No PGA Tour Event, but Feeling Good!

I played in my first Monday Qualifier for a PGA Tour event yesterday. This week's PGA event is the John Deere Classic in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa. The qualifier took place at a course called Pinnacle Country Club--a fun course which was fairly short and tight with a lot of doglegs and extremely firm and undulating greens. Combined with blustery winds yesterday, the course was actually quite a good test. There were about 80 of us yesterday playing for four spots in the tournament, so I knew that I would have to play well, but I really felt good about my game and my chances.

I teed off in the first group of the day at 7:30 and striped a drive down the fairway of the par-five first hole. Three very average shots following that drive left me tapping in for par on the easy opening hole. That would set up a trend for my day. I played great golf, but never took advantage of the par fives all day. In fact, my only bogey of the day would come on a par five and I never made a birdie on any of them. I played the other 14 holes very solidly with two birdies and no bogeys, but playing the four par fives in one over par killed me. My total of one-under-par 71 came up three shots short of qualifying. 68 got in without a playoff.

While I wish I was playing a practice round today for the John Deere Classic, I'm still excited by the way I played. My game feels good and I know that I can play at a level to get myself into TOUR events. I'm going to carry that confidence back to the Tarheel Tour with me as I head back East later this week to start getting ready for next week's Tarheel event in Kannapolis, North Carolina. I think it's about time for a win, and I really believe that it could happen in the next couple weeks!