Hearthstone Classic - Round Two

Today's Score: 77

Same old same old. Nothing changed. You could basically lay yesterday's round on top of today's and they would look almost identical. My putting was still not there (31 total), I made a a couple bad mental errors and one poor swing that lead to a shot out-of-bounds. But the main thing that stands out from these last two rounds is how much my short game (chipping & pitching in particular) has fallen off. I've concentrated so much of my time lately on my swing and putting that I've neglected the one area that's been the most consistent all year. In two rounds, I got up-and-down a total of 4 out of 12 times from around the green. Today alone, I failed to even get the ball on the green three times. One of which was a complete blade across the green. As I go back over my round, aside from the one poor tee shot I hit out-of-bounds, all the strokes I gave away today were from not getting the ball up-and-down around the greens. And its not like they were that hard of shots to begin with. So that's definitely something I've got to clean up before next week.

Again though, I was pleased with the way I hit the ball today. I started out strong and was executing shots the way I wanted to. If I would of had a short game, I could of turned in even par at worst. On the back nine, there were a few shaky moments, but still solid for the most part. It got tough there towards the end trying to focus on every shot after I continuously missed putts and did everything possible to throw away strokes. By the 18th hole, the frustration level was pretty much max'd out.

I learned a lot from this first event. I'm definitely on the right track with my swing. I've developed a nice soft draw with every club in the bag and can go to that shot whenever I need it. From tee to green, I've got a new level of confidence which feels great. Clearly, there is still work to be done on my putting and I'll continue to work on it until I get it fixed. I'm not as concerned with my chipping as I am with my putting, but it's definitely something that I need to go back and look at before the next tournament. I'm sure it's nothing that a few hundred practice shots around the green can't fix.

Erika and I are back in Baton Rouge, LA for the weekend. We drove over as soon as we finished the round this afternoon. It was just impossible to be within 4 hrs of Tiger Stadium on a weekend where LSU plays Alabama at home to think that we wouldn't drive back over for the game. If anyone knows us at all, we'd of walked from Houston if we had to. It'll be a quick stay as we'll be back on the road Sunday to get back to Houston for the start of the second Winter Series event which begins Tuesday. That's it for now. GEAUX TIGERS!!!