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!