It has been a sporadic year for me in terms of blog updates.  My golf game paralleled that sporadic activity.  It was a semi lost year in terms of results.  I entered 4 Q Schools in 2014 and did not get any status from the PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latin America, European Tour, and Web.com Tour.  I worked diligently and hard on my game from January 1st all the way through the year, but I wasn't working hard in the right way.  The things I was working on in my swing were not paying dividends in terms of output and results. 

    I had a great lesson in early December where a light bulb really went off on several areas of my game and I've been working on really getting these concepts to be a big part of what drives my success in 2015.  These new swing concepts are my Winter project here in St. Louis, while I have rededicated myself in the gym.  I have been really focusing in on my body by working out at a new spot called Orange Theory Fitness.  I wear a heart rate monitor throughout the hour long workout and focus on interval training between treadmills, rowing machines, and free weights.  It is an intense workout where I burn upwards of 1,000 calories in the hour and walk out of the gym feeling like a true athletic stud.

    The picture above is of a mailroom boy.  This is a good analogy for where I hope to be come the end of January.  I will be headed down to Orlando on January 10th where I will get in a week of training on the Moonlight Tour (www.ogatour.com) by participating in 4 small one and two day events between January 12-16. From there I will head down to Sebring, Florida to participate in the PGA Tour Latin America Q School (www.pgatourla.com) January 20-23.  This is where the mailroom boy concept comes in to play.  All my professional career thus far I have been looking from the outside in to get in the PGA Tour system.  The second photo, which I've posted before, is a great outline of the 3 tiers of the system which shows the importance of getting in the network to then climb through the ranks once I bust into that inner circle. 

    If you looked at the different levels of the PGA Tour pipeline, the players on the PGA Tour would best be described as vice presidents.  The Web.com players would be upper management.  Finally, the PGA Tour Latin America, China, and Canada players you could describe as mailroom boys.  I need to get in the system, even if it is the less than glamorous lowest branch.  From there, the ball will be in my court to climb the ladder of success within the PGA Tour system. 

    As I said, I really am excited about the place my game is headed.  I really have a great grasp of my swing mechanics and understand how to correct any miscues on the fly.  I couldn't say that much at all in 2014.  If I was struggling on the course, I didn't have a grasp on what I was doing incorrectly.  I'm swinging the club in a really repeatable manner that is going to allow me to score low repeatedly time and time again.  I was really leaning on timing this year and that wasn't dependable.  2015 is going to be my breakout year.  I can really feel it.  The road to greatness starts the 3rd week of January.  It's my time to go into the 1st "interview" in Sebring, Florida and go land my 1st job within the PGA Tour system!  I can't wait.  Thanks for the support.

    I'm due for an update after a couple months.  As always, this time of the year finds me busy traveling the country.  I've played in a handful of qualifiers and tournaments with varying degrees of success, so I won't bore you with the in depth analysis of each event.  I will say over the last couple months I struggled a bit with my ball striking, which bled over into the mental game with full swing trust.  My proudest moment over the last couple months was the event I talked to you about in Pittsburgh, the Frank Fuhrer Invitational.  I gutted out a 10th place finish with D minus ball striking. 

    My patience and attitude have been fantastic this summer.  I got into several minor bad swing habits that rooted from a combination of clubface and body target alignment.  This is the foundation upon which a solid, repeatable swing can be made and I was putting myself behind the eight ball by not aiming properly.  My body sequencing consequently suffered, as I was trying to make compensations.  Now that I am back to a great grasp of my alignment fundamentals, everything is falling into place, and my swing is feeling as good as it has in years. 

    My confidence is growing each day.  I'm in the middle of a one month competitive break to recharge for the final push leading up to the Fall.  I'll be on the road for a month straight starting August 20th in Edmond, Oklahoma for the Oklahoma Open.  This month stretch will culminate with the first stage of European Q School in Lisbon, Portugal.  I continue to be totally absorbed with my system for success as seen at the top of this site.  Process, patience, attitude.  The results will follow.  2014 is my year and I'll continue to outwork my competition until I reach my target destination.  Follow right here starting August 20th for my month long sojourn on the road.  Thanks for the support!

  
    Forgive me for being absent from my blog over the last few months.  I've been busy trying valiantly to make my dreams and goals a reality.  I last left you with the opportunities I had in Guatemala and the PGA Tour Canada Q school.  Unfortunately, my trip to Guatemala produced poor results and a missed cut.  It was an unreal location though with the course being built on the side of an active volcano.  I will never forget the scenery and consider myself lucky to have traveled there. 

    I went from there to the Canadian Q School in California.  I played steady, but not solid golf, and at week's end I once again found myself looking from the outside in.  I missed obtaining my card by 2 strokes.  TWO.  I knew my game was close and over the last couple months I've played various Monday qualifiers and several 4 day mini tour events.  I haven't broken through the barrier of the Monday qualifiers yet this year, but am close.  I have racked up two top 15 finished on the Adams Tour and NGA Tour in the 3 events I've played in, so I've 100 percent shown I can compete in 4 day events, I need to find a way into some more elite fields though through success in Monday qualifiers and q school success. 

    This past Tuesday, I had a remarkable opportunity that presented itself from being the 1st alternate at US Open local qualifying in Saint Louis on May 13th.  I received a call from the USGA and was given a spot into the sectional in Columbus, Ohio.  I was competing against 120 other guys, 70 of which were PGA Tour members.  It was the first time I had been in that arena since the 2007 US Open.  While my results were poor, it felt so good to walk the same fairways with many of the best players in the world.  It was an opportunity I would have liked to have conquered, but regardless it was a breath of fresh air to have that chance.

    Moving forward into the months of June and July, I have a handful of Web.com Monday qualifiers, several 4 day Adams Tour events, and a really special exclusive event in Pittsburgh starting on June 30th.  It is called the Frank Fuhrer Jr. Invitational.  It features a very small 40 man field which will be vying for a lucrative $200,000 purse, with the winner taking home $40,000.  This will be a great chance for me to get into the winners circle and I'm excited and honored about getting the exemption to play.  The picture above is of a man who missed the bus.  This more or less sums up the first half of my year in terms of the goals I've set out for myself to get into the PGA Tour system.  I can assure you the next time that bus comes around, I will find myself firmly planted in a seat in the front row.  Thanks for reading and the support.  I am supremely confident that I will be breaking out this last half of 2014.  Stay tuned right here for updates.

  Hello, and welcome to 2014.  As the Winter nears a close, it is always an exciting time of year for me.  I last left you with my journey to Spain for 2nd Stage of European Q School.  I knew I had a few months to get together a great game plan for 2014. As I said, I wanted to close out 2013 on my own terms.  I created quite the story trying to do just that.  I went down to Houston to play in three 2 day Adams Winter events.  The first two events I got off to great starts and put myself in position to win a title, but I faltered in the last round in both events.  It still felt good to be in the mix.  The last event of the year for me was scheduled to be played at Cypresswood Golf Club. 

    I saw my tee time was posted at 9:10 the following day on the trailer and I proceeded to double check my tee time status that night online.  The next day as I arrived at the first tee to begin my round, I was informed that I missed my tee time.  There was  another competitor in the field named John Kyle.  For whatever reason, my brain registered that as me and I was 100% sure I was playing at 9:10.  Nope, I was slated to play at 8am, and I missed my tee time and was disqualified.  The first tournament in my life I've ever been disqualified from, and furthermore, it was without hitting a single shot.  Not the way I wanted to end my year on  by a fluke miscalculation and oversight.  Such is life though, thus I had to accept my fate and move on.

    People come up to me all the time and ask me what the process involves to get to the PGA Tour.  It can be slightly annoying, but I realize for the average golf fan, it is unknown.  I've drawn a diagram above to simplify what it takes.  There are currently 3 tiers to the PGA Tour system.  Each of the bottom two levels offers the opportunity to move up the ladder with consistent play throughout the year.  The way to do that is to finish inside a certain mark on each respective tour's year end money list.  For me, I currently reside outside the system's inner circle.  I can't play in these events without either A) advancing through the Q School of one of these specified tours or B) Monday qualifying into an individual event that is offered up each week.  My goal for 2014 is to get into the pipeline and let my immense talent shine forth by successfully navigating myself through PGA Tour sanctioned Q Schools.  I went down to Lima, Peru in early January for the PGA Tour Latino America Q School.  It was a 4 day qualifier with 132 players.  The top 20 players obtained full playing privileges and players 21-40 obtained conditional status.  I struck the ball beautifully all week, but my putter let me down.  I ended up missing the qualifying mark by 2 painful strokes.

    As a friend of mine tells me all the time, I have to be relentless.  As soon as I got home, I contacted the executives for the PGA Tour Latino America and got a list of all the tournament directors for this year's schedule.  I wrote each of them a note requesting a spot in their respective fields.  The worst they could tell me was no.  As luck would have it, I was gifted a spot into next month's Stella Artois Open in Guatemala.  A huge opportunity for me that came about from keeping the peddle down.  I'm excited about this opportunity.  As we look further down the line, I have signed up for the PGA Tour Canada Q School as well in early April in California.  This is another grand opportunity to obtain my goal of getting into the PGA Tour system's pipeline.  I've opted out of attempting PGA Tour China due to the complex travel logistics and financial strain this would bring.

    So the immediate goal is to best prepare myself to play my best golf come March 27th in Guatemala for the 1st round of the Stella Artois Open.  Following that two weeks later, The PGA Tour Canada Q School begins.  These are the calendar highlighted events.  In order to get the results I'm seeking, look no further than to the top of this page.  Process, patience, attitude.  That is my system to get where I want to go.  3 simple keys that I must carry out every single day.  Thanks for your support and lets go get into that inner circle!