Here I am in Helen, Georgia at Anna Ruby Falls yesterday taking in a scenic waterfall.  It has been a nice couple days of both business and pleasure getting ready for this week's Hooters event in Chattahoochee, Georgia.  No that isn't a sneeze, it really is Chattahoochee.  A few of us went hiking yesterday after our practice rounds and took advantage of some great weather.  It was nice to get away from the golf and just take in the scenery.  Back to the golf.  Last week ended abruptly for me after two days.  I missed the cut by one due to a real poor second round.  I got off to a horrible start the second round, regrouped in the middle, and faltered with a double bogey on 17 to ultimately miss the weekend by a shot.  I was battling the right shot again like I had mentioned the week before.  That led to my demise.  I believe it was a blessing in disguise, because it gave me a few extra days to get away from the competition and sort it out.  I really have been working on my transition tempo on my downswing and I am back on track with my ball striking.  It took me a couple of days in Durham, NC to figure that out when I was staying with a good friend on Duke's campus.  I used their facilities to sort out my eratic ball striking, and here I am now in Georgia excited for the tournament to begin tomorrow.  I have been saying now for a month I am close.  I really hope this is my week to go out and play well.  I definitely have been pressing the past few weeks for good play and it probably has hurt me a bit.  I am going to go out this week with a patient, laid back attitude.  I am playing well, so there is no need to rush or get stressed.  I just have to let the good play come to me rather than panic and stress out over it.  Here is to a good week.  I'll check back soon.

I'm sitting here at my cousin's home in Hickory, NC waiting for my 2nd round tee time in this week's Hooters event.  I got to thinking about motivation and I think I have a pretty good explanation as to what is driving me this week (no pun intended, keep reading).  From all the traveling I have done the past 5 days, whether it be by plane or car, I traveled 1,866 miles to eventually end up here in Hickory, NC to find a place to play competitively.  What really eats at me is in my own backyard in sunny Orlando, FL, at my HOME course nonetheless, the PGA Tour is playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge.  I had to navigate what almost makes out to be in miles the entire diameter of the continental US, and instead the PGA Tour is competing 15 miles from my house in Orlando at my home course and I wasn't even invited to the party.  They even made me clean out my locker for the week so the players competing could borrow mine.  Digressing, I shot a one under par 71 yesterday and have positioned myself after day one to go out the last three days and compete for a title.  It's not hard to see I'm motivated this week to play well, and I am mentally ready to go out and do just that.  One of the most satisfying parts of this week is for the first time in about 5 months I get to putt on Bentgrass greens which I grew up putting on in Saint Louis.  These are my kind of greens and I feel at home on these surfaces.  I've also got to spend some great time with some of my family that lives here in the Hickory, NC area, which has made for a nice respite from the weekly hotel scene us golfers are accustomed to.  I tee off at 1:48 today and hopefully I can go out and continue striking the ball well and sinking putts even if my golf ball doesn't know the difference between Orlando, FL and Hickory, NC.

Greeting everyone from Lafayette, Louisiana.  I have a busy schedule upcoming so I'll try my best to unravel my trip as best I can.  I shot an up and down even par 72 today in the Nationwide Monday Qualifier to miss by 4 shots.  I had an uncharacteristic day on the greens missing 3 putts from 3 feet.  At this level, those putts have to be gimmie's and I just didn't convert them.  Those three strokes and a double bogey on a par 3 resulting from digging around in a bunker like I was a kid at the beach never wanting to leave cost me the 4 strokes that seperated me from getting in the event and me flying to Hickory, North Carolina tomorrow.  I keep telling you this game is puzzling me here of late because I am doing alot of things right, but every round there seems to be one ingriedient missing, whether it be putting, driving, iron play, chipping, etc.  You can get away with doing most things well and a few things average, but if one of those "ingriedients" is poor, it more than likely is going to hurt your scorecard.  I need to get all parts working simultaneously at the average level every time I play at the very least.  That is what leads to steady, consistent scores.  Well the circus continues three days from now with my plan B for the week now becoming my plan A.  The Hooters event in NC will start on Thursday.  I am staying at my cousin's home just 5 minutes from the course so this week should be unique and be nice to get out of the hotel routine for a few days.  After the tournament concludes Sunday, I will be flying to Atlanta for the next week's Hooters event on the far outskirts of the city.  With the Monday Qualifier finished think of my travel as like a rectangle that eventually gets me back to where I started. Orlando-->Lafayette, LA-->Hickory, NC-->Atlanta, GA-->Orlando.  It's about time I sandwiched some good golf in between those Orlando's!  Today wasn't what we were looking for, but like I said let's build on this and get all the parts working simultaneouly so that I have to check another bag at the airline counter.  When they ask me what it is, I want to say, "Oh that's my oversized winners check for $30,000 I just won!  I guess its only going to be worth $29,950 after you ungrateful people charge me for luggage."

I wanted to update everyone that I was mistaken.  Yesterday only took a one under par score of 70 to get in the PGA Tour event.  The fact that I was 3 under thru 4 was about the equivalent of holing out from the fairway on 3 consecutive holes yesterday given the conditions.  Sure everyone was going to make some bogeys out there, but on days like that it is all about minimizing mistakes.  If you get in trouble don't get greedy.  I'm learning, it may be the hard way right now, but I am learning invaluable lessons that are going to some day help me win golf tournaments.  This makes me even more sick to my stomach realizing this was my golden opportunity up to this point in my pro career.  The good news is at least I have reason to be sick to my stomach.  If I was going out there and never giving myself chances then I really wouldn't be accomplishing anything now would I.  These mini "setbacks" if you will tear you down, but build you up in the long run.  Very soon my time is coming.  Think of me as like a dormant volcano just waiting patiently.  

Well I feel like its Ground Hogs Day.  Every post of late has been what could have been.  I try to be positive on here, but when you are not shooting good scores I'm not going to be politically correct and say "Oh Golly gee I may not have played well today, but I sure tried my hardest and had a fun time doing it!"  I'm freaking tired of shooting crappy scores.  I was 3 under par today thru 4 holes in go figure, brutal conditions once again. (trust me I'm getting used to playing in hard conditions this winter)  It looks like the number today is going to be 3 under.  I was right on the number with 14 holes to go.  I could have pared in and I would have made it.  The wind was blowing a steady 20MPH and gusting to 30MPH.  The greens were fast and firm.  All that equates to extremely hard conditions.  I had an absolute freakin' strangle hold on this qualifier out of the box.  It was mine for the taking, however I threw it right away with a series of chunked pitch shots and two foul balls OB on my inward holes.  What does this all mean.  It means I have to once again regroup, figure out why I did what I did and go out and be stronger and better for it the next time.  It's hard to do that sometimes when in the back of your mind you know you really let a golden opportunity slip by the wayside.  The reality of it is there is not one thing I can do now that changes what I did.  I can sulk, which I'm currently doing now, but I got to pick myself up and make it next time.  I believe that if you give yourself enough opportunities and believe in yourself, you will inevitably conquer whatever demons it is you have and ultimately triumph.  Why I can't put together 18 holes in these qualifiers lately is beyond me, but I know I am hitting enough quality shots each round to get it done.  I head to Lafayette, LA on Sunday afternoon for the 1st Nationwide Qualifier of the year.  The Nationwide allocates 14 spots each week as opposed to 4 with the PGA Tour, so you traditionally don't have to shoot quite as low.  I'm going to lick my wounds, practice hard this week and do a better job of remaining calm under fire next week.  If I get it going low next time, I will be ready to keep making birdies and finish it off properly.  I can only be held down for so long. 

I'm going to try and make this short because I need to close this chapter in a hurry.  I ended up missing the cut in this marathon of a tourney this morning.  I got in 10 holes Friday night before the sun set.  I closed last night birdieing 3 of my last 4 holes in the dark to get my round to one under par for the day, 3 over for the tournament.  I knew in my head this morning I had 8 holes to make 3 more birdies.  After getting up and down on 11 and 12 this morning for pars after shaky iron approach shots, I made a routine par on 13.  Thus I had 5 holes left to make 3 birdies.  I played 14 like a professional and hit my pitching wedge from the middle of the fairway to 1 foot for a tap in birdie.  4 holes to go, 2 more birdies needed.  On fifteen this hole summed up my first two rounds perfectly.  I got away with a drive that was technique wise not very good that should have leaked a little bit right, but I saved it on the downswing with my hands and released the club and the ball found the middle of the fairway.  I had 197 yards to the pin on this par 5 for my second shot.  On the second shot I leaked it again just a hair right of the target.  It ended up plugged in the face of the right bunker so far down that I couldn't see one dimple on the ball.  I was only 20 feet from the flag hitting my 3rd shot, but I did well to even get the ball out of the severely buried lie I was in.  Had that ball been two inches left of where it ended it would have kicked left and I would have had a realistic eagle chance.  Instead I chunked my 4th shot in the sand and it once again buried in the lip of the bunker.  The comedy of errors and just plain aweful luck from one swing resulted in a double bogey seven and ended my week on a sour note.  A matter of inches sometimes is what can make this game so brutal or so rewarding.  I am hoping that the inches go the other way on Monday when I tee it up in the Transitions Monday Qualifier in Tampa.  I most definitely earned my spot in the qualifier getting through the brutal pre qualifier last Tuesday as mentioned.  If I can tweak my swing just ever so slightly where I can get the club moving in sync better with my body, the ball is going to start flying straighter and on target and I should have a wonderful chance at playing a fantastic round of golf on Monday.  Going to go get a good workout in, since this is hard to do on the road and have a nice meal.  Good evening and I'm going to get it done on Monday.  It's my time.

Well yesterday was a bit of a bummer.  For a good portion of the day I hit the ball well enough to get it around under par.  However, we had a big rain storm come through for 4 holes of my round on my back nine and I bogeyed 3 of the 4 holes in the rain.  That put a damper on my score card and I registered a 76.  The morning wave definitely drew the short straw this week because the afternoon wave played without getting a drop of rain on them and calm wind.  We had a hard rain which resulted in a 2 1/2 hr rain delay and a strong wind for a good portion of the round.  For the first time in I would say a couple of years I am really confident in my short game and where it is headed.  I am usually really comfortable with my driving and iron play, while trying to pick up the missing pieces with my chipping in pitching.  It seemed a bit backword yesterday because my short game is excellent, but I am leaking my Driver and irons right.  I made some adjustments on the range last night.  Looks like I'm going to need a 68 to play the weekend.  I have it in me, lets see if I can make a power move up the leaderboard by getting everything working together.  I tee off this afternoon at 3:09pm and should get in about 12 holes before nightfall.  Here's to some birdies!

Update

Well yesterday was interesting.  I woke up at 6am and had to drive 2 hours to the outskirts of Tampa like I said.  I shot an even par 71 and advanced through to Monday's Qualifier.  The bleeding has stopped.  Thank goodness they let us ride in carts.  I took full advantage of that.  There were 60 guys and the top 12 advanced to Monday.  It took a score of exactly 71 to make it through.  I guess I probably shouldn't have 3 putted on my last hole, but I wanted to make things interesting.  Anyway I slepted like Rip Van Winkle last night and am headed to Amelia Island today to scout out the course this afternoon before the event starts tomorrow (Thursday March 11th).  Once again you can follow the results at http://www.ngahooterstour.com/ .  I will be batting basically leadoff this event with the second tee time of the day tomorrow at 7:09.  I hope the early bird gets the worm.  Until next time.

Sitting here in Orlando in the middle of one of the craziest stretches of golf in my life.  Let me take you through it.  I completed all four rounds last week in Ocala, FL with the Hooters Tour.  It was ashame because the course was really a special layout, but needless to say there couldn't have been more than five strands of grass on the whole premises.  The greens were pure dirt and it made the whole week a crapshoot.  I told you earlier that I am in the midst of reworking my short game.  Well this wasn't a very good week to test it out because I looked foolish trying to make solid contact off dirt around the greens.  I made the cut which was nice, but didn't do much of anything right after that.  Well last night I flew to Puerto Rico to try the PGA Tour Qualifier.  I ended up missing my first flight from Orlando because my name is on the "no fly list" and I was rushing to make the flight as it was from Ocala.  I took the later flight and got to the resort in Puerto Rico at 1am.  I woke up at 7am and went and played the qualifier blind having not seen the course on 6 hours rest.  It was a demanding golf course off the tee and I hit a few wayward tee balls early and turned in five over par 41 on the first nine.  Just like that all that travel and boom I'm out.  I hurried back to my hotel, gathered my things and got back to the airport to catch a flight back to Orlando tonight.  I was in Puerto Rico for less than 24 hrs.  Some excursion!  Tomorrow morning I am getting up at 6am to drive to Tampa to play the Transitions PGA Tour pre qualifer.  Luckily I have played the course before, so I know where to hit it on this course.  That will mark the 6th straight day of competition.  I will have Wednesday off as I travel from Tampa to Amelia Island, FL in the NE part of the state.  The Hooters Tour will resume Thurs-Sunday.  If I successfully qualify through tomorrow and make the cut in the Hooters Tour event I will have played competitively 11 of the last 12 days.  I have never done that and I am flat out tired and a bit burned out.  The reason I am putting myself up to this is because I want to play on the PGA Tour.  You can't play if you don't try to qualify the last time I checked.  The travel is hectic, I'm exhausted, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  Unfortunately my game still isn't where I need it to be.  I knew that coming in.  If my game was good for this stretch I could have really rolled with it, but w/ the struggles I have had it seems relentless due to the nature of the scheduling.  I would like to play a solid round tomorrow to stop the bleeding and head to my one off day w/ some momentum.  I'll keep you all posted.  Good night, I'm tired.