This tournament did not go as well as I had liked (side thought = when is golf ever what you would like?). I fired a smooth 79 my first day. When someone asked me how it happened I used a quip from my boss and told them “I lipped out for 78.” It was a disaster and put making the cut seem way out of reach. I have really been playing good as of late and to shoot a high number like that did not sit well.

As the second day started I told myself that if I could somehow get back to even par I could make the cut. To do that I needed a 65. The only way to play great golf is to be patient and just let it happen. So I went out there to give it my best and to play within myself. After I lipped out a 4 footer on the first hole I could have spiraled the wrong direction. Instead I reminded myself that there is a ton of golf left and I am capable of giving myself more opportunities. I hit the ball really well the rest of the day and shot a bogey free 68. I missed only one fairway and one green with the green I missed only being by about an inch. Unfortunately it was not low enough to make the cut. The number turned out to be 145.

Even though I missed the cut my bounce back round gave me good motivation for my next event in Iowa.

About 12 hours from Atlanta is a little town outside Ann Arbor, MI (another little town) called Jackson. This is where my mini tour has brought me in July. The 2008 GJMC will be a 54-hole tournament with a cut after 36 holes. It will be played at Arbor Hills Golf Club Thursday through Saturday, July 10, 11, and 12th. After this tournament I will be heading to Waterloo, IA for the Waterloo Open Golf Classic, put on by the Waterloo Jaycees. This event will be conducted Thursday through Sunday, July 17, 18, 19, and 20th. The Waterloo consists of a 2 day Pro Am and a 2 day shootout for a 1st place check of $40,000.

For this short stretch I will be traveling with Dalton Melnyk (www.daltonmelnyk.com). His roommate has tagged Dalton to be a cross between “Buddy the Elf and a golden retriever.” Needless to say it has and will continue to be an entertaining trip.

Here are some links for more information…

GJMC

Arbor Hills

Waterloo Open

This site lets you customize your own ping bag. If anyone likes what they sees maybe I could hook it up…. maybe I can’t. Either way my golf readers will get a slight kick out of this….. colormysack.com 

Today was local qualifying for the US Open held at Marietta Country Club in Marietta, GA. I started on the back side first which is the harder of the two sides. My game plan was to shoot -2 on the back and then play solid on the front and then see what I come up with. This seemed like a good plan being that the front is not as difficult and if I could do one I could most certainly do the other. The only curve ball I ran into was the weather. Winds were a constant 15 mph with gusts in the 20’s. The greens were blazing as well and may have been rolling a 12 or 13 on the stemp. For those of you who don’t know how fast that is it would be about two steps below putting on a wood floor. This made chipping and putting extremely hard due to the fact that the wind actually affects your putts!

Well as planned I start my day by shooting -2 on my first side (back side of course). I made 3 birdies and one bogey. I putted really solid with only 12 putts. As I made the turn I felt extremely confident and knew I was right on track. I smoked a drive down the middle, just miss the cup on my second and almost make birdie and remain at -2. I miss both of the next two greens and miss 5 footers to go bogey, bogey and fall to even par. After I accessed my tee shot on the par 3 fourth hole I swung a confident 5 iron right over the stick. After climbing the hill to the green we realized I had only one inch for birdie. This would get me back to -1.

At this point I thought that the birdie would kick start a turn around for me but alas I continued to play poorly on that side. For my remainder of holes I went bogey, bogey, bogey, double bogey, par and shoot 74. WHAT A DISASTER! The three bogeys were all missed 5 and 6 footers. I just received a phone call from a friend who said that 71 will be the qualifying score. Three shots kept me from qualifying. As bad as I played on the back really makes this one sting.

Not qualifying is not what is bothering me. The fact that this is two tournaments in a row in which I have put myself in the mix after my first nine (both of which were the harder side of the course) and then shot myself out of it. I could list excuses here, but I wont. I am going to put it all together soon and play really well this summer.

MY CONSTANT VARIABLE: In my last two qualifiers I have had a target score for the harder of the two sides I played. Both times I hit my target. I think I may have to set a firm goal for the other side. This seems like a no brainer, but for some reason I haven’t done so in the last two events. For my next event I will set my goals more narrowly and hopefully it will prove to be successful.

I am writing this before I know what the scores are, but I feel like I was close to getting into a Nationwide event. Even though the number will probably be around 65 or 66 and I only shot 70, I hit 17 greens and made 6 birdies. I was hitting it real solid, I just had 3 three puts and one penalty shot on my back side to shoot 1 over par. My front nine I got around in 33. If it all went my way I would have sailed in. Hopefully this summer I will give myself enough opprotunities to have some success and become familiar with being in this type of situation again.

So since the Masters this year I have recieved a bunch of phone calls from a lot of random people saying I look like this years Master’s winner Trevor Immelman. I will post these pics and let you be the judge.

Not much to say here. Shot 72. Sure it is more respectable then my 79, but doesn’t feel much better. I kinda stumbled coming in. I was two under on the front side and just ran out of steam on the back and shot 38. Even in poor tournaments I learn a lot though. It actually gives me more to look at when evaluating my play. It allows me to see bigger things to work on that otherwise may be subtle when I am playing well. I can’t wait for this summer and to play more consistently and really see what I can do.

For the first round of the Forest Lake 2 day event I shot a 79. I was putting pretty poorly and made 4 bogeys from the fairway. It was a long day with an excruciating round that lasted all of 5 hours. Brutal. I had an early start the next day and birdied one and seven and eagled 8 to go two under through nine holes. Unable to continue the progress, I shot 38 on the back and finished at level par.

For those of you who keep up with current happenings with my game you should know that I dropped the “claw” for the remainder of my time down here. The stroke is too smooth for these greens which are thick and roll an 8 at best. I putted with a conventional grip my second round and I think it makes for a better marriage on these greens.

The 79 was bad, but my games feels generally good and I should stay positive through these next events. I will have four events over the next five days.

Today I shot 72 for my first event on this trip. Normally I would be fine with this considering a bunch of little factors:

1. First event of this trip

2. Had never seen the course before

3. Winds were a constant 15 mph with stronger gusts

But on the tenth hole I had to call a penalty on myself for moving my ball. There was a long twig of some sort near my ball and when I moved it the ball happen to roll over. I proceeded to play the ball as it lied and got up and down. What would have been a birdie was really a bogey. Had I slowed down and thought about what I did I could have moved it back and only recieved a one shot penalty. After all that I birdied 11, followed by an eagle on the par five 15th and a birdie on 16. So I made a pretty good run to make up some ground.

 Part of the reason I am down here is to train. So when I am faced with a situation like today I can only tell myself that crap happens and to look at everything as a learning experience.

My brother in law will appreciate this link more than most, but I thought of this when it was all said and done.

Well I am back to 80 degree days and all the golf I can handle. This trip will last from now until the 18th of March. In that time I will play in 6 tournaments, go to Busch Gardens with my wife and watch a great friend of mine get married. This is going to be a great couple of weeks.  I will be updating this site after every round and give a breif recap of how it went.