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.