2nd Stage PGA Q School

This past week I was in Panama City Beach, FL playing in the second stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying School. The event was held at The Hombre Golf Course, it is an amazing golf course and definitely a true test for all of us players this past week the way the course was set up. 2nd Stage has been held at this venue for at least 15 years and there are many horror stories that come from not only this site but sites all across the country.
This was my third year at the 2nd stage, I had missed out the previous two years by only a few shots and was looking forward to a successful week as I teed it up on Wed. The week started for me three days before the event actually started. I met up with my caddie and we got in a couple days of practice and planning on the course. It was a good to see the course a couple times before I actually had to count my score for the week.
My first round tee time was 8:10 on Wed morning. It was a good first day for me as I shot 70 (-1) on the day. I felt as it was a good start to the week! The second round didn't go as well for me as I didn't play all that well all day, managed to make a couple stupid mistakes on my from nine but hung on to shoot a couple under on the back to finish the day with a 71 (even). The third day wasn't much fun for me, not too much went well as I struggled to get anything going. I felt like I hit the ball pretty good for the most part just wasn't able to make any birdies to cancel out a couple bogeys / doubles on the day. To make matters worse I was +2 with two holes to play when I hit my second on a par 5 into a palm tree. The palm tree decided to eat the ball which meant I had to go back and hit another one from the previous spot essentially meaning it cost me 2 shots. I ended up getting it up and down from 79 yards for a bogey on the 17th to move me to +3 on the day. Now I am really upset as I am just watching my dream of making it to the PGA Tour fade into the distance. The last hole I was a little upset but fortunately used the frustration as motivation to make a huge birdie on the last hole which is one of the more difficult holes on the course in my opinion. It was big for a couple reasons, it kept me within striking distance for the last day and also it kept some momentum going into the final rounds play for me. I was determined to play well on the last day!
The last day began for me at +1 for the tournament. I knew going into the day that I needed to shoot at least 2 under to guarantee a spot into the final stage. The pins were in the toughest locations on the greens so it wasn't going to be an easy task but I knew what I had to do! The last day I played great, hit it well almost all day. If I was to look back on it and say one place I made a mistake it would have been on the 7th hole. I made a mental mistake and let something get in my head and it bothered me for the next couple holes. I played holes 7 - 10 at 2 over and my chances were just about gone as I was standing on the 11th tee box at +4 for the tournament. In my head I was saying to myself that I didn't want the season to end, didn't want to go to Europe for Q School over there, and didn't want my only option for next yr to be the mini tours that I have been on the last couple years. Make a long story short I birdied 11, 12, 15, and 17 to shoot -3 on the back nine and get me to even for the tournament.
Now I had to wait to see if I got in... not much fun. Ended up going to Chick fil A and having a large cookies and cream milk shake and watching the Michigan v Wisconsin football game, something to pass the time. Fortunately for me a couple people faltered and I made it into the top 19 and moved on to the final stage!! Finally have made it, only took me three year but now I'm there and going to make the most of the opportunity! If anyone wants to follow you can go to pgatour.com/qschool and there will be scoring there and I think the Golf channel even covers a couple of the days on tv. Looking forward to a great week and thanks for following!! Long blog for me...

European Challenge Tour Grand Final

Last week I was in the south east part of Italy (Fasano) where I played in the Euro Challenge Tour's Grand Final. It was an invitation only event with only the top 45 players on the order of merit in the field.
I arrived in Italy on Monday afternoon which allowed me to get in a little practice on Monday and then play a practice round on Tuesday before the event began on Wednesday. It was a big week for everyone as at the conclusion of the event the top 20 on the order of merit would receive European Tour cards for the 2011 season. I was sitting in 37th place on the money list at the beginning of the week so I needed a very good week to sneak into the top 20.
Overall on the week I played very well. We had some interesting weather on the week as the course was right on the ocean and it was very windy a couple days but I managed to shoot 68 73 69 71 to finish -3 on the week and T5 (12,067 euros) for the tournament. I was in the final group the last day so had a good chance to make a move and finish either 1st or 2nd. Ended up struggling the final day but managed to make a couple closing birdies to finish the week off strong.
Up next for me I will be playing 2nd stage of q school in Panama City, FL at the Hombre GC. It starts up Nov 17th. Looking forward to the week! You can follow online at pgatour.com/qschool. Then click on second stage - Hombre (Bad/Ugly). Thanks for following!!