Tough

So far I've written and re-written this blog entry a handful of times already. It's tough to put into words the successes of the 4th round yet ultimate disappointment for Brian and myself of not advancing to the 2nd stage of Q School.

I'm still trying to put my fingers on the viability of the "reverse horseshoe" used for pairings when going off split tees. Simply, it means the middle of the field tees off earlier then the leaders and the bottom feeders. Being in the top 38 going into the last round we found ourselves in last group to tee off the 1st tee at the early tee time of 8:30AM.

Brian and I joked with the wildly different weather we played in the first 3 rounds that we went to Q School and the Open Championship broke out. Each day was so different than the day before. Sun, sun and wind, cold and rain, etc. Heck it was even different than our practice rounds when the temperature topped out in the mid 80's! Friday's weather was sunny and gorgeous but a had a wee bit of nip in the air being in the high 30's.

 We had confidence on the range Friday morning. We knew a low number was out there and we had the confidence that we were going to set it. Being at +2 we knew that 66 could get us close to the line but 65 would advance us to the next round. However the mental side of golf allows you only to focus on the shot in front of you.

The front nine at the Club of Irish Creek is really setup for short iron and wedge play. We knew gaining momentum right off the bat could give us a great boost. We had a great look at birdie on the first hole followed by a wonderful 2 putt from long distance on the second hole and we were still at Even for the round. The cellophane lid was lifted on the 3rd hole with a long range birdie putt that gave Brian a rye smile as it was a little on the firm side hitting the back of the hole before jumping into the cup. Momentum is a powerful ally in sports. A great approach shot into the 4th netted yet another birdie. Heading into a driveable par 4 and and reachable par 5 we were poised to make a strong early move. However the putts didn't subscribe to our momentum theory and we were still at -2 for the round but back to Even par for the tournament.

Golf is a game of feet if not inches. Our approach to the 7th hole land about a half foot from our target spot and instead of being stone dead to the hole we settled for a two putt par from about 15 feet.

One of the most powerful tools in the mental game is remembering those great shots you hit when you see the shot in your mind, you feel it in your body, and then trust the shot executing it perfectly. Out of the 4 rounds Brian and I marked it down as one of those shots. It wasn't the tee shot on 8 but it was the bunker shot that I'm talking about. It was a 30-40 foot bunker shot to a pin that was tucked just 4 paces from the left of the green. Only a handful more paces you would find a hazard that marked Lake Kannapolis. Because of what lies beyond the hole the "chicken" shot would have been to leave it short by 10-15 feet. What transpired was a beautifully executed shot that landed 6 feet from the hole, checked slightly and rolled to 2 feet away.  Just like a driver down the middle in a 3 for 2 playoff into a PGA Tour event those shots are the thing that you store away for the future.

Going back to the earlier statement of golf being a game of feet the next hole proved that theory correct once again. Because of the slightest of breezes into our face the second shot into the 9th hole garnered significant discussion between a solid 9 iron and a baby 8 iron. Our choice was the 9 iron. Brian flushed it and it landed at the top of the false front on the green but trickled back off the green. Unfortunately we walked away with bogey but still knew that with a small run on the back nine early we weren't out of it.

We never regained the momentum even though Brian and I made the decision for more aggressive lines off the tee and to the pin positions. The putts just weren't falling even with good looks we had. The last 3 holes on the back nine happened to be the bane of our rounds. We were over par for the tournament thaThose holes are tough with no doubts about it. The scoring average for the par 4 16th hole was 4.21. The par 4 17th hole average was 4.32 and the par 3 18th average was 3.32.  All the other 15 holes average was much closer to par. Brian's par 3 scoring put him 5th overall at -2. His par 5 scoring average put him T12 in the field at -5. Unfortunately the par 4 performance put him near the rear of the field being +11 for the tournament. Granted there are twice as many par 4 scoring opportunities.

Overall, it's the best I've seen Brian hit the ball since we've been teamed up. Even with the occasional miss the recovery shot was no problem and a couple times were quite spectacular. Lag putting was spot on and we didn't have a 3 putt. The disappointing part is the scoring didn't show it.

What I like about Brian and I teaming up is that we always look how to improve. There are times that the planning we have for a shot during the round doesn't work out. But post round we talk about the good shots, the bad shots and how to modify strategy for the next time.

Going forward Brian's looking to play in more tournaments over the winter down in Florida. More competitve reps will only make him better. He's resilient. He knows there are 2 paths to a setback. He chooses the path to improve and move forward.

We'll try to keep a better blog. I have no doubts that we'll have something to write about during the upcoming day after Thanksgiving Day grudge match between Brian, Jeff Lane and myself. Which reminds me! The result of me losing the bet last Thanksgiving has been fulfilled. I did my 20 pushups at the beginning of the first round on the first tee. Somehow I couldn't pull the trigger at the John Deere Classic in July. I wouldn't know why. :)

Until we talk again. Have a wonderful and blessed day.

Still in it...

This evening's dinner would have tasted a lot sweeter if a 12 footer for par would have fallen. Unfortunately it didn't but it just made us hungry for tomorrow. Starting on the 10th tee at 8:30 invited a downright chilly temperature of 48 and stiffening breeze. But there was sun peaking through the trees and as it warmed up the area our score was warming up as well. Keeping up the momentum was difficult though and though we fought hard the last hole bogey put us at 72 (+1) and +2 overall. We improved without doing anything today but it is an improvement nonetheless.

Evidently a few people with early tee times decided to adjust their routines because of the chilly temps. But that doesn't really work for Brian as the picture clearly shows.

Wind gusts of up to 20 mph kept all the scores low today with 68 being posted a handful of times. What's been interesting is we've had 3 different "seasons" of weather in our 3 tournament days. Sunny and 70. Rainy and 60. Sunny but chilly and windy. Tomorrow's temperature will mirror this morning but the wind will be down to just a breeze. The guess between Brian and myself is that we'll play the ball down tomorrow as we've been able lift, clean, and place the past two days.

Stats for today: 7/14 fairways, 13/18 greens and 32 putts. We have been seeing the putting lines a little better as of late so we're looking for good things to come on Friday.

Updated scores are here.

We know the number that will get us to the next stage but also know to not get ahead of ourselves. Cliche or not it's all about staying in the moment and one shot at time being the way we do it.

I'll probably not have the ability to post an update to the blog until I get back home to Iowa on Sunday night. Enjoy the sunset picture below from the Club at Irish Creek. Until then have a blessed weekend and we'll talk again soon.

Word of the day is...

The word for today was resilient. The weather was absolute crap but everyone has to play in it. Right? We could have mailed it in with only a few holes remaining when things weren't going as expected but when you're trying to make it to the next level it's quite simple... you don't. You hang in for all it's worth. After a bogey on our 13th hole (4th hole on front) and a misread 8 footer for birdie on the next the blood was near boiling point for Brian. But focusing on each shot the rest of the way in he was clutch. Just what you need to do at this level. That result was finishing -2 over those last 4 holes.

Brian and I talked after yesterday's round about the balance of giving the course it's due respect vs. how we feel we can get after it early. The course played much differently than the past few days. For example the 16th hole is a robust 480 yard par 4. Yesterday it played downwind and we went 3 wood and 8 iron to a front pin. Today the wind was dead into us and with a wet fairway went driver and 3 iron to a middle pin. Brian's drive today was 40 yards behind his 3 wood from yesterday! Those are typical adjustments you make on the fly during a round.

Today is also a day where a caddie makes his money. Sometimes you feel like you need another pair of arms. You're not only taking care of the normal stuff of club selection and yardages but now you holding an umbrella, keeping towels dry, grips dry, and, oh by the way, trying to keep yourself dry too. My shoes were soaked 10 steps into the fairway. Today was a trip because the weather would change every couple holes.

Tomorrow will be a phenominal test of golf. We're the first group off the #10 tee at 8:30. It's supposed to be 48 degrees at that time with winds expected to be near 20 mph. No doubt it will be a moving day. We're both excited for what the day will hold for us. We come to North Carolina and it feels like we're playing the Open Championship.

Time to chill watching the World Series. We're split on who we're rooting for. An early wakeup call will keep us from watching the entire game.

Stats for the day included 10/18 fairways, 12/18 greens, 31 putts.

For updated scores and pairings click here.

Hope everyone has a great evening and we'll talk again tomorrow.

Day 1

Listen to the following picture and tell me what you hear.

You guessed it! Silence! These folks are here to do work!

All things considered it was a good day. No doubts from seeing the scores today that there were some birdies to be had. Unfortunately the pickings were slim for us with only the one birdie overall. Tee to green Brian was stellar hitting 13 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. The glaring stat is 34 putts.

For scores click here.

The weather has been phenominal here just outside of Charlotte. It did turn this evening with rain that should be set in through tomorrow afternoon. The course had been starting to dry out but won't be the case the rest of the week. We should only see temperatures in the mid 60's at best.

Brian and I are looking forward to tomorrow. Some good range time with wedges and putter afterwards yielded some better results. We tee off #10 tomorrow at 9AM. Our boy, Eric Steger, shot a 70 (-1) and is off to a good start.

Good night and we'll talk again tomorrow.

Roll Tide!

All the work is done. Today took on a very business like tone for Brian and me. Each night we discuss what we're going to do the next day at the course from when we leave, to what's our prep before playing, and what we want to accomplish on the course. Heck, we even discuss where we're going to eat lunch. Today was Firehouse Subs. Today was really no different but it's just happens to be the day before teeing it up tomorrow at the 1st Stage of PGA Tour Q School. We made it out to the course this morning along with Eric Steger and were the first to the course. Kind of a nice feeling oddly enough. Peaceful.

Keeping our work days loose, every evening the 3 of us play a quick game of 21 on the practice green. Pretty easy to keep score on this chipping game with 3 points for the closest to the pin, 2 points for the next closest and 1 point for DFL. First to score 21 points wins. Plus it's a way for me to get some swing reps in too. I'll give some props to Eric as he took last night's game and the first game this evening. But Brian was victorious in the second game tonight with yours truly making a showing and ended up tying with Eric for 2nd with 16 points. I even had a chance to win on the final chip had I chipped in.  The trash talk is hilarious in these games! I'll give Eric props for being the king of drops! Some people get all the breaks!

One of the funniest things that happened today was totally random and you really had to be there. The 3 of us were on the first tee and one of the older course worker drove by in his cart. The only intelligible thing we heard in his 10 second dissertation was at the very end when he yelled out "Roll Tide!". If you watch ESPN regularly you'll know why we just had to laugh. Roll Tide!

Both Brian and I are fortunate to know people who have been here before. Pretty easy to figure out who that might be but their guidance and kind words and willingness to take time out of their schedules has us both grateful. We've worked together now for 20 tournament rounds. It's not a big number in the grand scheme of things but each round has built upon the other with confidence gained each round. Sometimes it's a bit scary how much we think alike.

Click here for the scoring link at Irish Creek.

If you haven't read the article on Brian in the Richmond paper click here.

photo courtesy of Steve Koger

We're ready. We don't know how to put any simpler. We'll go out and execute our game plan and have fun while doing it. Can't wait (Bart Scott voice)!

To all of us following along thank you and we'll talk again tomorrow my friends.

Back to School Edition

It's that time of year again. Back to school! Q School that is. We will catch up with John Deere Classic blog entries during this week but we'll start with the matters at hand.  Welcome to Kannapolis, NC and Golf at Irish Creek. This is a gorgeous layout located just outside of Charlotte. You can read about the Davis Love III redesign of this course here.

Brian and I left Richmond at 5:30AM on Saturday morning. I had just driven in from Iowa Friday night and was on 4 hours of sleep so Brian had driving duties. One stop and just under 9 hours later we arrived. We had no plans to play on Saturday and decided our first view was just walking the course and plotting our strategy for the week.  The view below is my poor man's panoramic view at the green on the drivable #5 looking out over Lake Kannapolis.

Needless to say the views are incredible on pretty much each hole.  From the tips the course is just shy of 7100. You better have your game inline for the course. Scoring opportunities are a little better on the front nine then on the back. The final four holes are stout and will take it a bite out of you if you're not ready for them.

This is a different course then we played last year which was Pinewild CC in Pinehurst, NC. It was time for a change after not advancing from there the last 2 years.

Today was our first practice round. One of Brian's teammates from Ball State, Eric Steger, joined us fresh off his Pre-Qualifier advance a couple weeks earlier. Armed with our notes from yesterday we were one of the first groups off in the brisk 48 degree weather that greeted us. No worries as it warmed up to 80 today here! The picture below was just prior to teeing it up. It was early enough that Brian was the only one on the practice green.

We finished up today with some specific work on short game shots as well as the all important driver and hybrid tee shots. The greens are bent grass but the rough is bermuda and if you're off just a bit of line from the fairway it's a crap shoot on what lie you can get.

Tomorrow's another day of fun work before we tee it up on Tuesday's first round at 10AM off the first tee. Now it's time for some shut eye.

I would be remiss if Brian and I didn't mention the passing of Dan Wheldon out in Las Vegas at the IRL race. Life is so short and his passing was a tragedy and we send out our prayers of comfort and healing to Dan's wife and two children and also to speedy recovery of the other drivers involved in the accident.

Good night everyone and we'll talk more tomorrow.