Q School and Italy

Back in the states and playing some better golf! Just finished up last week at the first stage of PGA Qualifying School in Kannapolis, NC where we played at Irish Creek. It is a very nice course that I have played several times before so I was pretty comfortable going into the week. I ended the week shooting rounds of 67-66-68-69 to finish -14 and was the low player at my first stage site. Definitely a confidence booster going forward. I will be playing in Panama City, FL at the Hombre GC for my second stage of Q School which will start the Nov. 17th.
I should probably explain how this whole "Q School" tournament works. It starts our for some at pre-qualifying. There are a few ways to skip this stage but for the most part it is becoming mandatory for most new professionals. I did this stage a couple years ago when I first turned pro. There are 6 of these sites and roughly 40 of 100 make it though here. Then comes first stage, there are 13 of these sites across the country. At each site there are roughly 85 guys, the low 23 and ties move onto second stage. Second stage is next, there are six sites. Each site has somewhere around 85 players and again roughly 20 will advance on to the final stage. Final stage this year is held in Orlando, FL. The tournament is on two courses and there are around 220 players in the field. At finals 25 PGA Tour cards will be awarded! This is what everyone is aiming for! After the top 25 the next fifty players will receive their Nationwide Tour card for the next year. Not a bad card to have either as you have playing status on one of the main tours in the States. After the top seventy five players everyone else is awarded "conditional" status on the Nationwide Tour. This is still not a bad thing to have just you might not get into many events depending on how far down the line you finished at the final stage. Needless to say this is quite the tournament and one that can be very stressful and nerve racking. Everyone plans their year getting ready for this tournament. It is filled with people like me that are trying to work their way onto one of the main tours as well as well established names that have played and even won on the PGA and Nationwide Tours who are trying to get back onto tour after a disappointing year . This will be my third year playing in Q School, I am hoping to use some of my past experiences to make this year go a little smoother.
This week I am in Fasano, Italy playing in the European Challenge Tour's Grand Final. The field is limited to the top 45 players on the order of merit. Starting the week I am sitting in 38th position. At the end of the week the top 20 players on the order of merit will be given European Tour Cards. For me to get one of these I will need to finish in the top 2. Going to need a good week, it can be done though!

1st Stage PGA Q School

Just finished up this week at the 1st stage of Q school for the PGA Tour. My site was in Kannapolis, NC at Irish Creek GC. I had played the course a couple times before for an egolf event a couple years ago so I knew the course well and enjoy playing it.
The week went very well for me, I finished the low man for the week shooting -14. I hit the ball well all week and really only made a few bad swings all week. It was nice to see some good results finally, it had been a while.
On the week I think I made only 3 bogeys and 17 birdies. Q School is a very weird tournament that will make people do some strange things on the course so I was glad to make it through easily and onto the 2nd stage in a few weeks. I will be playing in Panama City, FL at the Hombre. I have heard it is a difficult course so I am hoping it will fit my game well!
Next week I am off to Italy for the Grand Final on the European Challenge Tour. It is the final event of the year for the tour. Only the top 45 players on the money list will be there so a small field and it is a good purse. I am playing well and looking forward to a fun week!
Thanks for following me and check back for an update at the end of the week!

Callaway Gardens eGolf Tour

So it has been a long time since my last blog. I am back in the US now and couldn't be happier to be honest! My trip over in Europe/Russia/Asia was a lot of fun and learned a lot but my game wasn't good and nothing was quite as convenient or easy as at home. The last few weeks I have been relaxing from the game a little, I needed a break really bad and it was nice to take some time off. Now I am back at it again. Been practicing quite a bit here lately. I had the chance to work with my coach where I got a few things fixed in my game.
Last week I played an event in GA. It was a fall series event on the eGolf Tour. It was good to get the competitive juices flowing again leading into Q School this coming week. I didn't score very well on the week but took a lot of positives from it. I ended up missing the cut, I shot -3 and the cut was -4. Disappointing but feeling better for next week about the game.

This week I am in NC at Irish Creek for the first stage of Q School. Looking forward to the week and I will have an update when things finish up. If you want to follow there will be online scoring on pga.com/qschool. Thanks for following and check back for an update!