In Great Position

I'm sorry that I'm a day or two behind with updates from my event this week. I have good news to share. I have posted matching rounds of 68 (-3) to stand at six under at the midway point of the NGA Tour's Spring Hill Classic in Tifton, GA. With wet, cold, and breezy conditions making the course fairly challenging, those scores have me in great position heading into the weekend rounds.

I am able to relax this morning because I played the last three holes in darkness yesterday (Friday) to finish my second round. There is simply not enough daylight this time of year to get a full field of 162 players (many of whom play much too slowly) around one golf course, so play was suspended each of the first two days with players still on the course. My group was told when we reached the 7th tee (our 16th hole) in Friday's second round that we could suspend our play for the day whenever we chose to do so. Given forecasted temperatures in the mid-30's at the time of the morning restart, we decided to battle the waning light and played all three of our remaining holes. It was too dark to read a putt on the 8th green and absolutely ridiculous on the 9th (our 18th), but fortunately, I hit a great approach to just more than two feet on our final hole and was able to make it from there in the dark. I'm still not sure whether finishing with such limited sight was a smart thing to do, but I really do believe it would have been difficult to get warmed up and ready to play just one or two holes had I chosen to return for a Saturday-morning finish to my second round. As it is, I finished par-par-birdie and am excited to be indoors preparing for my third-round tee time, which will likely be sometime between 12:30 and 1:00.

My game has been pretty solid this week. I have definitely hit a few squirrely drives and some iron shots that have made me scratch my head, but with the exception of one dumb choice from behind a tree on Friday, I have followed an intelligently aggressive plan and been committed to every shot that I have hit. My mindset has been good and I have felt fairly calm on the course. I went through a lull in my second round where I felt like I was executing well but couldn't quite make any birdies, and I was getting a little bit antsy, but I stayed patient enough to continue making good choices. I felt like I could have posted a better score in round 2, but I know that my game is ready to play great this weekend.

This is exciting stuff! For the second consecutive week, I have myself in contention in a golf tournament. A rain-out thwarted the final-round move I was going to make last week, but a sunshiny weekend forecast (cold, but sunshiny) promises I will have two more rounds to find the top of the leaderboard this week. I'm pumped but will stay relaxed and continue to play intelligently. Come back for reports from both of the weekend rounds, and follow the action at www.ngatour.com. Thank you for keeping up with me!