Good Week for Indoor Work + A Look Ahead



Malnati Family Resort


 

I was bragging on my East Tennessee weather in my post about last week. I spoke too soon. After receiving more than six inches of rain from late Sunday evening through mid-day on Thursday, the temperatures turned cold a couple hours before the rain system finally moved out of Tennessee on Thursday evening. The result is a winter wonderland currently sitting atop the same ground that saw temperatures in the mid-70s just five short days ago. 

Mini snow-man. I named him Herb.




 

My friend William Harrold and I trudged out into the rain and played 7 holes on Monday, and I captured one of the few dry hours of the week to sneak in some practice on Wednesday afternoon, but other than that, I have been doing a lot of indoor activities this week. I definitely would prefer to be putting in full days at the golf course, but I can do some things to get better indoors, and this gives me a good opportunity to further organize myself and my plans for the year.

I am planning to have the busiest and best year of my career in 2013. I have once again joined the eGolf Professional Tour and will certainly play a fairly full schedule on that circuit. In addition to that, however, I have also decided to join the NGA Tour (formerly the "Hooters Tour"). The NGA Tour is the oldest developmental tour in the United States. I am excited to be playing both tours this year because I will have the opportunity to play I highly competitive golf tournament nearly every week if I choose to do so. The NGA Tour will also offer a nice bit of variety to my schedule. The eGolf and NGA schedules offset decently well, and I will be able to play a good deal on both. As you can see in my Outcome Goals for 2013, I truly believe that if I play the full year on mini-tours in the USA, I can be the leading money winner on both tours.

The "if" in that last statement hints at some of my other possible plans for 2013. The PGA Tour announced last fall that it will take over operations of the Canadian Tour starting in 2013. Little information has been released about the details of qualifying for the PGA Tour Canada (as it is now called) or its schedule for the year, but it has been made clear that the top five on the tour's year-end Order of Merit will earn status on the 2014 Web.com Tour. That perk alone is enough to make the PGA Tour Canada an intriguing option. Much remains to learned and options weighed before anything becomes official, but I will definitely entertain the thought of attending qualifying for the PGA Tour Canada and spending the summer months competing there.

In addition to that, I will attempt to take a more domestic route to the Web.com Tour. Though I have heard it rumored that Monday Qualifier entry fees have been raised considerably, I will play in every Web.com Tour qualifier that makes logistical sense. I have proven that I can compete at that level, and Monday Qualifiers offer the opportunity for a breakthrough at any time. I definitely think I can play my way onto the Web.com Tour during the year, and I will be trying to do so.

There are still a great many unanswered questions heading into my 2013 competition calendar, but one thing is for sure: I am going to play a lot of tournament golf. I know that it is possible to overdo it, and I promise to be cognizant of that as the year goes on, but for now I am very excited to get started. I will post my planned events for the first couple months of the year in the tab above labeled "2013 Schedule". I will try to do a good job of keeping that tab updated a couple months in advance as plans become more concrete for the year. As of right now, I know I'll be starting the year with a couple months of mini-tour action here in the States, and I plan to get some winning ways going early!

Back to the present. Please check for a practice report at the end of the week. I'm going to try hard to finish my work goals for this week, but I'll need a major assist from some warm sunshine and then an incredibly productive weekend. I'm not one for excuses, but the pictures above are my evidence of this week's challenge! I feel great, and it's going to be a very good year. Thank you very much for keeping up with me and for your support!