Great Start This Week; Upcoming Schedule

I am back to my beautiful East Tennessee home, and my practice has been stellar. I spent Monday working on my game under the watchful eye of Bobbo, and as I expected, he said that everything is still looking good. That may sound like bad news given the disappointing results I got from my first two tournaments of the year the past two weeks, but I am encouraged. I definitely had my struggles--particularly on the greens--at the first two events, but I felt like I was executing fairly well for the most part. My mistakes were very bad at times, and I let my poor putting affect me mentally on the greens, but I think I can blame both of those problems on early-year over-excitement. I felt like my game was in much better shape than the terrible scores I was shooting, and it feels good to have some confirmation of such from Bobbo. My practice the last two days has been excellent, and I'm confident that I can keep it going into tournament play.

In addition to hitting the ball well in a practice session on Monday, I have also had two great days of short game and putting work the last two days. I put my game to a mini-test yesterday (Tuesday) with a tough match at Holston Hills. Facing some stiff competition, I missed just one green and shot a five-under-par round of 67 to pick up a couple of good match victories. My putter still wasn't "hot" on the course, but I missed only one putt inside of eight feet and was fairly solid on the greens. It was a good performance, and more importantly, I felt confident out there on the course.

All of this has me feeling pumped and ready to get back into tournament action. My game is still good (very good), and I just need to stay relaxed and continue to enjoy myself as I head into more golf tournaments.

Speaking of more tournaments, I'm going to post a tentative schedule of events from now through the mid-summer. Check out the "2012 Schedule" tab underneath the picture at the top of the page. Please check out some of the sites I'm planning to compete, and if you can come out and watch or if you happen to have housing contacts for me in any of those areas, please let me know. Here's a sneak peak into the next two weeks. Just to get a little tournament practice, I'm going to compete in an event on the Carolinas Pro Tour next Tuesday/Wednesday at a course called Carolina Lakes just south of Charlotte, NC. That tour is a smaller mini-tour, but on weeks when the Egolf Tour is off, it seems to attract strong fields, and it will be a great way for me to practice having a proper tournament mindset and pick up a solid tournament finish. I will use that event as a springboard into the next Egolf event, which is set for March 14-17 at Pine Needles Resort in Pinehurst, NC. Pine Needles is one of my favorite venues of the year, so I'm excited for that event. If anyone has any potential housing possibilities for me in Pinehurst, I would greatly appreciate you letting me know!

The year is so very young at this point and many great things lie ahead in 2012. Thank you for following and supporting me. Keep it here and enjoy the ride with me!