The Saint Louis area Hooters event has come and gone and so has the rain.  We got in 54 holes of the scheduled 72 after hours upon hours of delays due to inclement weather.  It was a complete slop fest that really tested everyone's patience.  This is never any fun for anyone to have to deal with.  I fortunately made the cut on the number after a decent start to the tournament with a 70 I backed that up with a miserable second round 76.  The last round I found much of the same with another 76.  I really have got to keep the double bogeys off the card.  Big numbers hurt.  It is fun to see that my miserable golf still allows me to make the cut and that is a heck of a stride from my first year out professionally when I felt I played well and still missed the cut.  Anyway it has been much of the same struggle I have been documenting over the past few weeks.  Basically my iron play is off kilter.  I am getting the club stuck behind me because my lower body is outracing my chest, arms, and club.  It is resulting in either a weak block slice to the right or a shot that starts left and moves further left when I try to compensate at impact and flip the club.  I'm chipping and putting the ball well, I just need to get the iron game going.  Ok, now for the positive, upbeat news.  Sunday night after the flood and tournament ended in Edwardsville I flew up to Minneapolis for my US Open local qualifier at Hazeltine.  I was not overly optimistic to be honest due to my struggles the past few days, but I vowed to myself that I would put everything into somehow getting around a course that I know how to play better than most anyone else.  My warmup session on the range Monday was no different from the past few days.  Aweful and I couldn't find my rhythm.  So as I walked to the first tee at Hazeltine Monday I had to improvise.  I was yelling at myself internally that no matter what happened that round I was going to have fun, remain calm, and really get into my routine and visualize.  All day I felt completely uncomfortable over the ball, but I made up for it by really keeping my composure.  I made all my short putts for par and my short game really saved me.  I birdied 16 and 18(my 7th and 9th holes of the day) with spectacular shots.  A 9 iron on 16 to 4 inches for a tap in birdie and an 8 iron to five feet from the fairway bunker on 18.  The shot I was most proud about was on my penultimate hole on number 8 since I started on the back nine.  I was 2 over par for the day on a day I knew par was a great score due to the insane pin positions.  Number 8 is a 175 yard par 3 surrounder by water short and right.  Funny how the short right shot is the shot I have been struggling with.  So as it happens at impact I naturally flipped the club and my shot was way left of the green.  I had to pitch from heavy rough over a bunker to a green sloping away from me with water lurking past the pin.  I hit the softest pitch I have hit in all of 2010 and landed it exactly where I had to and got my up and down for par.  I pared the last for a 74 and waited all day to find out at about 7:30pm that I had qualified through to sectionals where I will be playing June 7th in Summit, New Jersey.  I am so proud of myself for getting through Monday with a golf game that was basically put together by duct tape and sheer will.  I am going to grind my butt of this week to get my game back on track.  I am really proud of the way I have not allowed the demons of golf get to me and I have been scratching and clawing my way through this minor detour on my way to the PGA Tour.