2011 Review

It’s been way too long since I posted anything on the blog, but I wanted to put something up to let everybody know what’s been going on over the last couple months. I’ve been doing some updates on twitter, but on the whole I’ve been pretty quiet over the last few months as I’ve had a lot of things up in the air.

The last couple months of the season were rough. I didn’t play very well at all and struggled to make cuts. Towards the end of the year I started to feel like I was swinging at the ball a little better, but I just couldn’t seem to put all the pieces together on the course and kept shooting scores that really just weren’t all that great. I’d have some nice stretches of play, and at times I started to feel confident, but then I would have a couple bad holes or a rough day would knock me back down. After the last Peach State event of the year, I made the decision not to go to Q-School due to my overall lack of confidence and recent poor play. It was a very tough call as Q-School is your best chance of the year to advance your career, but it is a very expensive undertaking that my play just didn’t justify.

After I decided to not go to Q-School, I took some time off from golf to take a breath and gain some perspective. For the last nearly three years I have pushed myself as hard as I possibly could to improve my game, and towards the end of this year I could tell I had worn myself down. I knew I had lost perspective on my game and how I felt about golf in general, and a little time away would do a lot of good to refresh my mind and body. In that time I’ve been trying to figure out what is most important to me and where exactly I go from here. At this point I don’t feel like I’m ready to give up on my career and stop playing, but the lifestyle has been grinding, and now I’m trying to find alternative ways to keep working towards my goals. Right now I really don’t know what those alternatives might looks like, but my plan right now is to take the winter to see if I can find a more sustainable way for me to play golf and improve. I believe that it would help my results as well as improve my quality of life.

I’d like to thank everyone for the words of encouragement and support throughout the year. It never ceases to amaze me how many people follow along or check the blog, and when you’re out on the road on your own it’s reassuring to hear that so many people are behind you. As of right now I don’t have any tournaments scheduled, but check back during the winter for any pertinent updates that I may have. Until next time, everyone enjoy their upcoming holidays.

Tim

2011
11/07
CATEGORY
Other Blog Updates
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Georgia Open Recap, Jones Creek Event Preview

Sorry for the slight delay but I’m still working on getting the internet in my new house so taking the time to sit down and write a post has been a little difficult over the past few weeks. Last week I shot 68-79-75-73 for a 295 (+7) total and T-48 finish at the Georgia State Open.

I got off to a great start shooting a bogey-free 68 in the first round. I hit the ball nicely, hitting 15 greens in regulation, and got up and down the few times I missed. I didn’t make a ton of putts, but also didn’t miss any that I really kicked myself for. Overall it was the most solid round I’d played in a while. I found myself in a tie for second place and felt very confident heading into the next round. However, the second round was just atrocious in every regard. I started off okay, hitting my first seven greens, but I had trouble making putts and was only -1 through seven holes. That’s when the wheels fell off. I made my first bogey of the tournament at the tough par 3 8th, and then made back-to-back triple bogeys on the 9th and 10th holes and added a bogey on the 11th. From there I played in the rest of the way at even par to sneak in under the cut, but the damage had been done. I went from being in contention to middle of the pack in the matter of four holes.

The last two rounds were just a slow bleed of bad shots that resulted in shooting +4 on the weekend, but more discouragingly I felt like I never had a chance to play well. I was hitting the ball so poorly that I couldn’t generate any birdie opportunities to move up the leaderboard; I just was constantly trying to play defense to not far too far backwards. By the end of the week I’d lost all of the confidence I had early in the week, and I found myself back home wondering how things had gotten away so quickly.

I took the last week to get my feet back under me and get ready for the next stretch of tournaments. It was a frustrating week, but I’m not going to worry about it anymore and focus on my next event. I’m leaving for Augusta tomorrow morning to play a 3-day Peach State event at Jones Creek GC starting on Monday. I’ll play a practice round tomorrow and get as prepared as possible to go play my best. I’ve had a solid week of practice at home, so I think I’m in decent shape to go play well, just have to go execute for three days, not one. I’ll probably not post until after the event, so check out the links below for the course info and scoring for the event next week. Thanks for watching!

Course Info: http://www.jonescreekgolfclub.com/

Scoring: http://pspgt.com/

Tim

2011
08/06
CATEGORY
2011 Mini-Tour events
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Georgia Open

After taking a few weeks away from competition to work on my game, I’m back playing in a tournament for the first time in nearly a month. This week I’m at Barnsley Gardens Resort in Adairsville, GA just outside Atlanta playing the Georgia Open. It’s hosted by the state PGA section, and features a field of 144 players all from the state of Georgia. It’s the premier event hosted by the state PGA section and attracts a mix of mini-tour pros, club pros, teaching pros, and top amateur players. Whenever you play an event exclusive to your state it’s always a fun week because you’re competing against lots of your friends, and anytime you can call yourself the champion of your state at any level it’s a fun distinction.

The golf course is in great shape for us this week. We played a Peach State event here back in April, but because it was so early in the year there was basically no rough and the ball was rolling a lot in the thin fairways. Now the mix of heat and rain this summer have made the Bermuda grass fairways and greens grow like crazy; the rough is long and the fairways are lush. Unfortunately the heat has put some stress on the greens, but considering how hot it has been they’re holding up pretty well. The course in general is pretty difficult, and with the long rough hitting fairways will be key, but overall I still think there will be some good scores,

It feels like it’s been ages since I competed in a full tournament. I had to qualify for the state open in a one-day qualifier last week, but other than that I haven’t competed since the Peach State event at Balsam Mountain in North Carolina around the beginning of the month. I went to Michigan for a few days of lessons just after July 4th and when I got back felt like I needed a few weeks of work to get on top of the things I worked on with my coach. I had planned to try to play the Peach State last week, but just before the event I decided not to play because I still didn’t feel ready. The last couple months I’ve been feeling like I shouldn’t go to a tournament unless I feel I can compete at my best because anything less is just a waste of time and effort that I could be using to build confidence at home practicing and playing. It seems like this strategy is seeming to pay off. After my layoff from competition I tied for the win in my state open qualifier last week and feel like my game is taking a turn for the better. It was definitely productive to get some time at home to get into a new groove and build some confidence before going to compete. With a full August of tournaments coming up it looks like getting some rest in my own bed may pay dividends as well.

I’m teeing off tomorrow bright and early at 7:40 so I’ll need to close the post for the night, but keep following along for updates this week. I’ve posted the course info and scoring links below. Thanks for watching, and if you live in the Atlanta area you may want to think about coming out to watch some good golf on the weekend!

Course Info: http://www.barnsleyresort.com/play/golf/golf.asp

Scoring: http://gapga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/gapga11/event/gapga1121/contest/1/leaderboard.htm

Tim

2011
07/27
CATEGORY
Other Blog Updates
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Update from Atlanta

I’m off this week so I wanted to take a few minutes to update everyone on what I’ve been up to the last few weeks. I played a Peach State event two weeks ago in Sylva, NC and really struggled. It was some of my worst golf of the year scoring-wise shooting 77-78, and in reality I never was in the tournament. I had been planning to take a trip to Michigan sometime in early July to see Brad Dean, my coach, but after my poor play I decided to go ahead and go see him as soon as possible.

I flew up for a few days of lessons on July 5 and spent lots of time working on my golf swing. We immediately diagnosed a few major points of emphasis and spent two days finding ways to improve them. In addition, we were able to play nine holes together one evening, and Brad was able to see how I was able to take the swings I was making on the range to the course, and more importantly observe what may be different between the two settings. Between the two days of range time and course time we were able to come up with a very detailed plan of attack to get me back on track.

The last year or so has been about making large changes in my swing that drastically changed the fundamentals of how I swung the golf club. Thankfully, after this trip I feel like I no longer am changing any major fundamentals. This trip was all about improving from my current base and working on aspects of my swing that will create consistency in my shot production. Although I’m not playing great golf right now, because I feel I’ve crested the major hurdle of changing my fundamentals, I feel a lot more confident now that I’m back from my trip than before I went. I feel like I’ve got a very clear direction I am working and now just have to put my latest plan into action. I know I sound like a broken record about it but ultimately I do feel like I’m working in the right direction. I do believe things are going to click very soon.

While I have not met my intermediate goals for the year, ultimately my sights for the year have been always set on playing my best golf come October when I will start Q-School. I still have time to get my game in peak shape for the fall, and I genuinely feel that if I can work diligently on the areas Brad and I deemed important to work on this trip I’m going to be playing great golf in the next few months.

Going forward I will take this week off to practice and hope to play next week’s Peach State event in Auburn, AL if I feel ready. In addition I will try to qualify for the GA Open next week and hopefully will play that event the last week of July. August is also looking to be a busy month with Peach State events scheduled every week, and I may try to get back up to Michigan to play in a Pro-Am that I played in last year. There won’t be any action on the blog until next week, but check back in then to see how my next few events go. Thanks for watching.

Tim

2011
07/11
CATEGORY
2011 Mini-Tour events
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