Five years ago to the day I was walking the hallowed grounds of Augusta National as a participant in the Masters as an amateur.  Over the past half decade I have spent my life pursuing my dream of finding a place on the PGA Tour.  It has been quite the adventure.  As in any aspect of life, it has been filled with many highs and lows, yet I have enjoyed every step of the way.  Today my competitive golf found me a long way from th prestigious grounds of Augusta National.  I finished up play in the NGA Tour event in Windsor, North Carolina.  I missing the cut today by one shot after dealing with the weather delays all week.  The conditions were very difficult from the start with temperatures hovering at 50 degrees and strong winds off the Atlantic.  I played beautifully for the vast majority of my second round.  Through 16 holes I hadn't made a bogey and I had rallied myself into 33rd place sitting on the 17th tee.  I was in full command of my game, and for whatever reason I decided to three putt the par 5 17th for bogey, then snap hook my tee shot on 18 into the weeds, hack out, then eventually lip out my 45 foot par attempt and settle for another bogey.  By bogeying the final two holes and missing the cut by one, it was very easy to want to puke all over my nicely pressed khaki pants.
    In the end, it is a missed cut and a week filled with disappointment in the end result.  It is imperative that I take away the facts that I was extremely close to playing myself back into the golf tournament.  It really does come down to a matter of feet.  I'll try to explain.  The wet conditions made the rules committee allow the players to play the ball up in the fairways.  On 17 I missed the fairway by one foot, so I wasn't able to play the ball up and clean it.  I had mud caked on the left and top of my ball, which causes the ball to veer off line.  Had I been one foot right, I could have cleaned it off, and took an easy lash at the green in two.  Instead, I pulled out a 5iron for safety to make sure the ball didn't get away from me.  I missed the fairway with my layup by 3 feet, and unfortunately was dealt a flyer lie where I couldn't impart the proper spin on the ball to control it in the wind.  I hit my approach to 45 feet left on the fringe as the wind took ahold of my ball.  My first putt settled to 3 and a 1/2 feet.  As I addressed the second putt, the wind was whipping and I lost my balance just enough to cause my ball to lip out.  Bogey.  On 18, I can take ownership of my bogey as I snapped my ball into the weeds.  It was frustrating to see my huge 45 foot par putt that broke 7 feet left to right lip out instead of lip in, but such is life.  To sum it up, lets theoretically say my ball on 17 is a foot right in the fairway, and I manage to make a pretty stock birdie from there, I would have vaulted into 24th place and been staring down the top of the leaderboard.  So as you can see, my results just flat out have been poor this year, but my game has been painstakingly close to really putting up some seriously consistent results.  It just comes down to those few shots a round that have not been going my way yet.  I'm going to head home tomorrow and keep working hard with a huge smile on my face.  If you let the adversity get the best of you and the challenge the game endlessly throws at you get you down, I will be in for a long career.  I'm really close, and by keeping the right attitude moving forward I am 100% sure that great results will come my way soon.  I am too disciplined, talented, and stubborn to let this game keep my down.  There is no rest for the weary for me as I head to San Antonio on Tuesday for the PGA Tour Valero Open Qualifier followed by the PGA Tour Zurich Classic Qualifier the following week.  I am determined to play my way into San Antonio and get myself into contention.  That's the goal and an ambitious one, but I hold myself to a very high standard and I am ready to go get it.  Thanks for reading and I flat out am burning inside to win.