My 2017 season is officially over. It was one of the weirdest years I’ve ever had and I learned more about myself this year than in any year previous in my life. I’m sitting on my couch in Saint Louis watching the Australian PGA Championship in prime time and it’s the type of feeling of watching a significant other kiss another person right before your eyes. I’m forcing myself to watch as it is helping drive me towards success next year. I arrived back home yesterday after spending 19 days in Australia.

I was given a sponsor exemption generously the first week into the New South Wales Open outside of Sydney. I intended to use that week as a springboard the last two weeks in the Australian Open and Australian PGA. When I successfully earned my OneAsia tour card at the beginning of the year, I was under the impression that I had earned two precious starts in these two prestigious events. Unfortunately as the year progressed, the OneAsia Tour deteriorated right before my eyes. Thus, I was left with 20 hours in a plane to Australia guaranteed one start in the New South Wales Open and being relegated to Monday qualifying for the Australian Open and Australian PGA. I strung together two lackluster rounds to miss the cut in the NSW Open and played 2 poor rounds in the Monday qualifiers to make my long haul across the globe a miserable, fruitless effort. As I walked past Sergio Garcia smiling the last day to go pack my bags it made me want to punch the wall in frustration.

Everything started so great to begin my year. I navigated the daunting challenges of two separate Q Schools to lock up playing privledges on a couple international tours. Where it all went wrong for me was one simple mistake. The first time I got kicked in the mouth I didn’t withstand it and believe in myself and my system. I came off 3 straight missed cuts in Canada and rather than stay the course, I thought I needed to make drastic swing changes mid year. I spent the next 6 months on a wild goose chase towards making swing changes on the fly and trying to play tournament golf at the same time. I can’t tell you how impossible that is, not to mention a huge mistake. The simple things I worked on so hard last off-season were paying huge dividends right off the bat as I started the season.

Golf will eventually knock you down with adversity because of its extreme difficulty. I wish I could have a do over and have been tougher at that moment and really had faith in my process that I was working on the right things and to ride it out. The next couple months I have time to continue to reflect and get back to the same basics of what was really tangibly turning my career around to start 2017. I don’t know what my plan is for 2018, but until I do, I want to work harder than my competition and believe in my system each day without trying to reinvent the wheel. So the hard lesson to be learned this year is to have relentless self belief in your system, especially so when the going gets tough. I’ve picked myself off the floor more times than I can count, and it comes with the territory of being a pro golfer. I’ll come out of this year stronger because of it. Have a great Christmas and New Year, and I’ll check back in 2018 with an update on my life. Thanks for your support!

A quick update as I'm back from Nebraska. I missed the cut by 3 shots. It was a tough test weather wise as I had to battle 20-30 Mph winds on day 1 and then a bitter cold and mist on day 2 with semi blustery conditions. Handing out a grade on my game I get an A on my mental game which I am pleased about. Unfortunately my execution was more of a D. On a short, heavily tree lined golf course I hit 4/28 fairways which resulted in having to dial in my 6 iron runup hack under the tree limbs. This makes for a stressful grind when my competitors at the top of the leaderboard are giving themselves sand wedge approaches from the fairway. I could have the mental discipline of a Buddhist monk, but it only would take me so far when having to chip out from the trees. The most devastating blow was dealt when I hit a slight push flare 3wood in the 2nd round on a hole with internal OB to keep guys from taking a direct line at a hole on a short dogleg par 4. My ball settled right on the OB line and the rules officials had to measure whether I was in bounds with fishing line from one OB stake to the next. My ball was out of bounds by 2 inches when my ball was in the middle of the golf course property. This tested my mental strength to the max. I was pissed but I handled it well. Take that bad break away and hit it in the fairway more often and I would have been in a great spot to really play well. In a very weird way, I'm slightly happy with getting to test myself mentally right out of the gate after challenging myself on my last blog post. I never would have got to see how deep I could dig and what kind of composure I had if I would have been playing great golf where I never had to fight and patiently persevere.

Yesterday I played in a 1 day pro am in Hastings, Nebraska. I shot a 76 and have to give myself a D on ball striking and mental strength. It was a 5 hour 30 minute round on severely aerated greens. Both of these elements are things beyond my control and I didn't handle it well. I have to be tough and scrappy and patient. None of those 3 adjectives were part of my arsenal. I move forward from Nebraska having to be routinely better mentally and have to continue to believe in my shotmaking with confidence and trust. It's the time of the year I have to go play the course with my swing and stop trying to fine tune. I have to score with the mechanics I have in play. They are plenty good enough to compete. My perfectionist/OCD tendencies to tinker with my swing until it looks and feels perfect will not be a part of the equation moving forward. I'm going to be a bull dog-scrappy grinder with my swing and be really consistent with my mental state. I leave Saturday for 1st stage of European Q School in Portugal. I've been there before so I know what to expect. It's up to me to bring my execution, belief, patience, and mental tenacity from start to finish. It's a simple formula for success. I'm ready to bring it for the week! Thanks for your support. www.europeantour.com to follow my scoring next week. Belief! Trust! Execution! Mental Tenacity!

Hello. I start these posts sometimes not knowing where I'm going. I have no direction other than to get some words out on paper from how I'm feeling. My season up in Canada has wrapped up. I'm usually a very gentle person. I rarely cuss. I'm a calm person and feel like I see things rationally. I've got to be blunt and honest here though. I got my ass kicked up in Canada from June until September. I showed signs of brilliance on occasion, but consistency was never part of the equation. I played in 7 events over the three month summer season and missed all 7 cuts. I did it with all my passion and fight I had inside me, but it wasn't good enough. As I've had time to dissect what I could have done better, I arrived at one constant theme. I needed to be better at taking a punch.

Golf is freaking hard. It requires such refined precision. If your club is 2 degrees open or closed at impact, it's going offline fairly significantly. There isn't a man on this world that will ever perfect it. Those days up in Canada that went well, I by and large played with my nose clean with few errant shots. I can pinpoint the 2 Monday qualifiers I successfully made it through. I shot a 67 in Calgary to get in the field and I shot a 66 in Toronto to Monday qualify successfully. I hit so few poor shots both those rounds I never had to absorb a punch from the course. I was on the offensive and never on my heels. Those days are RARE in golf. To get back to where I want, I have to be drastically better the rest of the season at taking a punch, aka dealing with adversity on the golf course.

I am a very perfectionistic person by nature. I want things to go smoothly all the time and have things be in my control. I'd go as far as to say I'm slightly OCD in many ways. I'll go to dinner and my utensils need to be at right angles and I'll fold my napkin before putting it back on my plate. Everything has a place and needs to be neat and tidy. Well I have news for myself: golf and especially life don't work that way. I'm going to get the snot beat out of me and my nose bloodied so to speak on the course. It's about absorbing those blows gracefully, confidently, acceptingly, and patiently. It's a huge part of the game. Perfection is unattainable and errors happen routinely and frequently. I am a darn good golfer, but I can't go to the first tee and navigate 18 holes hitting every shot with golden blueprint execution.

I've shot some very low rounds this summer and I've explained that happened because I played almost exclusively great shots all day. I've also shot some high rounds. To find that middle ground of consistently good golf where I'm peppering the daily scorecard with rounds a couple under par I have to be much better at being mentally tough and absorbing a punch. If I shoot a 70 I can guarantee you I hit a bunch of good shots and a fair bit of poor and mediocre shots. These are the type of days I'm A OK with. They won't put me on top of the leaderboard, but they keep me in it. I've got to be a scrappy grinder who is hard nosed. That's who I'm going to be the rest of this year. That mindset is a CHOICE. I'm headed to Nebraska tomorrow for the 3 day Nebraska Open. I'm ready to go out and fight hard with talent and you better darn well believe I'll be ready mentally to take a punch and get back up. It's time to shine. Thanks for reading.

Time for an update, and this one may help me get some thoughts in my mind out in the open. The past couple months on the course have been frustrating. The older I get, I get more introspective and smart. When things aren't going my way, it's very human of me to dive in even harder and grind and put all the effort on the world to fix my troubles. I'll start in Winnipeg. I got off to a terrible start and
rebounded nicely in the middle and latter parts of my round to get it back. In fact I had climbed up to 12th place on a hard scoring day. I sat in a nice lie in the rough on 17 and proceeded to hit a huge block with a wedge and it ended up in a bush. I had to take an unplayable and was on the short side and took 4 more shots from there for a triple bogey. I made par on 18 and walked off the course deflated. I had worked so hard after a crappy start to rebound and I lost all my momentum over the course of 5 minutes of crappy golf on one hole. The next day I was on the cut line the majority of the day and it wore me out. I made a handful of poor swings on my last nine holes that translated to bogeys. It was another missed cut by a handful. The part that bothered me the most though was looking back on the two days it was disappointing because it wasn't fun for me. It was a total grind where I was uber focused on the cut line the moment 17 happened the first day. I have to do a better job of shaking off that bad stuff happens to everybody on the course. I also have to get out of the mentality of worrying about cuts. This is a rookie mistake and I'm in year 10. When golf seems hard and I am a little off, it's easy to get lured into that trap of cut line expectations. I'm better than that and my expectations should be set to a higher standard than limiting myself to just making the weekend. It's all psychological really.

I played in a couple Web.com Monday qualifiers after Winnipeg and suffered through a combination of the same problems. Stressing over what number it would take to get through on that day and fighting my golf swing where I was having trouble trusting it because of some swing issues. The results led to bad golf as it's easy to see. Fast forward to this week. I'm in Edmonton, Alberta for another Canadian Tour event. I had to come out early again because it looked like I would have to do the Monday qualifier. I teed it up Monday in a hard rain and began my quest to get in. On hole 10 I received the good news that I had got in the event due to a series of withdrawals! For the next 3 days I put together a great game plan and was ready to execute. My mind was sound and confident heading into day one, but unfortunately my poor golf swings continued to fault me. I played the five par 3s in an agonizing 4 over par which further showed my iron game was detrimental due to a couple technical aspects I've got a bit off on. You can't play tournament golf with technical thoughts running through your brain and that is the hard part about where I'm at right now. I signed on day one for a 73 and was still in it because I grinded it out. On day two I got off to another lousy start but rebounded with a couple birdies to end my front nine. I knew I needed two or three more birdies to make the weekend. I wasn't stressing out about the cut line, but it adds pressure knowing what I needed. I didn't get off to a great start after 3 putting number 10. I knew I'd need explosive golf coming in to get it done. On 11 I found myself in a mediocre lie in the rough facing a second shot over water going for a par 5. I decided to be aggressive and it back fired. I hit it in the water, dropped and made a sloppy mess of the rest of the hole from there for a double bogey seven. Game, set, match. It was so frustrating to have to play the last seven holes going through the motions with no end game. I signed for a 74 and missed the weekend by six shots.

So where do I go from here? I head to Calgary this weekend where once again it really does look like I will have to get through the Monday qualifier to be in the field this coming week. In order for me to do that I have to be better on a couple fronts. I have to actually enjoy being on the golf course and the game itself rather than facing the anxiety of a cut line or what I have to shoot. This thought process has got to stop. It's deadly, and makes a results oriented business a miserable place to be. I have to let it come to me by letting my talent shine through with a smile and my confident athleticism. Secondly, from a technical standpoint I have to do a better job of making a good turn into my right side. This is the engine that sparked this onslaught of bad golf. Getting in a bad habit in wind and rain of not getting into my right side has led me to start hitting the ball low and making glancing, steep swings. This resulted in poor shots, which led to doubt, which led to confidence erosion, which led to putting myself in a bad spot on the leaderboard, which fueled bad thoughts in my head about score and cut lines. So long story short, I have to be very technical in my practice this weekend about fixing this and getting a better coil on my backswing.  The most critical part of this is
leaving this on the range and going to the course as an athlete and reacting to targets and not playing golf with technique but with feel. The hard part is done in preparation. When I blend that in with happiness, excitement, and enjoyment on the course I will be back to playing great. No more scorecard anxiety!  I'm ready to push forward and get back to my successful self. I've put in a bunch of hard work this year and it's starting to pay off. I'm not going to let a handful of events that didn't go my way erode all that. I'm mentally tough and I'm going to persevere. Thanks for reading and your support. I'm ready to go play great and enjoy life and golf along the way. Until next time.

Greetings from Winnipeg. That is good news as a host of withdrawals late allowed me access into this week's Mackenzie Tour event without having to test the rigors of Monday qualifying. It wasn't ideal having to spend an extra 3 days on a holiday weekend away from friends and family, but I did get in some quality golf prep in and feel prepared at this Donald Ross design golf course. I tee off today at 1:50. What the course lacks in length(6,600 yards), the course makes up for with sweeping green complexes that are vintage Ross. The prime example comes at number 9 which ranked last year on tour as the hardest hole of the year playing almost 1/2 shot over par. It's a 230 yard straight uphill par 3 with a green that looks like an upside down bowl sloping away in every direction. This hole will test our patience all week, but there are ample other birdie chances out there to make up for this demanding hole. It's supposed to be warm, sunny, and clear all week. Follow along at www.pgatourcanada.com Thanks for the support. Time to get to work!

Time for an update! Seoul, South Korea was quite the trip. I was all over the place for 4 rounds, but the good news is I played all four rounds and secured a paycheck for the week. On day one I began my tournament on fire by turning in 4 under on my first nine holes. I leaked some gas coming in and shot a 2 under 69 for my opening round. It was overall a great start to an elite event where I maintained my composure on a day where I had television cameras in my face from start to finish. This is the kind of situation where I had to be level headed and embrace the experience. I had the pleasure of playing with the leader on day 1, and I even got to witness him make a hole in one which netted him a $27,000 wedding planning voucher from a Korean wedding company. I can't make this stuff up. He is officially Korea's new most eligible bachelor. Round 2 the pin positions began to get tougher and my game lost its sharpness. I made a disastrous triple bogey on my 16th hole, but gathered myself with solid pars on my last two holes to make the cut by two. On day three and four, as I was warned by fellow tour pros, the Korea golf association put together 36 of the hardest hole locations I have ever seen in tournament golf. I've played in a US Open, and these pins were much harder. My game was not on point and the difficult conditions magnified it and I slid down the leaderboard to finish in 71st place. I learned I needed to be better at embracing the course as it was and not press. In hindsight, pars were great and I should have not been so hard on myself.

From there I didn't have much time to rest as I headed to Kelowna, Canada for a Mackenzie Tour event. I played solidly again on day 1 and posted a one under 70. On day 2 I was playing steady through 9 holes at 2 under par and climbing the leaderboard. Then golf happened. Mysteriously I fell completely flat my last nine holes and made 3 bogeys and 6 pars which sent me packing with a missed cut by 2 shots. That is how razor thin the margins are out here. If I would have played steady golf and made all pars I would have made the cut with room to spare and been able to chase the weekend for a great finish. Alas, it wasn't to be and I scurried along to my next event in Pittsburgh. One of my favorite tournaments of the year, the Frank Fuhrer Invitational. In sticking to my recent theme, I began the tournament with steady, solid play. I signed for an opening round of even par which put me in 3rd place. Over the course of the next three rounds I hit so many great shots and my putting was as cold as ice. I was so frustrated with my putting by week's end that I decided I needed to shake things up and change putters. I finished in 13th place and made a very nice check, but it wasn't the result I hoped for.

Over the last week I really narrowed in on improving my putting and yesterday I got to put it to the test. I was at the Nashville Web.com qualifier. The Tennessee PGA had our course set up fairly easy to cater the 160 pros that had to play yesterday. I hit my mark with 12 greens and more importantly putted beautifully. I shot a five under par 66 which unfortunately was two shots shy of the playoff. I knew I needed to play my last four holes in 2 under to get it done and I had a quality putt on 15 that just missed.  A poor wedge shot from the fairway on 16 that didn't give me a great look for birdie. An in between yardage on 17 led to a poor iron swing and the resulting bogey after a lip out from 15 feet sealed my fate for the day. I was right there all day so I can't hang my head. I played good, but Monday qualifiers require great. Nothing else will suffice.

Moving forward I am 7th alternate for next week's Mackenzie Tour event which means I will have to successfully Monday qualify more than likely to get into the field. I fully intend to take my progress from yesterday and put it to use next Monday in Winipeg. Without sounding negative, the reality of my status at the moment in Canada is the equivalent of finally making the Double AA ball club, but I am riding the bench not getting any playing time. For 10 years I looked on from the stands, but now I finally am on the team, but the coach isn't playing me. On Monday I'm ready to go change that. I am going to go play a solid round in the qualifier and force the coach to start me on Thursday, then I am going to be ready to go play a great four round tournament. Stay right here for my progress. I'm playing good golf. I need to stay patient and continue to believe and great things are headed my way. Thanks for your support!

I am back to post some updates on my blog.  The past few months has yielded ecstasy and disappointment.  After getting my card in Malaysia on OneAsia I carried that momentum into PGA Tour Canada Q School.  I was slotted into the Florida location and I began the week with some terrible golf right out of the gate. I made the turn in 3 over with some loose shots.  I had my work cut out for me.  The wind began to really howl too as I was the last group of the day in the afternoon.  I played flawless golf over my last 9 holes in some really trying conditions.  This was the work of supreme mental discipline I have instilled after maturing as a professional.  I shot 4 under on the back nine to shoot 71 the first day.  I fed that momentum into the rest of the week as I continued to play great golf. 

I worked my way all the way to ten under par as I played my last hole of the tournament at an island green par 3.  The wind was blowing as hard as it had been all week with what I would measure as a sustained 30mph crosswind.  All I wanted to do was play a smart shot to the middle of the green.  My slight push was magnified by the howling crosswind and I splashed it in the water.  The result was a double bogey which put me at 8 under for the tournament.  That put me in a six way tie for 14th place.  The top 16 at week's end would be exempt thru the first 4 events of the season.  That meant a 6 for 3 playoff.  I kept making pars in that playoff and eventually I ran out of opportunities and lost in the playoff.  That put me into the 19th position on the priority list which means I have to sit and wait to see if my status is good enough to get starts.  Its eerily similar to what happened to me in Malaysia.  A sloppy last hole got me my card but in a position where I have to sit and wait.

Now for the good news!  I received confirmation finally that I have a start lined up on the OneAsia Tour.  I am into the field at the Kolon Korea Open next week starting on June 1st in Seoul, South Korea!  I leave Sunday to get my week started.  I was the last guy in the starting field after a couple late withdrawals.  I'll take it!  I don't want to get ahead of myself, but there is a huge purse and other rewards awaiting those who can play solid golf all week.  It is my job to stay the course and keep my mind off the prize and focus on my game and execution.  Looking further ahead, the waiting game will continue for me.  I had to withdraw from the first Canadian Tour event as it overlaps with the Korean Open.  Had I played I would have been first alternate with a week to go before the opening tee shot.

I am really happy with the hard work I have put in to begin this year.  I have played a couple regional events over the last couple months to stay competitive.  I finished second in an Odle Golf Tour event with scores of 68-69 and then finished second at the Forest Park Publinx with a 68.  I missed at local US Open qualifying by two shots with a 74, but it didn't matter because I would have had to withdraw after gaining entry into Korea, since it overlapped with US Open Sectional qualifying. Talk is cheap though.  I have to continue busting my butt and doing a better job of focusing start to finish.  What I did yesterday doesn't matter.  I have to continue to push forward each day and work on the right things to get results.  That is golf in a nutshell.  You can never be fully satisfied.  I have to keep my head down and push forward.  I am going to need immense patience over the next month playing the waiting game up in Canada.  I am in the system finally in Canada and in Asia.  Its my job to stay hungry and patient.  I can't let a start or two that slips by bring me down.  When I do get my chance it will be up to me to seize the opportunity and not put pressure on myself.  Golf is hard.  That is a fact.  I am going to keep pushing hard to be the best I can each and every day.  Follow along next week at www.oneasia.asia for results.  Its my time to put my best foot forward.  These are the reasons I play golf for a living.  I can't remember the last time I was this excited to go play golf.  Lets enjoy the ride and see where the chips fall.  Thanks for your support.

It has been way too long of an absence from my blogging but I needed a bit of a break. Writing on here is a cathartic outlet for me, but it was getting a bit stale for me talking about how I was close and keeping a sunny outlook and perspective about my craft. I vowed internally without mentioning it here that my next post wouldn't be until I accomplished something on the course. As they say, talk is cheap. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Well, that time has finally come. Somewhat on a whim, I entered OneAsia Q School in Malaysia as my practice back at home had me optimistic and confident about testing my game under tournament pressure. After 36 hours of traveling across the globe, I made it to my destination of Sabah, Malaysia. Lucky for me, my first two legs of my journey here were on empty planes, so I was able to spread out in coach and get some long periods of sleep to counteract the 14 time zone difference between my comfort zone back in Missouri and these foreign grounds.

I put in 2 great days of preparation and teed off March 7th at Surera Harbour Golf Club full steam ahead. By day's ends I had played brilliantly and found myself atop the leaderboard at 66(-5). On day two, I gave it all back with a lackluster 75. This put me in 12 position heading into the last 2 rounds. My final 2 rounds were almost carbon copies where I played splendidly for the first 3/4 of the round and struggled to the finish line with a plethora of bogeys to shoot even par 71s my final two days. I finished the tournament by pulling a shot into the trees, having to chip out on an adjacent hole, hitting onto the green, then three putting for my lone double bogey of the week. I walked off the course with my head down and thought my last hole disaster had buried my chances of quality status on this year's circuit. For once, the golf Gods gave me a break, and the groups after me struggled and I was able to back door a 7th place finish.

After a scorecard playoff, I filtered into the 9th position on the Q School category pecking order. Long story short, being in the top 10 will grant me access into the majority of the events! With world ranking points, million dollar purses, and exemptions into events such as the British Open at stake throughout the year on OneAsia, it feels amazing to finally be able to tee it up in a handful of high stakes international events that I earned on my own merit. The tour staff is still working to finalize the schedule, but currently there are 2 events in China and 2 events in South Korea on the calendar. I fly home tonight and as my hometown Cardinals often say after a final win on the road before getting on the charter plane, it will be a "happy flight"! Keep it posted right here for updates on my game and schedule.