Great End to a Good Tournament

My game felt good everyday at this week's Tarheel Event, the Forest Oaks Classic. I hit the ball beautifully all week and never could seem to get it in the hole quickly enough to shoot a good score until today's final round. While I still missed a couple of very make-able birdie putts and suffered a disappointing double bogey on the simple par-four 9th, I did manage to make eight birdies and shoot a final round 66 today. The round moved me into a three-way tie for 12th place, and ended the Tarheel Tour regular season on a very positive note.

There was actually a little added pressure on me this week. This was, in fact, the final event of the regular season on the Tarheel Tour, and in two weeks the Tour Championship will be taking place in Charlottesville, Virginia. Only the top 50 members from the money list are invited to play in the Tour Championship, and at the beginning of this week, I was on the outside looking in. I'm glad to say that I did a good job ignoring that fact and simply focused on my golf, and the results were good enough. My twelfth place finish and the ensuing check has moved me to 48th on the money list and punched my ticket to the tour championship!

Today's round was particularly good. I knew that I needed to play a good round and move up the leaderboard in order to make the Tour Championship, but I was determined to commit to a game plan on each shot and stay in the present. I did that remarkably well. When I birdied the 14th hole to get to five under and then hit my eight iron to three feet on the next hole, I did let my thoughts drift a little to the future, but a poor putt that lipped out quickly brought be back to the present. Other than that one slip, my mentality on the golf course was great today, and with the exception of a very bad drive on number nine, my execution was sharp as well.

My putter still was not hot today. Had it been, I could have really shot a scary-low score. I'll be working hard to get that lovin' feeling back with the putter before the Tour Championship, but I plan on really making some noise at that event. The Championship is at a place called Spring Creek Golf Club in Gordonsville, Virginia, on August 4-7. I've got a week off to continue to hone my game, and I have a feeling I could be dangerous come tournament time!