Bad News from Week 2; Ready to Move Forward!

My second round at this week's Egolf Tour event continued an alarming trend. For the fourth consecutive round, I shot over par. In fact, my last four competitive rounds have been 77, 75, 74, 75. Those last two scores resulted in a missed cut at the Oldfield Open, and have left me packing up for an early trip home from the year's second event. I hate to miss a cut, and it stinks to have a weekend off in my profession, so this is disappointing. I feel like I had a great winter of work and came into these first two events with my game in very good shape. Opening rounds of 72 and 68 in the year's first event at Palmetto Hall, which features two very difficult golf courses, were a testament to the quality of my game. As much as it is disappointing to struggle and shoot some bad scores here lately, I don't think that nullifies the great progress that I made over the winter. I still fully believe in myself and am confident that very good things are in the near future.

My struggles over the last four rounds are fairly easy to diagnose. I would "miss big" a couple times each round and suffer penalty shots, and I didn't putt well enough to recover from my more manageable misses or to convert the birdie opportunities that I did have. The result of that type of play is a few big numbers, a lot of bogeys, and not very many birdies. I know that I can fix both of the problems that were causing my struggles, however, so I am excited to get back to work and take advantage of the next couple weeks to get back that lovin' feeling.

I am excited to be getting back into the swing of tournament golf. I managed my routine quite well these first two weeks. I am still working hard towards my process goals each week and feel like they really help to keep my practice focused and on-track during tournament weeks. I have struggled with my putting goals a bit this week (not ironically, my on-course putting has been a struggle, too), so I have some work to do this weekend on the practice green, but I am confident that I will once again complete all of my process goals.

These first two tournaments were certainly not the start for which I was looking this year. I planned to come out of the gates swinging and be in contention for victories early. With that said, I don't feel like this start is tragic in any way, either. I am pumped to be getting back into the flow of a golf season, and I fully understand that overcoming some adversity is a part of what I do. None of my outcome goals require that get off to a hot start, and I don't feel like these first two weeks have knocked me off track in any way. I am simply going to use them as a learning experience and more motivation to keep working hard. I love what I do and I can't wait to do it better! Keep it here for practice reports and a what's-coming-next report soon! Thank you very much for following me and for your support.