certain club company so they have that advantage over the individual club companies. They do not sell retail, your clubs don't get ordered until they have all your specs. They then order the clubs and once they come in, they take them apart and build them to the individuals specs. If you ever see the golf club ratings in Golf Magazine, Hot Stix performs all those tests, so they have quite the reputation in the golf world.
They are looking to expand their locations and in doing so, they need to hire on more fitters. What my job will include is fitting people for the absolute best clubs for that individual. A full fitting takes around 4 hours, so as you can imagine, it is pretty detailed.
I met the CEO, Mark Flynn, my senior year at SJU. We talked for a long time at senior night. He is a very successful businessman and just bought the company about a year ago. He is a golf enthusiast and saw great opportunity for this company.
So, Clint and I packed up our cars and drove from Charlotte, NC to Scottsdale, AZ. After 31 hours of driving, my car getting broken into, and a couple minor car issues, we finally made it here last Monday. We will be here for a couple months to do some training before they relocate us to one of their new locations.
Since I will be working on a driving range somewhere, I will still be allowed to practice and play quite a bit. I just could not afford to keep playing a full schedule on a caddy's income. When I broke it down, I realized how great of an opportunity this was and could not pass it up. Now, this does not mean that I am giving up on playing professional by any means. I am still going to try and play in a few tournaments a year for right now and save up as much money as I can. I will be getting paid pretty well and have very good benefits.
We have been out here training for a week so far and I absolutely love it! It is very fun and challenging at the same time. I am not sure yet where I will end up but there is a chance I will end up in Minnesota for at least 6 months of the year!
I want to thank everyone who has supported me so far, especially my family! There is no way I could have done what I have so far without all your support. Like I said, I am not giving up yet, but this was the best decision for me at this time and I hope everyone understands.
I won't be continuing to blog through all of this, but if I do start playing full time again, I will make sure everyone is updated.

Thanks again!

Joe

Fall!

A lot has been going on here in the past couple of weeks. My computer crashed and that is the reason for the lack of blogs. Right after my computer died, my phone died. I guess when it rains, it pours.
I just moved to a new apartment complex. I now live with Neil Johnson and Clinton Dammann. Neil went to Gustavus and is from River Falls, WI, and Clint went to college with me at SJU. They both moved down here to play on the EGolf Tour next year also.
I am still caddying as much as possible. Quail Hollow has been closed for the past couple of months, so I have been caddying out at Charlotte Country Club. Quail is back open now, so I will be spending most of my time back over there.
I am excited to have these guys down here so I have someone to practice and hang out with. They are both really good guys so I am happy to have them around.

The blogs will be more frequent now that I have a computer around.

Hope all is well everyone!!

Book!

Not much has changed out here in Charlotte. I am all settled on a new apartment that I will be moving into on September 30th. I am moving in with 2 good friends of mine. I am pretty excited for a little change.

A teammate of mine from SJU sent me a book. I am not a big reader but this book was amazing and I finished it in a day. It's called "Golf's Sacred Journey, Seven Days At The Links Of Utopia". I cannot stress enough that if you play golf, you HAVE to read this book. It was truly amazing how everything pertained to me and not only my golf game, but my life.

I am continuing to practice hard and caddy out at Quail Hollow. Things are suppose to finally start cooling down out here, so that is a plus.

Other then that, I am just enjoying my final days of being 23 years young!

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!