Chattanooga Classic Monday Qualifier

After a week at home getting some practice in, I’m going to try to qualify for this week’s Nationwide Tour event in Chattanooga, TN. The 18-hole qualifier takes place tomorrow with a little over 100 players vying for 7 spots in this week’s tournament. My qualifying site is at Cleveland Country Club in Cleveland, TN, about 30 minutes north of Chattanooga. The course is relatively short, maybe 6,700 yards, but there are very few holes you can hit driver, and the tight fairways are lined with trees and thick rough. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be about 60 degrees with rain, meaning the course will play a little tougher than normal.

This week at home I had a solid week of work and feel that I’ve started getting things moving in the right direction again. In some ways I think the fact that I hit the ball so poorly in North Carolina a few weeks ago may have been a help in the long run. All year I’ve been struggling to pinpoint some flaws in my swing to communicate to my coach, and by hitting the ball SO poorly it became easier to describe and for him to understand. This allowed us to work on a few different ideas that we haven’t spent a lot of time on this year that hopefully can help me hit it more consistently. It’s definitely helped my ballstriking at home during my off week, and I hit it great today in practice for nine holes, but we’ll see what happens out there tomorrow. I tee off at 12:50 on #1 and am hoping it’s stopped raining by then. I’m gonna just try to go as low as I can and we’ll see how things fall. Thanks for watching.

Live Scoring: http://tnpga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/tnpga9/event/tnpga922/contest/4/leaderboard.htm

Course Info: http://www.clevelandcountryclub.org/

Tim

2009
10/04
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Cabarrus Classic Recap

I didn’t bounce back at all the way I was hoping to after last week. Coming out of last week I got home, took the weekend to exhale and regroup, and went to Charlotte feeling relaxed and comfortable with my game. I’d been hitting tons of really good shots during my rounds, evidenced by my 8 birdies in the third round in Florida, but had been hitting a handful of such terrible balls that ended in spots where I couldn’t save pars. This week the first round was more of the same. I hit an awful tee shot on a long par 3 and ended up making a triple bogey, but otherwise played mediocre and ended at +3 with some bright spots out there. However, the second round I never hit the good balls I’ve grown accustomed to seeing. I hit the ball in the trees on over half of the holes that weren’t par 3’s, and struggled to hit greens when I was in the fairways. It was hands down the worst ball striking round I’ve had since college and shot 79.

What still confuses me is that less than a month ago my swing looked the best it’s ever looked on camera, yet somehow I’m not taking that to the course. I’ve worked really hard on improving my swing this year, and it’ pretty disappointing to see the results going the wrong way. I’m still committed to getting better though, and feel that I can work my way out of this. I’ve hit it really poorly at times in my career and have always found a way to get through it and hit it beautifully again. That’s what lies in front of me at this point.

Going forward for tournaments I’m not exactly sure what course I’m going to take. I’m not going back out to play a tournament until something changes with the way I’m hitting it, because if I continue to hit it like this week there’s nothing gained from me trying to compete. I’m scheduled to Monday qualify for the Nationwide Tour’s event in Chattanooga, TN on October 5th and then play the eGolf Tour Championship October 13-15 in Pinehurst, NC. I’ll definitely be playing some more events this year even if it means I take those weeks off and play some winter tour stuff, but the primary goal right now is to start hitting the ball better. I have until September 30th to decide on the Monday qualifier, and until right before the eGolf event to decide on it, so check back in to see how things pan out. I still believe I can get out of this hole, it’s just a matter of doing it. Thanks for watching.

Tim

2009
09/25
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Cabarrus Classic Preview

After trying Q School last week it’s back to the mini-tours this week for the eGolf Tour’s Cabarrus Classic in Concord, NC. It’s being hosted at Charlotte National Golf Club and Cabarrus Country Club, two tracks that are frequented by mini-tours in the southeast. It’s fun to be here this week because I played numerous college tournaments at Cabarrus while at Michigan, but it was always freezing cold at the end of October, so it’s nice to play it in warm weather for once. Today was my first time playing Charlotte National, and from my first impression I like the layout. The facility is not impressive when you first drive in, and the front nine starts off pretty slowly and easily, but the closing holes are a stout challenge and the course requires you to hit a number of different shots in order to play it well. The greens are soft and rolling pretty smoothly, so I think the course will be there for the taking.

My goal this week is to rebound from such a poor showing last week. As I get a little further away from last week, I’m starting to see how keyed up I was for the event and just how much I wanted to play well. I think putting that much emphasis on the week hindered my ability to perform, so this week I’m trying to stay focused but slightly looser. I realized last week that I had begun playing excessively conservatively, and the style had begun to get me back on my heels instead of attacking the golf course. This week my goal is to be more aggressive (while not being stupid) and see just how low I can go. I believe the more assertive attitude will allow me to gain more control of my thoughts as well as allow me to swing more freely. I may make a few bogeys this week, but I need to learn to live with taking that risk in order to make more birdies.

I’ve posted the normal links below. Check back after round 2 to see how things developed. Thanks for watching.

Live Scoring: http://tarheel.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/tarheel9/event/tarheel912/contest/1/leaderboard.htm

Course Info: Charlotte National: http://www.golfholes.com/nc/_charnat/geninfo.htm
Cabarrus CC: https://www.memberstatements.com/tour/tours.cfm?tourid=14205

Tim

2009
09/22
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Pre-Qualifying Recap

Not a whole lot can be said about my play this week except that it was poor. I shot 76-75-68-75–294 (+6) to finish outside of the cut for players making it to the next stage of PGA Tour qualifying. All week I seemed to make mistake after mistake, especially off the tee, and just couldn’t make enough birdies to even out the errors. Going into the week I knew even par would have a pretty good chance to advance, but thought that if you could finish a few under par there would be no concern about advancing. Sure enough the cut came at even par, meaning just a nice solid week and I wouldn’t have had anything to worry about.

Starting off the week  I was slightly tense with this being my first try at qualifying, but after the first day I never felt nervous again; I just kept hitting poor shots. After thinking about how I hit it this week I realized my final birdie/bogey count: 15 birdies, 11 bogeys, and 5 double bogeys. I obviously made enough birdies to play good golf this week, but 21 over par strokes in four days will absolutely kill you. I hit a lot of very poor tee shots that put me in awful positions to try and save par from, and on a golf course as narrow as we played, eventually those bad tee shots will lead to bogeys.

It’s a shot in the gut to play so badly at the very beginning of the event. This stage had some very good players in it, but in the end it wasn’t that I couldn’t compete with the level at this stage, I just beat myself. Also, while making it through all four stages of the qualifying tournament in your first year is a rare accomplishment, getting deeper into the event would have allowed me a chance to learn what it’s like to play in those later stages. While I can still continue to Monday qualify for event for the next year, I’ll now have to find other ways to gain experience and continue improving.

Next week I’ll be traveling to Charlotte for the next eGolf event and try to get back on this horse quickly and keep improving. I know once I stop beating myself I’m going to turn a corner and start seeing some higher finishes, but I have to keep pushing through until I start playing a little better. Thanks for watching and check back in next week to see how it goes.

Tim

2009
09/19
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