Diamondback G.C. - Practice Round

Another successful practice round in the books. It seems as though for now things have continued from last week in terms of how I'm playing. I hit a lot of good shots today and was able to control my ball like I wanted for the most part. I know I talk about control a lot and it may seem repetitive, but in order to play good golf you've got to know where the ball is going. Especially on such a tight course like this one. Of course there is always going to be the occasional miss hit, but overall, too shoot good scores you've got to have confidence in your game and that comes from gaining control over your shots.

In my opinion, this course would rank among the worst that we've played so far. It's a relatively short layout, with trouble on just about every hole and every shot. A lot of the holes require irons off the tee which is a disadvantage to someone like myself who hits the ball further than average. This is definitely a course where length is not an advantage. Even some of the par 5's are too short/tight to hit driver. In addition to the layout, the greens are in pretty poor condition as well. They look as if everyone who has played golf there in the last year forgot to repair their ball marks so the greens are just littered with bumps and holes. Even still, everyone has to play the same course so we'll just have to hope for the best.

My strategy going into tomorrow is to put the ball in play off the tee first and foremost. If I can do that, the course will play much easier. Like I said before, the course is fairly short so if I can find the fairway then I'll have a short iron into the green. All that's left is just to get a few putts to fall and there should be a good round out there for the taking. My tee time tomorrow is 12:27pm. I'm praying for no delays because I would really love to finish my first round in one day. : )

Forest Lake - First Round Cont./Second Round

First Round Score: 73

We started the day with another one hour frost delay. At 9:00, we were on our 11th hole ready to resume play on our first round. It was cold again this morning which lead to some squirley shots in the beginning. For the most part, I was hitting the ball well but struggling with judging the speed on the greens. After playing late yesterday afternoon in the last group of the day, the greens were slow and a little bumpy to say the least. However, being the first out today, the conditions were quite different and it was giving me trouble all day. I finished off my last eight holes with 6 pars and 2 bogies for a +2 over (73). The officials of the Hooters Tour decided to convert one of the par 5's into a 520 yard par 4 making the par for the course at (71).

Second Round Score: 69

So I finally got my first round in the 60's. That part feels good. Except if my math is correct, the last time I checked the leaderboard it looks as if the cut will be -1 under par. That would mean that I missed the cut by 1 stroke. On one hand I'm a little upset....there were plenty of chances for me to save 1 stroke on the course between yesterday and today. (i.e. - a 3 putt from 8 feet for birdie in my second round) But on the other hand, I look at what happend last week and I'm proud of the way that I rebounded and at least had a chance of making the cut this week.

What's funny about these two rounds is that, overall, I played better the first round than I did the second and shot 4 strokes higher. Strange game!! I do know that I'd like to of had the chance to finish my first round yesterday because things were really clicking. The mistakes that I made could easily be fixed and who knows....maybe I could of saved a few strokes coming in. But, that's the way it goes. Sometimes you get the better draw with tee times and sometimes you don't......sometimes it doesn't matter either way. I've got some good thoughts going into next week. I know that my putting is really holding me back right now and all I can do is practice as much as possible the next 5 days and get ready for the next tournament.

Forest Lake - First Round

I'm happy to report that today picked up where yesterday left off. I was again able to hit shots like I wanted and control my game through the holes that we played. I'm currently at even par through 10 holes with three birdies and three bogies. Again I'm still finding ways to make too many bogies, but at least this time so far it hasn't been all my fault. I caught a really bad lie in the middle of a bunker and had to play out sideways, and I've missed about 5 putts inside of 10 feet. The good news I feel like I'm at least hitting the putts where I want to. I've just misread a few and the greens aren't in the best condition making it even tougher. But overall, things are off to a good start.

After a few more delays this morning, I didn't tee off until about 3:00 allowing us only enough time to get through 10 holes. We're supposed to be in position at 8:00am tomorrow to finish off round one. I was fortunate enough to birdie my last hole today so I've got a good feeling going into tomorrow. The forecast is for another chilly day, but at least the sun should be out and little less wind than today. We'll see what happens.

Forest Lake - Practice Round

This was one of the better practice rounds I've had in a while. It was one of those days where I was able to hit just about any shot I needed and ended up playing pretty well. Even though practice rounds are obviously a lot different then the actual tournament, it feels good to execute shots the way you want. I'm hoping tomorrow I'll be able to play even better and build off of today.

I was happy to see that the layout was kind of an older style golf course which is more similar to what I grew up on. About half the courses so far have been the newer style with water on every hole and housing developments throughout the course. The style of Forest Lake (holes that run alongside one another, more dogleg's, etc.) is more suiting to my eye and I guess I feel more comfortable at places like that. We'll see if that holds true tomorrow.

Tomorrow's tee times have been delayed an hour due to the weather forecast for tonight. That means I'll be playing at 2:00 and probably won't be able to finish all of my first round. The good news is I get to play in the warmest part of the day so at least I'll have that going for me.....which is nice.

I'm pleased to report that practice is going well. Much has improved since this past Tuesday. I've gone back to a few things I was doing in my swing the last couple of years and it seems to be helping. It's given me some confidence going forward to next week's tournament.

Today, I helped a friend move into his new place. It worked out well since the cold weather made it's way down here this morning. There were reports of snow flurries all throughout Central Florida so it was a good day to move furniture.

Erika has flown back to New Orleans for a few days to go to a wedding and a checkup with her doctor. Her recovery from surgery has gone well and I'd say she's pretty much back to 100%.

My plans are to get some practice in tomorrow afternoon while the temperature is above freezing and then get ready for my practice round on Monday. Hope everyone is doing well. More to come soon.

Shingle Creek - Round 1

Score: 86

No, I didn't mean to write 68.......that's an 86. The highest round of golf I've shot in almost 8 years. Because of how extremely bad today was, I'm not going to write very much on my round. I feel like the best thing I can do is forget about it quickly and move on. My summary from today is this: (1) The wind chill today never got about 35* degree's which made the conditions pretty difficult. (2) Even still, I was able to manage my game enough through 11 holes to only be +3 over par. (3) Two very poor shots on holes 12 and 13 lead to a double-bogey and quadruple-bogey respectively and pretty much took all the wind out of my sails.

In the past, rounds like today would have me brought me down for long a time causing me to have a hard time getting over them. But I'm older now, and learning from experience, the best way to rebound from a day like today is to forget about it almost as soon as you get home. Because of how high my score was, I will not be playing tomorrow due to Hooters Tour rules on score limitations. I'm going to do everything I can to pretend this round never happened and will practice and prepare myself for next week like any other. I apologize to everyone for not giving yall more to read about or follow for this week. I promise next week will be much improved.

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It's back to reality again. Our Disney vacation is over. This has been a great week and even with LSU losing on Friday it will go down as one of the most enjoyable times of my life. We managed to get in all the theme parks, all the rides, a couple rounds of golf, and an LSU football game all in just over 5 days. Not too shabby. There's something about Disney that makes you feel like a kid again and being able to enjoy all of it with Erika and the family was a nice break from the real world.

Now, Erika and I are back at my parents house getting ready for next week's tournament. I've got two days to tune up the things I have been working on and show up on Tuesday ready to play. They're predicting the temperature to drop into the 20's early next week so I'm heading out tomorrow to find some hand warmers and wind gloves. It's should be a fun challenge adjusting to the weather but that's just apart of it all. I'll have more after my practice round on Monday. Happy New Year to everyone!!!