Q-School - Round 1

Today's Score: 78

What started out as a promising round, slowly fell apart one stroke at a time as the day progressed. Right out of the gate I was on my way after a big drive, good wedge shot and a putt made from about 6 feet for birdie. The next hole I just missed from about 7 feet for my second birdie in a row. I played the next three holes solidly as well and I was -1 under through 5. It was on the par-5 6th tee where things started to get a little shaky. After about a 20 minute wait on the tee, I pulled my drive left in the trees. I was able to pitch out and get my third shot on the green, but unfortunately I had my first 3-putt of the day from about 40 feet. I closed out the front nine by bogeying #8 and #9.

On the 10th hole, I hit a wedge from 60 yards that hit just past the flag that, instead of spinning, hit and released hard over the green. There was no shot long and I was on my way to a third straight bogey. Two more missed par putts on #14 and #15 followed by a poor drive on #18 and I finished the day at +6 over (78).

I guess I was spoiled by how well I played during the two practice rounds. Everything seemed to be working and for two days I cruised around the course without too much trouble. After the first round of competition, I found myself falling back into old habits and not trusting all the things I had worked on. My driver seemed to vanish after the first few holes which made all the approach shots into the greens that much more difficult. At the same time my driver fell off, I failed to make a single putt. Between my dad and I, we seemed to be misreading everything just enough to miss over the edge too many times. Today was a round that should of been around +2 over but without getting any putts to fall it became +6 over.

It's frustrating trying so hard and ending up with a 78. To make matters worse it took 6 1/2 hours to play, which is by far the longest round I've ever played in my entire life. The good news is I've got three more rounds to get back in it and even still I'm not that far out. The course is playing tough and the scores are higher than normal. The biggest key tomorrow is getting back into the zone where I can make the swings that I've been working on. I've got to the hit more fairways first and from there I know everything else will take care of itself. My tee time tomorrow is 11:15.