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!!