Houston National Open - Second Round

Score: 80

As you can see, I haven't exactly been in a hurry to get this post up about my second round in this last tournament. There isn't really a whole lot I'm looking forward to writing about. The day began much like the start of my first round. Well executed shots that set up good looks for birdie. A 6 footer on #1 missed just left and a 3-putt par again on the par-5 2nd except this time I was only 20ft for eagle. I will admit that even though I had only played two holes, I had about used up all my patience for the day. I knew I needed to shoot a good score and missing those great opportunities early in the round had my blood boiling to say the least. My second 3-putt came just two holes later on the par-4 4th and that was pretty much the last straw. There's only so much a person can take and it was clear that this event, on this course on these greens was just not working for me. I continued to hit good shots (in fact, overall I played even better than the day before) but my focus was just not there. Any confidence that I had gained from the previous tournament quickly disappeared.

I'm not quite sure exactly what was so different between the way I putted from the 2nd tournament to the 3rd one. The greens were not as good, but still good enough to make putts. I really don't have the answers. I'm thinking that it may be time for a change in putters. Sometimes, just going to a different looking putter helps for one reason or another. I like the new things I've been working on with the way I'm reading greens and the speed at which I'm trying to roll my putts. It's certainly clear that I must get to where I'm averaging under 30 putts a round.

Here's the way it broke down from this series of 3 tournaments:

Hearthstone Classic - Avg. Putts per Round = 32.5 Avg. Score = 76
Cypress Lakes Open - Avg. Putts per Round = 29 Avg. Score = 70
Houston National Open - Avg. Putts per Round = 33 Avg. Score = 79

Just making those few extra putts per round does wonders for confidence and momentum that it's the one key factor to lower scores. So that's what I'll keep working on and keep working and keep working on until the day I can sit here and write about how they should make the hole smaller cause it's just not fair anymore.

As far as my next event goes, it looks like Erika and I will be heading to Orlando for 3 tournaments in December. I'm off through Thanksgiving and then we plan on leaving that weekend. I hope everyone is doing well. Hopefully by my next update I'll talking about how I found this new magical putter that can't miss.....wouldn't that be nice!