Hello everyone.  I am back in Saint Louis for the remainder of the week.  It has been nice to refocus and work on some things during the break that will help me when I hit the road for two weeks come Monday for two NGA Tour events in North Carolina.  I wanted to share this picture with you above and why this is pertinent and serves as a heavy dose of motivation for me moving forward.  The picture above is of Bay Hill Club and Lodge.  This is my home course when I practice in Orlando over the Winter.  The PGA Tour is playing here this week.  What leaves a sour taste in my mouth and downright makes me nauseous to be frank is the fact that I am not there.  It is basically like saying there is a party at your house tonight, but unfortunately you are not welcome and have not been invited.  I want to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational so bad, but I have not made the right steps yet in my career to allow myself access to the event.  This drives me crazy, but at the same time really inspires me so that next year at this time I will be competing for the title. 
    All day today, I daydreamed about seeing myself at the top of the leaderboard.  The reality for me moving forward is that I will  be playing back to back weeks in North Carolina on the NGA Tour.  I played a competitive round with my good friend Peter Malnati today in St. Louis and played well.  I am really starting to feel great about my game and am looking forward to what the next two weeks bring.  The NGA Tour may be a far cry from the PGA Tour and Bay Hill, but it is where I am at currently, and two weeks of sound play will be able to instill a bunch of confidence moving forward.  It is all about what I can do today to get better.  One day at a time with complete inner belief and controlling what I can control.  I'm excited about playing some great golf and building towards my future of soon competing week in and week out on the PGA Tour.  Thanks for reading and I look forward to updating you on my steady progress from North Carolina.

After a week of rain delays, the tournament ended fittingly. The event was canceled because we couldn't complete two full rounds. So, I was in Gainesville, GA for a week for nothing essentially. I got out of town luckily with my entry fee in my back pocket. I head home finally to Saint Louis for much needed week off after being on the road for a month. This was by far my longest stint traveling continuously since I have turned pro. I learned some useful information about the state of my game. I was playing to be perfect for the vast majority of my rounds. As I previously stated I could string together 5 consecutive holes for instance without missing a shot, but as soon as I hit an imperfect shot I came unraveled. Golf is about staying level headed and accepting the outcome. Getting frustrated with poor shots is so silly looking back on it. That's why golf invented the wedge. So that you can save par when you miss the green. My constant search for the perfect shot wore me out and put me on edge the moment I missed my target. Moving forward this next week I am going to keep the game in perspective and get myself ready to play with a calm demeanor that rolls with the punches regardless of the quality of execution. One shot at a time, with a specific game plan. If I do that I will be able to accept the results. More than likely those results will be great if I follow those guidelines. Thanks for reading. One month down. Plenty learned and gained. Forward we go.

    I have nothing new to report.  Usually if I am playing golf on a Sunday that is a very good thing.  That still has yet to be determined for me because we failed to play any golf today due to early morning rain that left the Chattahoochee Golf Course flooded.  This course in particular does not drain well.  It was sunny for the whole afternoon, but the morning showers left the course unplayable.  We will finish up round two Sunday morning at 8:30.  Nothing has changed for me.  I need to play a solid 9 holes to make the cut.  The event has been shortened more than likely to 54 holes at best.  I don't have to do anything too out of the ordinary, but just keep my composure and make a few putts.  I'll update you all tomorrow with hopefully the good news that I played 27 solid holes of golf.  Thanks for reading.

    First off, I need to give my condolences to my alma mater, the Missouri Tigers.  What a tough loss these guys had to face today on the hardwood to Norfolk State.  They had a great year, and it all got tainted with an unexpected defeat today.  Unfortunately for me, I played golf about as well as my basketball team did today.  We got in only 9 holes today due to delays and a late afternoon storm that blew in and halted play.  I started the day ideally minus one thru my first four holes.  On my 5th hole of the day, I faced a tough par 3.  I hit a 5 iron flush directly at the flag.  Unfortunately it took a hard bounce on the green and skipped over.  I failed to get up and down and made a bogey that I didn't see coming.  What bothers me is that I let one swing, that was actually the best swing I made all day distract me and bring me down.  I proceeded to play the next three holes in four over par and went from the penthouse to the outhouse so to speak.  My mental game has been so fragile lately.  I can hit 100 good shots in a row, and then I hit 1 bad shot and I start questioning myself.  This needs immediate attention and needs to be corrected in a hurry. 
    I have 9 holes tomorrow to start over and make three birdies so that I can play the final two rounds.  Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, so a little luck never hurts.  Right now though, it is all about dealing with adversity.  This has been such a common theme for me since I turned professional in September of 2007.  I do so well when things are going great on the course, but I have often struggled with overcoming the inner demons that can creep after less than optimal shots.  The past few weeks, I would give myself a D- score in terms of how I have responded and acted after poor shots.  I need to shrug it off, realize it is a part of the game, and move forward.  No dwelling on the past, no yelling, no sulking, keep my head up, and just flat out believe in myself for the entirety of the round.  Most importantly directly after a shot that doesn't go according to plan.  I am going to hit more miserable shots in my career.  It is all about getting up off the mat and fighting back from the adversity that a bad shot tries to throw your way.  I am going to be stronger from here on out and I have this in writting here on my blog to make sure that I do.  Thanks for reading, and I'm ready to make some strides on the mental front.  Thanks for reading.

    The first round of the NGA Tour event in Gainesville, Georgia is in the books for me.  I shot an even par 71.  I hit the ball remarkably well all day, but just could not find a way to get my irons real close to the hole.  The difference between birdie putts from 10 feet and 20 feet on these quick greens translates into forced lag putts and a bunch of pars.  I made an extremely clumsy bogey on my 17th hole, the easiest hole on the course.  I was one under on my round, and hit it just over the green in two on this par 5.  It took me 4 heavy handed shots to get the ball in the hole from there and I limped away with a bogey.  If I take away that momentary laps in my round, I would have been right where I needed to be.  I'll take away a lot of great things from today, and look forward to going out tomorrow afternoon and playing my game.  My theme tomorrow is going to be start to finish.  By this I mean, I need to be 100 percent all in from the first tee shot to the last putt on 18.  I really do feel great about my game, so tomorrow I expect my score to reflect exactly how I feel about the strides I am making.  Stay tuned...

    Why might you ask do I have a picture of a toilet on my blog?  Well, this toilet represents the pathetic golf that I have played over the last three weeks down here in Florida.  It is filled all the way to the brim and needs to be flushed.  Here in lies the good news.  In the game of golf, no matter how terrible or how well you are playing, the game starts from zero the following week.  FLUSH!  Did you here that?  The toilet is now clean and I'm back to square one.  I recorded a 74 today to miss the cut by three shots here in Ocala, Florida at Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club.  All kidding aside, the past three weeks has been immensely frustrating, but that is part of the beauty of sports.  You will have both highs and lows.  What is it that has caused me to struggle?  The answer for me comes down to having a more efficient short game and eliminating double bogeys or worse from my scorecard.  I have got to tighten my miss pattern with my shots that are off line so that I can give myself a chance to recover.  My bad shots have been so bad the last three weeks that I was forced to take penalty shots, chip out sideways from the woods, and just plain not give myself any chance at saving my pars.  When I have missed the greens just slightly, my chipping and pitching has done me no favors because of poor execution.  If you mix that in with severely windy conditions that Florida, Puerto Rico, and Mexico have to offer you can see that the game has been a struggle for me.
    Like I said, I am ready to start next week fresh and really start to get my game in working order so that I can contend for a championship next week in Gainesville, Georgia for my last leg of the NGA Tour before a week off.  The Chattahoochee Golf Club is one that has very fast greens which I like.  I have played well there in the past and this is very comforting for me moving into next week.  Even thought this post may sound like a downer, I feel really good about my game.  I know I'm close to really playing exceptional golf even though my results have been poor.  My scores are not showing the fact that my good shots have been really good of late and that my short game is starting to make some strides.  Next week I can just feel is going to be a great week.  I will have the weekend off to relax and get some work in on my game, and maybe that is just what I need.  A breather before I let loose next week with the caliber of golf I am ready to start playing.  Maximize my potential and go out there and be ready to dominate.  Thanks for reading and I'm telling you, success is going to be here soon.

    It has been a tough past 5 days on the golf front for me.  I made it safely to San Juan Puerto Rico Sunday night, but my golf game didn't seem to travel with me on Monday.  In fierce winds on a relatively simple golf course I managed a 75 on a day where it took 67 to get in the PGA Tour event.  It was another case of being unable to keep the bogeys and double bogeys off my scorecard.  I headed from there to Tampa, Florida to play in the PGA Tour pre qualifier for the Transitions Championship.  The conditions were once again more beneficial for flying a kite rather than playing golf.  Sustained winds of 25mph plus made the golf course ridiculously tough.  It was roughly 100 guys playing for the top 14 spots and ties to advance to the Monday qualifier.  I played beautifully all day, but made one bad swing on my 13th hole and ended up registering a quadruple bogey 8 on the hole and shot a 74.  I missed qualifying by one shot.  Had I made a decent swing from the fairway on 13 rather than dunking it in the water, I walk away with a par,and I would have finished in 3rd place.  That is how fine a line I have been battling lately and it has been quite frustrating not getting the results I have wanted, but being so painfully close.
    Today was the first round of the NGA Tour in Ocala, Florida at Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club.  I was determined to not let my mishaps the previous week deter me from excelling this week as I teed off this morning.  I got off to a reasonable start on a golf course that is quite challenging and at week's end will not yield many low scores due to the challenge that it presents.  I made a birdie on my 11th hole to get my round back to even par for the day and gained quite a bit of momentum as I had 7 holes left to finish my round off in style.  For whatever reason, my game went into hibernation and I bogeyed 4 of my last 7 holes for a 76.  Once again, a frustrating finish to a round that seemed destined to be a good one.  I have seen a lot of crazy things in golf in my profession, and over the past three weeks since I arrived down in Florida to start my season, for whatever reason the game has just not been coming easy to me.  I am flat out not going to play exceptional golf week in and week out.  However, it has been hard to swallow that the previous three weeks have really been uneventful and my golf has been quite lousy.  I know I am really close to finding my form again soon, it just is going to take some perseverance, and trust that the last few weeks have just been a bad stretch of golf that happens in my sport.  I am once again going to push the delete button from my memory bank and start over again tomorrow.  I can do nothing from the past.  Tomorrow starts anew, and I look forward to going out there and giving the course hell from the moment I walk on the property.  My game is close, and I am ready to go show it.  Thanks for reading and results will fall my way shortly.

My season has officially started with this week's NGA Tour event in Tallahassee. It ended in a bittersweet fashion, but there were many positives to take with me. I shot rounds of 72-70-75 and had to withdraw the final round because of a travel conflict. We had massive delays yesterday due to 3 plus inches of rain that fell in the area. That pushed today's play back substantially. I am playing in tomorrow's PGA Tour Monday qualifier in Puerto Rico and the only way for me to get down there in time was to withdraw. It is the first event I have ever had to pull out of, so it was a weird sensation, but it was in my best interest for the success of my career. I will receive the last place check, which will essentially give me my entry fee back. Yesterday on my back nine I can draw a lot of confidence as I battled to make the cut. I shot 3 under over the last nine to make the cut on the number. It was great to feel some pressure down the stretch. Unfortunately I didn't get to finish the event, but this was a one time deal where my travel schedule was tight, and I was dealt a tough blow with the weather delays. I'm extremely excited about going out tomorrow and playing a great round of golf in Puerto Rico. Plenty of confidence moving forward, even if it was found through a shortened event. Onward and upwards. Thanks for reading. Further success is near!