First Tournament Round of the Year

I was greeted by a familiar feeling on Thursday morning around 8:00-ish. Though it was familiar, I hadn't felt it in nearly three full months. It was that excited, jittery feeling that accompanies the beginning of nearly every tournament round I've ever played. The combination of three years of professional golf experience and five very good weeks of preparation in January and February had me feeling calm and confident until about thirty minutes before my tee time. The calm vanished, but the confidence remains.

I was actually a bit nervy on the course for much of my opening nine holes, and my game certainly wasn't sharp. I hit 8 of my first nine greens in regulation, but my lone birdie in that stretch came from a remarkable pitch-in from a dreadful position on the one green I missed. I had a three-putt bogey during that stretch as well. I opened my second nine with three consecutive birdies after hitting some solid iron-shot approaches and holing three nice medium-range birdie putts. A three-putt from long range on the fourth (my 13th) hole thwarted my momentum, but I still felt good heading to the tee of the par-5 fifth hole. I hit a nice tee shot and then proceeded to hit a very (and I mean VERY) poor second shot into the middle a pond fronting the putting surface. Because of how far off my second shot was, I had to drop in nearly the spot from which I had just hit and ended up making a double-bogey 7 on what should have been an easy par-5. I can just chalk that up as a very lousy shot, though. I didn't make a mental mistake, and I was fairly committed to the plan I had chosen. I'll execute better next time! I played my final four holes in one-under-par to post an opening round 71 (-1).

I'm not disappointed with how my game felt in round one. I was a bit shaky on the greens at time and I hit the aforementioned absolutely horrible shot, but all-in-all, I feel good about things. I'm excited to do it again (and better!) in round 2. Come back for a second-round report Friday evening. Thank you for following me.

On Hilton Head Island, Ready to Get Started!

The last four days have been crazy. Last Thursday night, I felt like I had my game as fine-tuned as it has ever been. I was a machine knocking out my practice last week and was playing great in some matches, too. Everything was feeling very good. A rainy day kept me from practicing much on Friday, and then a travel SNAFU over the weekend really hampered my golfing time. I had planned a two-day getaway with my wonderful fiancé before I hit the road to start my tournament season this week. I had a great deal on a flight and the weather was going to be nice, so I knew that I would have a great time with Alicia and would get to have some quality practice. Unfortunately, my clubs got mishandled by the airline and didn't make it to my destination until mid-afternoon on Sunday. I hardly got in any practice over the weekend. It was all good, though, because Alicia and I did have a great time together. My travel woes didn't end with the club mishandling, though. To make a long story short, I was supposed to land in Atlanta at three o'clock in the afternoon on Monday, but after a supposedly delayed flight that turned into a missed flight and a two-hour shuttle ride to a different airport, I landed in Atlanta at eight o'clock Monday night. I very safely drove over to Hilton Head Island and parked my car at my host family's house just before 2 a.m. Tuesday morning. It was definitely not how I had scripted the weekend, but I wouldn't trade the time with Alicia for anything.

My golf game is still in great shape. Rainy and stormy conditions (plus my need to sleep until nearly nine o'clock) hampered my practice on Tuesday at Palmetto Hall, site of this week's season-opening eGolf Tour event, but I can tell that things are very close to firing on all cylinders. The only thing that greatly disappoints me about the complications to my plans over the weekend is the fact that I wasn't able to finish all of my work goals last week. I had completed nearly everything by Thursday afternoon, but in the end, I came up 55 minutes of short game work and one of my ball-striking drills short of finishing my work goals last week. It was a stellar week of practice, and that is how I will remember it, but it bothers me not to complete all of my goals. My game really does feel great, though, and I am going to have a great first tournament week of the year this week. And, yes, I will finish all of my work goals, dangit!

This week's event is the eGolf Tour's Palmetto Hall Championship. Palmetto Hall features 36 holes--the Cupp and Hills courses--and both will be used for this tournament. Both are stern tests of golf that demand accuracy and good shot placement. It was too wet today to learn much, but this is my fourth trip to these tracks, and I am excited! The tournament gets underway on Thursday. I am hopeful for a good day of practice on Wednesday, but heavy rains threaten once again. I'll be ready to go either way on Thursday!

Keep it here for daily tournament reports from my first event of the year! Thank you very much for your support.

Quick Report from a Great Week

This week has been just what the golf doctor ordered for me. After a couple of weeks of grinding out great practice sessions but not being able to see stellar results because of nearly unplayably cold conditions, this week has been much better. I have been nailing all of my practice drills and have also had 27 holes worth of matches and another 18 hole round with Bobbo just for practice. In my 27 holes of matches (all at Holston Hills Country Club), I am ten under par for the week. I have had a fantastic week of practice, and my game has felt great on the course as well.

I now have all of my new equipment, and I am pumped to say that most of it was love at first strike. My woods are little changed but definitely slight improvements; my irons, however, are significantly better for me. I have practiced with them only one day, but I already feel comfortable with them.

Things are coming together very nicely! I said in my last post I wanted to find mid-season form in mid-February, and I think I am doing just that. It will definitely be an anxious week as I kick of my 2013 competition schedule next week, but I think my game and my attitude are ready for it!

I have only a little left to do to finish my work goals for this week, but I still plan to have some focused practice over the weekend. I will finish my work goals for this week and continue to sharpen all elements of my game. Come back for a good report at the end of the weekend.

Thank you so much for keeping up with me! It's going to be a fun and exciting year!

Warming Up

I know how very lucky I am to get to do one of my favorite things and call it my job. I absolutely love to play and practice golf, and it rarely every seems like I am going to “work” when I am on the job. The last five days last week felt like work. I absolutely do not want to sit inside very much as I am in the final two weeks of off-season preparation, but I had to brave some pretty harsh elements to have good practice sessions the last several days. In truth, though, I even enjoy the challenge of that. I practiced at Dandridge Golf Course each of the last four days (Thursday-Sunday) with wind chills in the twenties and twice with different forms of frozen precipitation coming down. Other than battling to keep feeling in my hands, the elements did not keep me from having great practice. I definitely continued to improve a lot last week, and though I may complain about the weather a little bit, I still had a lot of fun at work.

With a dusting of snow covering the greens on Saturday, I had one of my best ball-striking sessions of the year. My short game work is feeling great as well. I feel great over the putter, but I have to say that is the one area of my practice that gave me the most trouble in the cold and blustery conditions this past week. I came up one putting drill and one hour and forty minutes short of completing all of my work goals last week. I can blame that short coming mostly on the fact that severe cold temperatures in the mornings shortened my work days, but in truth, if I could have completed my putting drills in a timely fashion, I would have had plenty of time to finish all of my work. I am disappointed not to have finished my goals for the week, but all areas of my game feel very good, and I feel like I really did get a lot better. It was a solid week of work, but I am excited to see some better temperatures in the forecast moving forward and am ready to get all of my work done.

In addition to good practice, I have also been having great work towards my fitness. I feel like I have added a few elements to my workouts here in the past month or so that are helping me to feel stronger and quicker. In general, I would say that my fitness level feels as high as it has ever been. Given the busy schedule that I plan to keep this year, staying on top of fitness will be important, but I think I am off to a great start in that regard.

As I enter the last full week of preparation before kicking off my 2013 competition schedule, I am feeling great. I am excited to hopefully have a few friendly matches this week and just to have a great week of work. My game is feeling good. I really do feel like I am a good week of work away from being tournament-ready. Can I find mid-season form in mid-February? I think so!

Keep it here for practice reports throughout the week. Thank you very much for following me and rooting for me.

New Stick Report

I sat inside yesterday (Wednesday) and watched a deluge outside. I was bummed because my practice is feeling so good that I just want to have more of it, but given the severe nature of the storms that affected a lot of areas in the Southeast, I am thankful that nothing too crazy happened around here. A day off here and there is actually very good for me, and I can still be productive in the house. “Productive” is certainly a good work to describe my last few days, and I am really feeling good about things.

I had an efficient practice session on Sunday morning during which I polished off the work goals that I had remaining last week. Sunday afternoon was a travel day, and my caddy—my mom :)—and I drove down to St. Simons Island, GA, where on Monday morning, I had an appointment at the club fitting center at Sea Island Golf Club. It had been two years since I was last fit for my golf clubs, so it was nice to check out all of the new offerings and re-check all of my specifics. I was hitting the ball well during my fitting, so I feel like I was able to get some accurate information. It turned out that most of my clubs were still pretty much right for me, but I did find a new three-wood that gave me improved performance. In addition to that, I switched to a different set of irons and changed to a new shaft in my irons. Here is a list of all the new goodies that are coming my way in the next week or so (I’ll give the full detailed report here for those of you who care, but I honestly don’t know much about any of these fancy shafts and such):

Driver: 913 D3; 8.5 degree; Mitsubishi Kuro Kage Black 70X

3 wood: 913 F; 13.5 degree; Aldila RIP Alpha 80X

Hybrid: 913 H; 19 degree; Fujikura Speeder 904H X

Irons: 4-PW; 712 AP2; Project X Pxi 6.5; 2 degrees upright; 4-iron one degree strong

           Also 4i & 5i; 712 AP1; Project X Pxi 6.5; 2 degrees upright

 

I’m very excited to get the new irons because they are going to be much more forgiving than my current set without sacrificing any performance. I am definitely all about irons that can help make golf a little easier for me, and that is why I also tried out some AP1 long irons. The AP1 is a very big iron with a huge sweet spot and a hot face. I’m not sure whether or not I will use the bigger long irons, but it will be nice to have the option.

 

Though I was hoping to find some equipment that would give me an extra 50 yards off the tee, I am very happy with the way that my fitting went. I am excited to get my new tools!

 

For now it’s time to get back to work. The travel day on Monday afternoon and the washout yesterday have me a little bit behind on my practice for the week, and cold temperatures promise to make the rest of the week challenging, but I like a challenge. Two weeks from today is the first round of my first tournament of 2013. I feel very good about my preparation, but I need to have solid work the next couple weeks. I will be ready.

 

Come back over the weekend for a progress report. Thank you for keeping up with me!

Good Practice

This has been an encouraging week of work for me. I had a friendly match with one of my best buddies on Monday afternoon, and in addition to that, I struggled through some cold and difficult practice sessions on both Monday and Tuesday. I was feeling a little frustrated because I hadn't been able to complete as many of my drills as I would have liked through Tuesday, but when I had a competitive match at Holston Hills Country Club on Wednesday, I saw evidence that my tough days of practice are working. In cold and breezy conditions on a soft golf course, I hit every green in regulation and shot a great score of 67 (-5). In addition to that, I made a valuable birdie on the last hole to help me come out a little more on top in the match. I had another tough practice session on Thursday and then spent Friday inside as East Tennessee had to battle an ice storm. I had a lazy day during the ice storm, but responded with a great day of practice on Saturday. My putting and short game felt as good as they have all year on Saturday, and my ball-striking is feeling great as well. It is nice to see that the frustrating days of practice are leading to progress in my golf game. I love to practice, and it is very fulfilling to see good results from hard work. Though I haven't quite reached the start of my competitive calendar, I can already see good results from my golf game. I am feeling great!

Heading into Sunday, I need one more putting drill and just 15 minutes of short game work to complete all of my weekly work goals. I will get them done, and that is a great feeling given the fact that I had a slow start to the week and had a spend all of Friday inside. I am pumped about my weekly goals this year, and though I expect to complete them every single week, it is still a nice accomplishment. (By the way, I'll come back early next week and confirm that I did in fact finish my work on Sunday!)

I do have to confess, though, that I'm likely going to come up short in one area of my work goals. I have a section under my short game work called "Tri-weekly requirements." One of these requirements is that I make at least three bunker shots every three weeks. I have yet to make a single bunker shot, and Sunday is the final day of my first three-week block of the year. With that said, though, I am very excited about this section of my goals. I now have a different type of focus when I practice my short game. Though I haven't had any of my bunker shots actually go in, I have had them dancing all around the hole. I know that at some point this year I am going to hole a bunker shot in a clutch situation in a tournament. I may come up short on this goal during this three-week block, but I am going to remain adamant about completing it moving forward.

My practice is going very well! I have had some tough and frustrating days, but I am definitely seeing great progress. I am really feeling ready to go compete, but I'm glad I still have a couple more weeks to further sharpen all areas of my game. One area that I am going to sharpen is my equipment. I am very thankful to have the support of Titleist behind me, and on Monday I am going to Sea Island in Georgia to go through a Titleist club fitting. I'm not sure what, if any, changes I'll make, but it will be good to know that I have the best stuff for me in my bag. I'll give you an update on that early next week as well.

Thank you for keeping up with me. Great things are coming, and I'm excited to have all of you to share it with me! Keep it here for practice reports and other news.

Time for a New Week

I'm disappointed to say that I wasn't able to finish all of my work goals over the past seven days. I think the weather is a legitimate excuse, but I wish that I could have been a little bit more efficient with my putting drills when the sun finally did allow me sneak in some practice over the weekend. I struggled for a long time to complete my first three-footer drill, and that cost me a lot of valuable time after rain and snow kept me indoors for almost all of the work week. I'm pumped about the work that I was able to complete this weekend. I did both of my ball-striking drills despite having to shag my own balls out of snow-covered fairways, and I did managed to complete 3 putting drills and 3 hours of short game work. In addition to that good practice over the weekend, I had a great week of fitness work. Despite being cooped up in the house for much of the past seven days, I feel like I had a very productive week. I am ready to bundle up and have some great practice in the coming days. There is a couple-day cold snap coming to East Tennessee, but it is supposed to be sunny, so I am pumped!

Things are feeling good. I signed up for my first events of the year this morning. I don't start until mid-February, but I know that the next three and a half weeks will fly leading up to that first event. My work the next few weeks will set the tone for the year, and I am going to get off to a hot start.

Keep it here for practice reports and more information as I get ready to start an exciting year. Thank you very much for your support!