Hello.  I am currently two days from leaving for Spain and I could not be more excited.  My preparations have gone more than according to plan and I have followed my fitness guidelines perfectly all month.  I feel great mentally and physically and am pumped at being given the opportunity to go earn my European Tour card.  As Thanksgiving came and went I had plenty of time to think exactly what it is I am personally thankful for.  The answer really is that I am able to pursue what makes me happy and at the same time see many places in this world I would not otherwise ever see.  I am fortunate to be bringing a great friend of mine, Michael Wellington, to caddy for me over the next two stages and he will be a great asset to have in terms of bringing the utmost positivity out of my game.  He is another fellow Saint Louisan that plays golf professionally, so he will make a great American teammate to have on the bag.
    It had been a long, strange road that I have traveled in 2011.  For whatever reason, here I am ready to embark on a remarkable trip to Spain for 18 days.  It could have ended up leading to so many different paths, but the year has all pointed me toward this for some reason.  I feel that there is a definitive and meaningful reason that I am left with the opportunity to earn my European Tour card for 2012 to finish out my season.  I really have had a great year that has taken me to a heck of a lot of magnificent places.  I have played very steady all year and maintained a mature, disciplined head on my shoulders.  I am going to take all of that with me to Europe.  I obtained the latest weather outlook for the next 10 days and it is going to be a Groundhogs Day similar sunny and 65 degrees for the entirety of my first week there.  I am looking forward to playing golf to the best of my ability and having a superb attitude the whole time I play.  I will keep you posted with my progress throughout my journey (internet connection pending over there of course).  Thanks for reading!!

    I ended up missing the cut today by two shots as I shot a one under 70.  I am definitely disappointed in my results, but I have got to keep moving forward.  I triple bogeyed my second hole of the day to really put myself behind the eight ball with my final 16 holes left to play.  I responded with some serious courage by consecutively making birdies on number 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 to give myself a realistic chance of playing tomorrow.  I needed two more birdies on my final six holes, but I missed all six birdie chances coming in unfortunately.  I was really proud of the way I fought all the way to the end even though I didn't have my best stuff the last two days.
    So what did I learn over the past two days?  I have got to be more athletic and use my instincts when I am out there playing.  There were two many occasions where I was over the ball and I had multiple swing thoughts going on in my head.  I was way to mechanical.  I need to just let it go, see the target, and let my body react to it accordingly.  I am very happy I played in this event, regardless of my poor play because it pinpointed exactly what I need to work on in the areas of my game moving forward in the next two weeks before I leave for Spain.  I need to get better each day from here on out and work as hard as I can with the two weeks that I have.  If I can really bear down and grind it out on the range and have maximum internal belief in myself for the remainder of 2011, I will look back with ZERO regrets no matter what happens, because I know I left everything I have out there on the line.  I am a firm believer that with disciplined-hard work and true belief, I will find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  A great attitude goes a long way, and mix that with a bunch of athleticism, and all of a sudden I have got a dangerously lethal weapon.  Let's go out and unleash it!  Thanks for reading and I'll update you with my final preparations before leaving November 28th for Spain.

Here's the update on round one. I fired a one over 72 to put a good chunk of change between me and the leader. I didn't make a whole lot of mistakes, but I didn't do a lot right either. When I got in trouble, I didn't recover soon enough. I worked on a few things after the round at Bay Hill and it felt alot better. I need to go out tomorrow with the same positive attitude, and hopefully my technique and athleticism shine brightly. I was just a fraction off today, so I am excited to get right back on the course tomorrow. Keep you posted!

I want to give everyone an update as to how everything is progressing on my march to my European card. After the dust settled after US Q School I had awhile to recap where my game is and what needed improvement. If you recall from early this year I said that my year would focus on really taking care of myself physically in the gym and by eating properly. This would help give me the internal confidence I needed. I was really disciplined the first half of the year, but as the summer progressed and temperatures rose into the triple digits I was not as regimented as I should have been. To be fair, after playing a 5 hour tournament round in 110 heat indexes it was hard to be motivated to go work out. However, when I would come home after these tournaments I lost my workout rhythm because of these hot days where I didn't work out due to being scared of over working myself. Long story short, two days after Q School ended I began a month long fitness regime that is going to payoff huge dividends. I've rededicated myself to my fitness and after 2 weeks I can already start to feel the differences from a physical and mental standpoint. Currently I am in Orlando for 4 days for a Hooters winter series event that starts tomorrow. I'm excited to take my game back on the course. I tee off round 1 tomorrow at 7:00 am. I'll keep you posted on my results or you can follow along at www.ngatour.com . My game is feeling great and this will give me some competition before I leave for Spain November 28th.