I had a very busy month of September and with good reason. I traveled both far and abroad on my quest to keep building momentum for the Fall. I left you in Columbia, Missouri as I was about to embark on the Missouri Open. I played a great 1st round and shot a nice 69, but the last two days left me with much room for improvement as I struggled to find consistency in most areas of my game. Another cut made, but I had to regroup and press on. I sandwiched a small two day event in Saint Louis, which proved to be very beneficial. It was a 2 day pro am where I played my own ball and joined 4 amateurs. It is always fun helping average amateurs in these formats, but sometimes you have to throw your traditional etiquette standards out the window because my amateur partners are not completely aware of the ins and outs of competitive golf. This was really good for me because it pushed me out of my comfort zone having to teach my group on the fly how to tend flagsticks, not walk on my line, or just flat out stand in the right place.
It sounds horrific, but I had a great time doing just that. I managed to play some awesome golf along the way too. I was in 2nd place heading into the final round. Halfway through my final round I found out I was still right by the lead. One of the other pros, Bob Gaus, after a poor 1st round, had shot up the board with an incredible 61 to post seven under for the two days. I needed one more birdie with 4 holes to play to get in a playoff. I started number crunching, and that is usually a bad thing on the course. Instead of focusing on the process, I was in tune with the final result. As you can guess, rather than make that one more birdie, I went the other way. I finished in 3rd place, but licked my wounds and realized the next time I was in that position to keep my head down and finish the race.
I had been playing great golf, and it continued at the Nebraska Open. I played an awesome round of golf in round 2 to get myself right in the mix heading into the final round. This time I was determined to follow the process of getting the right result through sticking to my game start to finish. The final round played very difficult with cool conditions and a steady wind that made scoring difficult. I played very solidly in the final round, but my undoing came from a lack of scoring on the par 5's. I was hole high in two on all 3 par 5's, but walked away with 3 pars. I needed to convert. The last hole is a tricky sharp dogleg left par 4 where you can cut off the corner or play conservatively to the right, but it leaves you a longer second shot in. I played aggressive and took off some of the corner. Unfortunately my perfect drive struck the last tree as it was descending into the fairway and kicked deep into the trees. I had to punch out and settle for a bogey. My par 5 play and bad break on the last left me in 7th place and 4 shots off the 1st place mark. I played well, I just needed that last little oomph to get over the threshold.
I drove through the night from Nebraska via car to Chicago, IL to play in a one day qualifier for the Chicago Open. The course was Flossmoor CC, host of a previous US Amateur and PGA Championship. A true championship test. It was the first time I had to wear sleeves in about 4 months and I was playing the course blind. Without making any more excuses, I didn't have my best stuff on a tough day and tough course and battled to a 78. I stuck around to find out I would be in a 4 for 2 playoff for alternate positions. I collected myself, and calmly made a nice par to grab one of the 2 alternate spots. I found out last week I was granted access to the tournament which begins October 7th. It felt really good to gut out a position in the event even after having such a tough day.
Last week, the true test began. All the Midwest State Open preparation was obviously for getting ready for the onset of Q School. I made it into Lisbon, Portugal and spent the 1st 3 days getting over the jet lag and preparing for the event. My first round opened up in shaky fashion. I had some nervous energy I couldn't flush, and I signed for a 75 to get things going. I settled down in round 2 for a 71 to get myself back in the picture. The 3rd round really for most was the breaking point. It is a very tough golf course and round 3 provided a stern test with high winds that made scoring an adventure. I fought really hard, but could only muster a 77 on the day, which left me 3 shots off the pace for advancing to 2nd stage. I knew I had to dig deep the final round and play a good round of golf.
The final round provided BRUTAL conditions at the onset. I was the 3rd group off in the morning and I was in full rain gear as the rain at times was coming down sideways. I got up and down on my first 2 holes for great pars, then started the engine with a phenomenal eagle on the 3rd. I continued to hit great shot after great shot until my 8th hole where play was suspended due to weather for 5 hours. When play resumed, my final 10 holes were in much better conditions, but I had to finish the race. I did exactly that and then some and signed for a 64. The low round of the day and I had to play in the toughest of the weather for the longest period of time. Why is there a picture of a freight train on the top of the screen? Because I closed like one in the final round. I advanced to 2nd stage in Spain the first week of November and it felt amazing to do so when I absolutely had to. As I said, I have the Chicago Open next week. After that I head to Houston, Texas for my first stage of US Q School beginning October 15th at the Woodlands. I have to keep working hard and in order to get the results I want I have to focus on having the best ATTITUDE possible and work on the PROCESS of how to get there. I'll be back in a month to update you on how things are coming along. Thanks for the support.
