Short Post to Catch Up

It has been two weeks since my last post. In that time, I enjoyed a great week of recharging away from tournament golf and then gave a really disappointing performance at one of my favorite venues.

I started with five days at home in Tennessee. I worked on a my game a little bit, had two fun and productive matches with my buddy Jonathon Hodge, and worked hard on my fitness during that time. Alicia and I then had the privilege of attending (and participating, in Alicia's case) in the wedding of two of our good friends in Atlanta. It was great to kick back and really enjoy a happy occasion with some great people. I probably didn't get as much golf work done as I should have during my week away from competition, but I did a lot of productive things and really rested up as well. It was great.

From the wedding in Atlanta, Alicia and I traveled to one of my favorite places in the world--Pebble Beach, CA. Despite ugly conditions including lots of rain, wind, and cold temperatures, I still really enjoyed being there. In the challenging conditions, I feel like I prepared fairly well for the event last week, and at times my performance reflected that. I had stretches of good golf in each of the first two rounds. My short game was on point for each round last week, and I had stretches where my ball-striking was good, too. Unfortunately I putted very poorly throughout the week and everything except my short-game abandoned me on Saturday. Because of the three-course rotation for the event, the cut is made after Saturday's third round rather than the traditional half-way point. I entered the third round feeling like I had a good chance to get back into the tournament. I was playing the most score-able course in the rotation on Saturday, and, I was feeling pretty good about the way I was trending. Sadly, I played really poorly in round three. I didn't drive it well, my iron play was poor, and I was atrocious with the putter. It all added up to a six-over-par round of 77 and it meant I didn't get to return to Pebble Beach for the final round on Sunday.

That's a sad story because I never want to miss an opportunity to play Pebble Beach! In addition to that, my performance on Saturday stung a little bit because it came out of nowhere. I really expected to play well. I'm going to respond to that disappointment in a strong way, though. Though I certainly haven't been lazy the last two weeks, I haven't been intentional about my preparation, either. I've been a little sloppy with my mental approach to my practice, and that has carried over to my mental game on the course. I'm going to be meticulous with both the structure and execution of my practice this week, and I'm going to have myself in the best possible state to take care of business in the tournament.

By the way, the tournament this week is the newly named Genesis Open (The Los Angeles Open) at Riviera Country Club. This is a great event on a storied course, and I'm excited for it. I'm going to prepare well and then compete with focus and freedom. It's going to be fun! Keep it here for an update from LA. Thank you for following me!