Adam's Tour (Hillcrest Classic) - Round One

Today's Score: 78

Today was simply not a good day. With the way I played today, I should of shot 1 or 2 over, but two costly errors and extremely poor putting wouldn't allow me to do any better than +6 over par. The first mistake I made came on the par-5 4th hole. I hit a really nice drive down the middle and had about 260 yards to the front of the green. With water all along the right hand side of the hole, I picked a target well left of the flag but still managed to block the ball right into the water. The decision to go for the green in two cost me my second stroke of the day. I followed that up with back to back 3-putts on the next two holes. After nine holes I was +5 over par and having just an absolute blast.

I was able to make a nice birdie on the 10th hole in an attempt to get the round under control. However, the second costly error on the day came on the 13th hole where I hit my tee shot with a 3-wood left out-of-bounds. #13 probably has the widest fairway on the whole course and plenty of room out to the right. Only a complete lack of focus could cause a shot like the one I hit there and those are mistakes you just cannot make and expect to shoot good scores. I missed three more putts inside of 6ft over the next 5 holes and finished with a +6 over par (78).

I noticed towards the end of last week's tournament and beginning of this week, that I haven't been as comfortable with my swing as I was a couple week's ago during the qualifying for the Zurich Classic. I'm definitely struggling with my driver and really all tee shots in general. I'm hitting on average about 7 fairways a round and on courses like last week and this week, eventually it's going to catch up to you. And, I think that combined with not being able to make a putt is what caused such a poor round today. But, I know that the changes I've made in my swing recently are still a work in progress. Things are still relatively new and it's going to take time before the changes become permanent. From what I've noticed so far though, I'm still very excited about the future. I'll continue to work with Brian when I get home and feel confident that there's more success to come.

Tomorrow, my tee time is 12:30 off #10. The weather is supposed to be rainy and windy so maybe I can pull out a good round and sneak inside the cut line.