The European Tour was not to be this year. I had a poor tournament start to finish and could not get it done. Starting the 3rd round I knew I had to make a move early and that is exactly what I did. I was 4 under through 5 holes. I had an eagle putt on my 7th hole and three putted for par. That momentum killer rattled me a bit and I made some unforced errors after that. I closed the final round with an uneventful 78 that mimicked the previous three days of poor play. In fact that final round was the highest round of my 97 competitive rounds of the year. I guess you could say it was a fitting end to the torment that my week in Spain offered me.
That is the beauty of golf. There will be times of ecstasy and times of pain. This one was obviously the latter. I had a 5 hour train ride up the coast of Spain to digest what had happened and thoroughly examine my year. I was able to see the big picture during this time of self examination. What I was most excited about was what really counts for the most: my scoring average. I crunched the numbers and I finished the year with a 71.70 scoring average. This was my best year of scoring since I turned professional in 2007 by a whopping 0.4 strokes. In 2009 when I was within 2 strokes of winning the Nationwide Tour event in Springfield, Missouri I had a stroke average of 72.11 for the year. This tells me that if I can continue to improve moving forward like I have been, I just need to be in the right place at the right time and I will undoubtedly give myself some really excited chances to win some tournaments.
So where do I go from here? After being on the road essentially week in and week out since February it is time for a break on the golf front. I'm not going to pick up a club for two weeks and am going to enjoy the time away during the Holidays. I have a great friend getting married in January in Hawaii. It works out perfectly for me to attempt the Sony Open qualifier while I am down there. Besides that the NGA Tour (formerly the Hooters Tour) begins play at the end of February. So I am in the midst of my off season. Once 2012 gets here I am going to be really excited to pick up where I left off. It was a year of steady play, but now I am ready to take it the next step and start winning some tournaments. Until then I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I firmly anticipate 2012 being the best year yet. Thanks for reading and for your support in what I am going to accomplish.
1 comment:
John,
I read your blog for the first time today, and I am fascinated by what comes through in your writing. I like the way you think, I appreciate your unassuming nature, and I want the best for you.
With that said... I hope you can start anew, mentally and physically, in the coming year.
Pick your tournaments VERY carefully, not with an eye for trying to find yourself where you THINK you belong, but with an eye for CREATING the EVIDENCE you obviously need to BELIEVE that you belong there...
Think about it. 65 in some small tourney in Gramling? Or the scores that didn't make it to the blog in Boise. What separates those two tournaments? What is the difference in your game between those events? And WHY, of all things, would you write so much and spend so much time building yourself up for Boise, but NOT the tournament in which you shot a 65? Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing?
"I know if I can just go out and be myself and believe in my ability, I can compete next week [in Boise] for a title." Interesting to me that you didn't say that about Gramling, but actually doing so in Gramling didn't prove so difficult. Coincidence? I don't think so. The fact that you wrote it only tells me that you already questioned whether or not it would happen.
Didn't question Gramling, though.
Play to win, John... I believe in you.
Best of luck.
-Brian S.
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