Hello.  It has definitely been awhile since my last blog, but all is well here.  This past Monday, I played a small one day event in Gramling, South Carolina.  Going into the day I wanted to use it to help jump back in the saddle after Boise, Idaho.  That is exactly what I did and I redeemed myself by giving myself a shot of confidence right in the arm.  I shot a seven under 65 and lost in a playoff.  It was a great day even though I bogeyed my last hole.  In the playoff, I can't complain, as my birdie was beaten by an eagle on the first extra hole.  So all systems are a go as I head off to Portugal tomorrow as the Portuguese national flag indicates above.  I will be playing the same course I did last year and staying at the same hotel, so it is my job to retrace my steps as best I can.  The only difference is I will be traveling with a good friend and fellow American, Adam Long.  I can not express to you how great an asset this is for the two of us to be traveling together.  The easy part about playing on foreign soil is the golf.  The hard part is everything in between, from flight logistics, to finding a place to eat, to navigating yourself around in a car.  The list goes on and on.  Moving forward, I really am excited for the final stretch of 2011 and Monday really helped reaffirm that in my mind.  Not every day will be that easy, but as long as I can really keep an upbeat attitude and not let adversity bother me, I will be in great position to play great golf.  Thanks for reading and I will be sure to update from Lisbon, Portugal about how things are progressing leading into the first round of European Tour Qualifying School.

    Hello from Saint Louis.  The week in Boise, Idaho was a short one.  I flat out just had two bad days of golf in a tournament that I really wanted to play well at.  I didn't ever press at any time and was in no way nervous of the situation.  I just didn't perform.  It happens and it is over and done with.  In golf just like in business, you can not perform well all the time.  I chalked it up to a learning experience, picked myself up off the ground and flew on home to Saint Louis.  I have ZERO time to dwell on what could have been.  I am moving forward with my season and am continuing to get ready for the months ahead that are always important at the end of the year.  I have the next two weeks basically off on the tournament front, but that doesn't mean I won't be putting in the reps on the course.  I am going to play in a one day event next Monday in South Carolina.  Other than that my next event starts the first week of October in Lisbon, Portugal for 1st Stage of Q School for the European Tour.  My game is sharp, and two erratic days are not in the least going to errode any of the confidence I have been building as the summer has progressed.  Over and out from Missouri, and the best is yet to come.

    I owe you all an update on today.  I completed just 11 holes today due to a long weather delay.  It was a disasterous day really on all fronts from the get go.  I was 4 over on the holes I played.  Three putts all over the place, errant driving, and lack of distance control made for an adventurous day.  The key to this course I quickly found out was the necessity of keeping my ball in the fairway.  The greens are about as firm as a wooden table, so it is essential to be coming into the surfaces from the short grass so that you can impart some backspin on the ball to control it.  I birdied my last hole of the day tonight in the dark to feel good going into tomorrow.  To make an analogy, if I was an arsonist I found a gallon of gas on my last hole with that birdie to spark a fire tomorrow.  I have to finish up my last 7 holes tomorrow morning at 8am, and then will tee off almost immediately and begin my second round.  Tomorrow I fully intend to play the great golf that I have been playing here of late, and put to bed today's poor play with a great night's rest.  Thanks for reading and much better things are in store tomorrow.

    Hello from Boise, Idaho.  I am currently waiting to tee off in the 1st round of the Albertsons Boise Open this week on the Nationwide Tour.  Boy that has a nice ring to it.  I tee it today in the last group of the day at 2:55pm off the 10th tee.  Having played here in 2007 in my pro debut I have good memories of Hillcrest Country Club, and am going to use that course knowledge this week to my advantage.  It is not a course that needs to be overpowered.  It is a classic, old golf course with healthy, large trees guarding the fairways, so accuracy is key to giving yourself a good chance to play the holes correctly.  I have been playing great golf over the past few weeks, so I am looking forward to carrying on that form this week.  My game plan is to just be myself.  I want to play my game, and not worry about one thing anyone else is doing this week.  Sometimes it is easy to get wrapped up in how badly I want to perform at the highest level and that can hinder me.  Yesterday in the pro am, one of my amateurs had to be taken away in an ambulance mid round after a fluke accident in the cart that left his upper arm severly bruised.  It is these kind of things that quickly put in check that on the big scheme of things golf isn't all that important.  With that being said, I really am ready this week to put my best foot forward starting today and see where that takes me at weeks end.  Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted.

    Two more days in the books.  It was a sort of yin and yang over the last two days.  Going into the second round I knew I needed a well played round to make it to the weekend.  I ended up playing the best round of the year and posting a near flawless seven under 65 to get me back into contention none the less.  Today unfortunately I struggled to a 73 and went spiraling down the leaderboard.  For whatever reason all year long I just never put my best foot forward in the third round.  It was a trend all year and I never could put my finger on it.  I know it is just another round of golf and is absolutely no different from any other round of golf I play, but I just never moved in the right direction on moving day.  Oh well, this is something I will soon correct and learn from.  In the mean time I have one more round tomorrow to play well and make up some of the ground that I lost today.  The most refreshing news is regardless of how tomorrow goes, I will be hopping on a plane to Boise, Idaho to compete next week on the Nationwide Tour. 
    With this being my 4th year as a professional and having not played in a PGA Tour sanctioned event since August of 2009, I am humbled and excited to be given the chance via a sponsors exemption.  I can't tell you how pleased I am right now with the quality of my game right now.  I know if I can just go out and be myself and believe in my ability, I can compete next week for a title.  Tomorrow I am going to go take care of business by getting the momentum back in my court, and then I am going to head to Idaho ready to play the best golf of my life.  With the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 tomorrow it is very easy to put into perspective how great a life and profession I have been blessed to have and I will pause tomorrow to pay my respect to the fallen victims that died one decade ago.  Thanks for reading and exciting times are just days ahead!

    Hello from Columbia, South Carolina.  Last week in Augusta finished just fine.  I had a closing 68 to finish in 21st place and take a bunch of momentum with me moving forward.  I spent the weekend in Pinehurst, North Carolina charting my 1st stage Q School site at Pinewild Country Club.  The course suits my game well and it was great to get an early peek at what is in store come late October.  Today was the first round of the Hooters event in Columbia and I struggled today to an even par 72.  The course is yielding a bunch of birdie opportunities, but I didn't get my approach shots close enough, missed a few short putts, and had a couple errant drives.  Add all of that inconsistency up and it spells trouble.  What I did do well today was play the four par 5's in five under par and I closed my round with an eagle on my last hole to regain a bit of what I had lost during the day.  My hopes are that I can let that last hole fuel me into tomorrow and that I can tidy up my gameplan and really piece together a great round of golf on Friday.  Today was not great, but I have a lot of golf ahead of me tomorrow to make a solid run in the right direction.  Keep you posted.

    Hello from the mecca of golf: Augusta, Georgia.  We are playing golf this week at Mount Vintatge Plantation in North Augusta.  While it may not be the golf tournament in Augusta I dreamed of as a kid, it is a great tournament being played this week on the Hooters Tour.  As the above picture indicates, every move we make out here on the Hooters Tour is preparing us for the future when we compete in front of the bright lights of the PGA Tour.  Playing in Augusta only reinforces that even more.  Three rounds of golf are in the books and I currently sit in a tie for 32nd place at seven under par with one round remaining tomorrow morning.  My first three rounds have all been freakishly similar in the fact that I started off with a bunch of pars, made a bunch of birdies in the middle of my round, and then lost all that momentum coming towards the house with a bunch of pars and a few bogeys. 
    It has been really frustrating this week that I have been on the cusp of really busting out an outstanding round each day and to fall flat as I concluded each round.  I'm going to go out tomorrow with the gas pedal down all day.  I am going to have fun playing the game I love all day and play my brand of golf from start to finish.  Next week we head to Columbia, South Carolina for my final regular season Hooters Tour event of the year.  It's hard to believe how fast this summer has gone.  Looking even further down the road, the week after South Carolina I have an outstanding opportunity awaiting that I am already salivating about.  I will be playing in the Nationwide Tour's Albertsons Boise Open September 15th-18th.  It will be my first PGA Tour sanctioned event in over two years.  It will be broadcasted each evening on The Golf Channel so check your local listings and make sure to follow me on http://www.pgatour.com/ .  Take care and look forward to updating soon.