Well.  I have a lot to report.  Let's start from the finish to the Tarheel event in Greensboro.  I put the game into neutral on the weekend and coasted in unfortunately to a seven under par total.  I played the last 36 in even par and spiraled down the leaderboard.  From there I flew to Omaha for the Nationwide Monday Qualifier.  I had an unfortunate circumstance occur.  American Airlines lost my luggage so I didn't have my clubs.  At the 11th hour both figuratively and literally my clubs arrived.  At 11pm Sunday night, the night before the event, my clubs came in.  I was worried, but I had my clubs to give myself a realistic chance.  I shot a 3 under par 67 and missed by 2 shots.  I played well all day, just missed 2 too many putts and that was the difference.  I have been frustratingly close the last handfull of qualifiers, but I know my time is coming soon.  I am writing in fact from Verona, New York at this week's PGA Tour Turning Stone Monday Qualifier.  Yesterday, as we have the weekend off before the Monday qualifier, my friends and I went to Cooperstown, NY and took in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  If you have never been, go.  If you have, consider yourself fortunate to see one of the neatest landmarks in all of sports.  Anyway, on the golf front,  I successfully navigated through the pre qualifier with an unmotivated 74 where I knew at the beginning of the day basically all I needed was a pulse to get through to Monday where 50 of the 68 contestants advanced.  My game is really coming along.  What I am most excited about is the venue we will be qualifying at Monday.  It is without a doubt the best course I have played in 2010.  It goes completely against the grain of your typical Monday Qualifier course which sets up extremely easy and you have to go out and shoot in the mid 60's to get through.  It won't be like that Monday I can nearly promise.  It is a remarkably challenging course that I can't wait to go out and tame Monday and earn my spot into my first PGA Tour event in my professional career.  It's all about execution and I feel ready to go out and finally paint that masterpiece of a round on the Turning Stone canvas.

Now I'm cooking with gas!  The first two rounds are completed at this week's Tarheel tour event in Greensboro, NC and I sit 5 shots off the lead at 7 under par.  I fired rounds of 71 and 66 the first two days.  Today was a great day at the office where everything was working properly.  Yesterday on the secondary course I struggled on the greens that were extremely soft and slow.  The picture above of course is of Dave Matthews.  Why is this relevant?  Last night my friend Peter Malnati and I went to Charlotte to see him in concert.  Everyone has their passions and interests and the Dave Matthews Band ranks right up there with what is most important to me.  I found a lot of inspiration out there on the course today from last nights show, which might sound weird, but probably only I can understand.  I actually obtained the setlist from the show last night from the crew members at the soundboard.  This was one of the highlights of 2010 for me.  Just figured I'd offer you a little insight on one thing in life that drives me other than golf.  Well I have two day now to finish this tournament up properly.  I have put myself in position through two rounds to make a charge.  The key for me is to just keep plodding along, staying in my natural rhythm and routine, and when I add it up at the end hopefully it is enough to celebrate a huge success.  Keep you posted.

Well, I got what I asked for.  Birdies.  The first round of the Waterloo Open yesterday I made 8 birdies in my round!  A three hole bad stretch didn't allow me to go as low as I needed, and I settled for a 4 under par 68.  Today I shot a steady 69.  I made my first bogey of the day today on the last hole to end my round on a sour note, but I played consistent.  There were 5 par 5's on this course all reachable with iron, and I unfortunately like Cincinati did not fully take advantage of them this weekend and this is what seperated me between winning and finishing T25th like I did.  Still, this is exactly what I needed, an easy course like this to shock my system back into shooting two nice scores that have gone against my boring trend of 70s I had been shooting.  I am ready for my summer now to really get cooking.  I have been knocking on the door so long now, my knuckles are beginning to bleed.  However, today I felt the deadbolt on the door begin to give way.  I head tomorrow to Greensboro, NC for a Tarheel Tour event.  I'll let you in on a little story as to why this week could be very special.  As you know, last year I had a great finish in the Nationwide Springfield event.  The winner of this week's Tarheel event gets a sponsor exemption into Springfield.  I feel like I got kinda hosed on not getting a spot into this year's Springfield event, so I am out to gain my spot back in this year's field on my own merit.  If it doesn't work out this week, I still have a great chance via the Monday Qualifier in a few weeks to get in so don't be too nervous for me.  On top of that my neighbor back in St. Louis, Trevor Dodds who is also a professional golfer, won the 1998 PGA Tour Greensboro Open at Forest Oaks.  This is the same course we are playing this week on the Tarheel Tour.  If I win, there can be two winners on Camberwell Drive in Saint Louis that have hoisted trophies from Forest Oaks CC.  What a story that would be!  My game is here and ready to win, now I just need to go out and trust it and execute.

Well, another Monday qualifier by the wayside and still nothing to show from it.  Yesterday in Cincinnati all stars were completely aligned for qualifying into this week's Nationwide tour event.  The PGA Tour is at the British Open this week, and they have an overlapping event in the states here in Reno, Nevada which allows all the conditional members of the PGA Tour to get into the field in Reno.  This trickle down effect allows all the conditional members of the Nationwide Tour to get into this week's Chiquita Classic in Cincinnati.  Factor in that this is a brand new event in Cincinnati and all of a sudden you have a Monday qualifier that the mini tour players don't know about and all the conditional members don't have to qualify for.  With that said only 70 players teed it up yesterday for 7 spots.  The course had 4 par 5s reachable for me with a 5 iron on each of them and 3 par 4's that were drivable.  Conventional wisdom tells you that is basically 7 more or less simple birdie/eagle opportunities and makes par at the beginning of the day more like 65 for the course.  Well I made zero bogeys yesterday, but parred all four of the par 5's with 5 iron or better in my hand on each of them.  I also squeezed in a three putt par on one of the drivable par 4's, and two violent horseshoe lip out on two other holes.  This equates to par on the score, but double bogey mistakes during the course of the round.  I missed the playoff by 1 shot and drove straight home for 6 hours in a daze after a melt down that left me limping home.  I feel like I have just stepped out of the ring with Mike Tyson.  I can keep preaching to the choir about how I am so close, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  It is going to eventually come down to me finally just getting over the barrier myself.  I myself can be my best friend or worst enemy.  I have to seize the opportunity myself and no one else can help me do it.  I haven't made a BOGEY competitively in 34 holes of golf.  This is by far the longest streak of my life.  This is proof that my game is more than consistent enough to go out and win a title soon.  It also tells you that PAR in the professional ranks will leave you scratching your head if you don't add in some birdies.  It's all about making birdies, and I feel they are coming soon.  I head next to Waterloo, Iowa for the Waterloo Open.  It is a two day shootout over next weekend where the winner takes home $50,000.  Being this close to where I need to be makes me way more mad than frustrated.  Hopefully I can use this madness to my advantage and take it out on my competitors this coming weekend with a pair of 65s and an oversized cardboard check.

Two rounds are in the books at St. Albans CC.  I am extremely fortunate to be playing the final round after posting a pair of 4 over 74s.  My game has been rough the past two days with every club in the bag.  My longest putt I have holed has been from 4 feet.  My only three birdies have come from two putting after reaching the green in two on a pair of par 5s and driving the green on a par 4.  One of the great things about playing at home is that my Dad got to caddy for me today on my back nine.  We were finishing the round today when we were on hole 15.  It was a par 5 and I had 283 to the hole with my second.  My dialogue to him was the only way I am making birdie is by getting a 3 wood on the green and two putting.  It was that bad with the putter.  Well I hit probably the best 3 wood of 2010 on that shot and set up an easy birdie.  It is little things like this that I have to take away from rounds in times when I am struggling.  As I sat in the middle of the fairway on my last hole of the day thinking I needed to make birdie to make the cut, I told myself to breathe and just think about a rhythmic tempo.  The scary thing was as I got over the ball, I was completely unsure where the ball was going to go.  Left, right, high, low?  It sure as heck didnt fly straight.  I ended up blocking it short right in a bunker and made bogey from there.  Due to the lack of quality in the field this week, I somehow still made the cut at 8 over.  If this was a Hooters event I would have missed the cut by a half dozen, so I'm not going to allow myself to pat myself on the back just for making the cut.  What this does allow me to do tomorrow is get another round under my belt competitively.  That is exactly what I need right now.  I can pinpoint my weaknesses under the gun.  That's the best place to do it.  Golf has been a hard game for me here of late and I have been slightly stubborn not allowing it to get under my skin.  This is the nature of what I am doing.  There will be highs and there will be lows.  My absolute worst golf, which was on display the first two days, still allows me to at least salvage something and that is reassuring and proves I'm improving.  I am anxious soon to prove to myself that my best golf allows me to win on the highest level.  Sunday I leave for Cincinnati, Ohio for a Nationwide qualifier.  There are 80 guys at my course for 7 spots.  This is as good an opportunity numbers wise you can ask for in a Monday Qualifier.  I am determined to have a great day tomorrow to springboard me onto a very successful Monday.  If you were to give me the option to win this event this week and fail at the Nationwide Monday qualifier or play poorly this week and successfully qualify for the Nationwide event, I would take the latter every time.  Hopefully I can peak Monday and run the tables next week.  That's what great about golf.  One bad week means absolutely nothing.  The next week could be the best of your life and there are no reprecussions as there would be from a win/loss standings standpoint in other sports.  Good night.

Plan A-Nope...Plan B-Nope...Plan C-YES...What exactly does that mean?  Well unfortunately I missed at my plan A in Scotland for the British Open Qualifier.  My plan B was to get into the John Deere Classic this week which also unfortunately did not work out.  I was in Milan, IL on Monday for the Monday qualifier where I needed to shoot a 4 under par 68.  I got it to two under par with 5 holes to play and needed 2 more birdies coming to get in a playoff.  I went the other way unfortunately and finished at level par.  Once again, just like Scotland I gave myself a chance.  It absolutely stinks I struck out at the plate these last two chances when I put myself right in position to close late.  However, I know I have to take the positives out of this that I have put myself directly in the place I need to put myself in every time I play.  For many months prior to these previous two qualifiers I wasn't even giving myself chances.  Well I am down to my plan C now for the week and am competing in my home town of St. Louis at St. Albans CC for the Metropolitan Open.  It was last year where I finished second place here and that instilled the confidence in me to springboard onto a tear the remainder of the summer.  I said in my first blogpost of the year it was very important for me to get off to a good start to the year from Jan.1st on and keep it going all year long.  I may not have played my best golf in the first half of the year, but I was WAY more improved from last year from a consistency stand point.  So where does that leave me going into this week?  Well, I feel like my game is at a much higher level than it was at this point 365 days ago.  From that fact it only makes sense that if I can give myself a couple chances in the second have through Monday Qualifiers to get in some Nationwide/PGA Tour events that I can give myself a realistic chance at winning.  I did it last year in Springfield, and I fully intend at some point this year to do it again.  It all starts this week at home in Saint Louis for the Metro Open.  The first round starts tomorrow morning, and I need to give all my attention to my first shot and go from there.  A nice week this week can go along way for once again kickstarting my 2010 campain like it did last year.  You can follow my progress this week at http://www.metga.org/ .