I have three more events to report to you about.  I headed to Marshall, Minnesota for a Dakotas Tour event right after Waterloo.  I shot 74-73 to miss the cut by a pretty wide margin.  I just wasn't comfortable on the course with the changes that were taking place.  I headed straight from there to my old college alma matter in Columbia, Missouri for the Missouri Open.  A disappointing 79-74 once again left me short of playing the final round.  It was heartbreaking to not even make the cut in a tournament that I lost in a playoff a couple years ago in my old college town nonetheless.  What I took away from the week was some really good range work.  The second round, I finally felt comfortable on the course for an extended period of time.  I turned my front nine in 2 under par, but fell back into old patterns on my back nine for a poor finish.  I was in Omaha, Nebraska yesterday for the Web.com qualifier.  I was well off the mark with an uncompetitive 73 that left me 7 shots shy of qualifying.  On paper it looks like I am nowhere near close to being where I need to be from a results standpoint, but I am feeling more and more comfortable on the course as each day passes.  I have been keeping detailed statistics the second half of the year.  One stat I keep is how many shots I hit inside 15 feet each round.  Yesterday, I had 5.  This tied my highest mark in the past two months.  Now down the road, this needs to get better obviously, but this was one sign that pointed in the right direction.  I birdied my last two holes yesterday which felt good, and allowed me to be encouraged that I fought all the way to the end regardless of whether I was still in contention in the qualifier. 
    I have the rest of the week back home in Saint Louis to keep practicing hard on what I am working on.  I really want to make it a point that my practice is extremely focused and done with an exact purpose.  I have an extremely busy August.  I will be playing in the next 3 Web.com qualifiers, starting next Monday in Springfield, Missouri.  I played really well there in 2009, so it would be so sweet to get back in the starting field.  To do this, I have to keep my mind off the results, and put all my attention to detail in the process of getting there one shot at a time, with a specific game plan on each swing.  I have a plan B to play in one Adams Tour event and 3 NGA Tour events over the next four weeks, so regardless, I will be on the road the next month playing in a bunch of 4 day events.  I know that I am feeling more and more comfortable with the changes in my golf swing, now it is up to me to trust the changes and go out there and play fearlessly and realize that I have put in an immense amount of time to be successful in my profession.  I love how things are coming along.  The results on paper haven't improved, but I have wiped my slate clean and know that I am going to start producing some great results.  My practice is showing signs that it is really close and that gets me excited.  Follow here for an exciting next month on the road.  It's going to be a great one.

    Hello.  It has been close to a month since my last update, so it is about that time.  I last left you as I was headed to West Virginia for the PGA Greenbriar Classic Pre Qualifier.  A 76 left me one shy of advancing to the Monday Qualifier.  This stung pretty bad, but I refused to let the one poor day keep me down.  From there I moved on to the John Deere Classic Pre Qualifier.  I successfully got through with a 72.  I unfortunately followed that up with a 73 at the actual qualifier and failed to make it into the event.  The two missed qualifiers allowed me to make it home for the Metropolitan Open at Saint Albans CC back in Saint Louis.  I finished tied for 16th with rounds of 76-70-73.  It was a week that found my game in much the same state it has been in this year with good driving, putting, and chipping, but erratic iron and wedge play.  After all of this, I knew it was time to make a change.  Something had to give to allow for my iron and wedge play to return to my old form.  I flew straight from Saint Louis to Orlando to work with Brian Mogg on my game.  It was time to make a change. 
    I knew as I stepped foot on the Waldorf Astoria range in Orlando that I could either keep swinging normally and keep getting the same results or listen to what Brian had to say and realize that I was going to have to make some adjustments to my swing in order to get back on track.  That is exactly what we did over the course of two days.  Almost immediately Brian pointed out to me that my grip was extraordinarily weak.  This caused me to be extremely active at impact with my hands in order to time out every single shot.  One day I might be able to time it out well by rotating my hands just right, but other days if my timing was not exactly right, I was going to struggle.  So we strengthened my grip substantially to get my hands much more passive through the shot. 
    Today was my first test under the gun at the Waterloo Open in Waterloo, Iowa.  What resulted was a day full of extremely frustrating results.  As the above picture indicates it is easy to see that I spent a bunch of time today in the trees.  I scraped up my forearm escaping from the trees on one hole that left battle scars.  I shot a 78 and struggled all day being able to go out and trust the changes that are taking place.  My brain was still wired to my old pattern of active hands, but I had a much stronger grip in place.  Couple that together, and it is easy to see why I fought a hard hook all day.  I want to be able to get to the point where I can just let it go and trust my swing 100 percent, but today I had to be really swing thought oriented, and unfortunately I still did not make all the swing adjustments necessary to hit the ball cleanly with the right trajectory and curve.  As I mentioned earlier, it can be really easy for me to just go back to exactly the same thing I was doing before last week and feel comfortable.  That is exactly what I am not going to do.  Change is never easy.  I will have to allow myself to feel uncomfortable out on the course and range for a period as I acclimate myself to my new swing for the betterment of my game's consistency.   Passive hands are going to translate to much lower, consistent scores day in and day out.  It may feel weird today, but as soon as I get this adjustment dialed in, look out.  The rest of my game is there waiting.  I know with all my heart that once my driving and iron play return, I am going to be destined for greatness.  The results this year have been poor, and frankly, nothing short of a nightmare, but I am fully invested in the belief that I took one step backward to take a whole bunch of steps forward.  Thanks for reading, and I look forward to finding my footing and making the rest of 2012 my best year yet.  It's going to happen.