Congrats to Zach Johnson

I just wanted to take a little moment in my busy life to congratulate Zach Johnson on his victory at the Masters this year. I am very proud of the way he handled himself during the final round and also how he represented Christ after he won. I was so excited to see him step up and not back down to Tiger, it is nice to see someone other than Tiger winning especially when Tiger is in the tournament. Zach has been my favorite golfer since I had the opportunity to have dinner with him and his wife, coach, and caddie last year before the Nissan Open. He is a great model of a Christian man playing professional golf. I pray that God would bless him in his golf and in his ministry out there on the PGA Tour and the impact that he has on the nation through his testimony on TV.

The Last Two Weeks

In the past two weeks I have done 4 qualifiers and have missed all four of them. Two of them have been Nationwide Monday qualifiers and the other two were Hooters tour Tuesday qualifiers. I would have the Nationwide qualifier, finish that and then have to drive 3 hours to the next location and play the Hooters tour qualifier the next morning. Lets just say I was making it very hard for me to make it into the Hooters event. Both Nationwide qualifiers I played well in, the first one I shot 71 (-1) but missed making it by a couple of shots. The second Nationwide qualifier I shot 75 (+4), which was a really good score. The weather was terrible that day, the wind was blowing between 35 and 40 mph so my score of 75 was not that bad only missing that one by a couple of shots as well. Both of the Hooters qualifiers I did not play to well. The first one was at a course that I played last year, but because of the Nationwide qualifier I didn't get to play a practice round before my round this year. The course was no different, the greens were a lot better than they were last year but besides that the course was the same. I came out and struggled around the course shooting a 74 (+2) to miss the qualifier by 4 shots. My friend Holt that has been staying with me in the RV the last couple of weeks made it through the qualifier so I ended up caddying for him in the tournament. Then for the second Hooters Tour qualifier I came to the course straight from the Nationwide qualifier not playing a practice round exhausted from the day before and struggled through the front nine shooting 3 over par, I started out the back nine making birdie on 10 and 12 to get it back to 1 over par for the round. I figured that if I was able to come in at even par or better I would make it through the qualifier. The next hole I ended up 3 putting from 65 feet to go back to 2 over, still though I had both par 5's left on the back nine so if I birdied both of them I would finish at even par. The 14th hole is a par 5 dogleg left with hazard all down the left on the inside of the dogleg. I pulled my drive into the hazard and made a double bogey on that hole to fall back to 4 over par. When this happened I knew it was over, I let up just a little bit on my mental game and made a double bogey on the next hole, then I finished the last three making one birdie and one bogey to shot 78 (+6) to miss that qualifier as well. Next on the schedule I am off to McCormick South Carolina to play in the next Monday qualifier for the Hooters Tour. I feel that in my trying to do both the Nationwide qualifiers and the Hooters qualifiers I was making it very difficult on myself to make either one, so from no on I will not be doing any more Nationwide qualifiers until I am exempt into the Hooters events.

Second Monday Qualifier

Sorry for the late post, but last week was the second Monday qualifier for the Hooters Tour in Lake Mary, Florida. I arrived at the course a couple of days early to play some practice rounds and get to know the greens the best that I could before the tournament. I have been working very hard on my game in the last couple of weeks really trying to make it through one of these Monday's. I felt really good about my game going into the round on Monday, confident with my swing and stroking the putter well. I hit the ball very well, making 6 birdies on the round, but making 2 bad swings on two separate holes that led to double bogie's on those holes. In the end I shot even par 72, could have been a lot better but I am happy with the result none the less. Not really thinking that i was going to have a chance since I thought the course was playing very easy, I came into the scoring tent and realized that I was tied for the tenth spot (they take 10 guys from the Monday into the tournament). I was pretty excited about that although I realized that i was tied with 11 other guys for the very last spot. That meant that we were going to have a playoff, 11 guys for 1 spot. Not that great of odds, but I was feeling good about how I was hitting the ball and felt that I could win this playoff. So we all piled into carts and the took us to a hole that was unoccupied and we started playing. The first group of 3 then the second group of 4 and lastly the third group of 4. The way that they do it is after playing the first hole the groups would wait at the end and whatever was the lowest score won and if there was a tie for the lowest score they would play the next hole until one person would win. I was in the second group, the first group went off looking very nervous none of them hit very good tee shots, but we couldn't see what their scores were. Our group was next, I stepped up and hit a great tee shot down the right side of the fairway, the longest in my group. Two of the guys in my group really struggled off the tee and were going to have a tough time making par on the first hole. The other guy in the group stepped up and hit a great iron shot into the green that looked like it was inside 5 feet, but it was hard to tell. After that I told myself that these guys are not just going to lay down and give this to me. Now it is my turn and I approached the shot with confidence and hit a great shot, the ball must have landed a foot from the hole, but proceeded to roll out about 8 feet past the hole. I have to say that I was very impressed with myself to be able to hit that shot after the guy in front of me hit it that close in a playoff. Then comes the putt, I had a downhill left to right putt. I felt I had a good read on it and stepped up and hit it. I hit the putt just the way that I wanted to, but ended up misreading the putt and the ball slid past the hole on the low side. The other guy in the group was closer than I and on the other side of the hole, he got up and nailed his putt right in the center. No one else out of the 11 guys made birdie and the playoff was over after one hole. I really learned a lot about myself in the playoff, and after the round before I found out what was going on I was just hoping that I would have a chance to get in and I got that chance. I didn't win, but it was a great experience to learn from. We have this week off, but next week I am playing in a Nationwide Monday Qualifier in Valdosta, Georgia. The qualifier for the Hooters Tour is on Tuesday to accommodate those who want to try the Nationwide event. Please continue to keep me in your prayers as I will start to do a lot of traveling in the next week and from then on . Thank you for your support and I will be updating this next Monday night.

Joe