Time for an update. Golf is hard, but I'm resilient, tough, gritty, patient, hard working, determined, and confident that I will soon be playing great golf. To get you caught up to speed, I played my US Open qualifying at my home course Norwood and lost in a 4 for 1 playoff for the last spot. I played a solid round of golf in the morning in a steady rain, but in the end my hopes were dashed in the playoff. On the first two playoff holes I had 20 footers to win the playoff. On the 3rd playoff hole I made a bogey on a par 5 from 210 yards out from the middle of the fairway and a par advanced. I then lost the first alternate spot on the next hole with a bogey. I knew that the 1st alternate spot was key to fight for as well, but it wasn't to be. After 4 holes of playoff golf where I couldn't seize the opportunity, I left my home course with my head down, but was proud of my fight.

The following 2 weeks I spent in Guatemala and Honduras on the PGA Tour Latin America. Unfortunately at both events I got off to extremely poor starts with an 85 in the first round in Guatemala, and a 79 in the first round in Honduras. Both these opening round guaranteed missed cuts and it stunk to be so uncompetitive in two events that I wanted to play well in. The highlight of the 2 weeks was a hole out from 140 for an eagle two during round one in Honduras on #18 in round one. Even that though, only put a bandage on a hemorage of a round.

If you read the laundry list of positive adjectives I spewed out in the first sentence though, you now damn well know I'm going to dig myself out and be resilient. In fact, I sit in a hotel in Columbus, Ohio right now preparing to do just that. I drove from St. Louis to Columbus intentionally so that tomorrow morning I can sit on the 1st tee and hope that a spot opens up from a late withdrawal into the U.S. Open sectional. I'm an official alternate, so I have a remote chance. This is one of two tour sites, so the likelihood of a couple PGA Tour pros withdrawing because they are tired after The Memorial is high, and I hope to capitolize on that potential scenario. Regardless of whether I get a shot tomorrow morning, I signed up for the Web.com Monday qualifier 2 hours Northeast of Columbus in Canton, so I have a 1:00 pm tee time locked in as a plan B.

I've been working hard on my game and have had a great attitude along the way, but I've struggled to find the right mix of the physical a.k.a. mechanical parts of the game to go along with my great attitude. I firmly believe I have implemented the correct tweaks mechanically to start playing great golf. The first part is to talk the talk, now the next part is to back it up. It may happen tomorrow, it may not, but I promise you great golf is on the horizon. Sometimes you have to go through the lowest lows and darkest of dark days to come out on top. That's what I'm going to do. I'll update soon with my upcoming schedule. Until then, fingers crossed for my Plan A or B to pan out tomorrow. Great things are coming!