Welcome to 2011!  I have a lot to report and am beginning to get the wheels in motion for a blockbuster year on and off the golf course.  Let me first take you through where I have been from early December where I last left you from my last blog post.  When I returned from Spain, I made it a point to put my clubs away where I couldn't touch them for two weeks.  This allowed me some clarity to digest my year on the course in 2010 and where I wanted to go in 2011.  As all of you who read this do, I had to go through a detailed checklist of what I did well in 2010 and what I did not.  I came to the conclusion through thorough analysis that I have all the shots needed in my bag to take my game to the PGA Tour, but I did not have the complete internal belief needed at all times to execute this full repertoire of shots when needed during the course of a round.  To put it more clearly, when I was playing well in 2010, it was very easy to summon my internal belief in myself before hitting each shot.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, during the course of play when I was struggling, I was unable to completely draw from that internal self belief in my game to execute flawlessly.

    So there I was in early December of 2010 analyzing what exactly I need to do moving forward to be able to overcome the inevitability of how I would be best prepared to handle adversity in 2011.  How will I be able to re wire my body and brain to keep that internal self belief alive during times of triumph and more importantly times of adversity?  My answer has come from a seven letter word: fitness.  As soon as I had an epiphany that this was the answer to what I was lacking, I made a call to a Saint Louis establishment called Sports Enhancement Group.  It is a sport specific training program here at home that I have committed my Winter to and I am really excited about the results I am experiencing.  I knew that in order to find this internal self belief, it wasn't just going to instantly pop out of a magic hat.  I had to put in some intensive hours. 

    I have gone three days a week to Sports Enhancement Group for 2 hours each session and began to transform by body into the asset needed to take me to the next level.  It has been 2 months since I started and I have gone from a pedestrian 170 pounds to a much more rock solid 180 pounds.  I have put on 10 pounds of pure, straight up muscle and I feel so strong and good about myself!  Between intense sweating, stretching, and pumping the iron I have become an athlete right before my eyes!  I still have 2 more weeks of intense training before I head down to Florida to begin my 2011.  So when that adversity strikes and I am unsure about a shot in 2011, I am going to be able to take a deep breath, step back and now be better equipped to handle the situation.  I can draw on my offseason work in the gym to reinforce to myself that I am an athlete and there is zero reason to be indecisive and have any fear or doubt.  I will be maintaining this high level of gym work throughout the season on my off weeks and maintaining my new strength during weeks of competition through light workouts in the evenings.

    So I covered my confidence issues over the offseason, but there was still more to conquer.  When I turned pro in September of 2007 I hit the ground running.  In fact I kept running and running and running and running!  I bascially never came up for air for 3 straight years.  I played in tournament in the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter for 3 straight years with no breaks.  I made it a point to hang the clubs up for two and a half months from tournament play and that was an unbelievably great decision.  After three straight years of tournament golf, tournament golf became kind of like clockwork.  I was still enjoying myself a ton, but I lacked that little extra hop in my step each week.  Well, when I return to action the third week in February, I know for fact I will be more excited to tee it up in competition than I have been in a really long time.  I am itching to play in a tournament worse than a kid with chicken pox who has his hands tied behind his back.  I feel the combination of complete excitement and anticipation that has been brewing inside me, coupled with my newfound internal self belief, has the makings to make 2011 the best year yet and help my reach my goals I have set in 2011.

    The pictures I have posted above are of my office this offseason.  This is the Winter hitting bay at Norwood Hills Country Club in Saint Louis.  It has a covered, heated stall where I can work on my swing during brutal weather that is ever present during the Winter.  The best part is the hitting area points due south, so the cold Northerly winds are blocked.  I sit here typing away, knowing that another snow storm is headed our way here in Saint Louis, ready to dump 8-12 inches of snow in the area.  This basically assures me that when I make it to Orlando on February 14th(Valentines Day), I will have some on course work to do before my season begins.  There is a good chance I will be fairly rusty, but that is to be expected in mid February having been unable to make any on course swings over the past two and a half months.  However, it will not take long for that rust to dissolve, and with my offseason work that I have put in, 2011 is going to be great.  My first tournament is February 21st in Cancun, Mexico for the PGA Tour Mayakoba Monday Qualifier.  I can not wait to get things started there and see the fruit of my offseason labors pay off.  I'll keep you posted between now and then with my continual strides torward excellence.