A journey to better golf

This time last year I stood in the fairway of the 18th hole in the final round of the section qualifier for the PGA Professional Championship. I was 2-under par for the event and faced with a decision. I was 249 yards from the hole, wind into and off the left, with water short and left of the green. There were 6 spots available to qualify. I needed a par to get into a playoff, a birdie would get me a spot outright. I saw the shot as a perfect 3-wood. It was the right club to comfortably clear the water and if I missed it right with the wind, I would have a good chance to get up and down for birdie. I felt nerves over the shot but trusted the decision. I hit it solid, but unfortunately. I pulled it and it never came back with the wind. As it splashed into the water my mind started spinning. I had to drop 175 yards from the green and never collected myself. I proceeded to hit the next shot into the water. Dropped again, hit the next shot onto the green and 2-putted for a triple bogey. It was a crushing feeling as I was driving to the scoring area, knowing I just missed a great chance to go to our national championship. It’s a feeling I wish no one would have to feel, and at the same time, all I want to be is back in that situation again.

The journey to playing better golf is a challenging one. I want to invite you to join me on my journey as I work to balance family life, my teaching career, and my goal of qualifying for the PPC. My goal has always been to qualify for a PPC before I turned 40. Time is running out on that goal as I am now 38 years old which gives me this year and next year to try and qualify. As a coach, I believe showing all my students what I go through to get better and reach my goals will be a great exercise.

This year has been my busiest year as a teacher. On top of that, my wife and I welcomed our second child, Ford, into the world in September. My golf game took a backseat to family and work over the winter season. Now, the PPC qualifier for this year is August 7-8 at Lake Nona Country Club in Orlando, Fl. That gives me 5 weeks to get my game into shape to compete. This will be a stretch, but I’m going to do everything I can to be as ready as possible.

I will be posting on here every week to show you how I structure my practice plan for the week. What I do to chart my progress and how I prepare to play in events. After the qualifier this year, I will continue to post about the journey to better golf while balancing family and work life. I hope you will join me and find the information interesting and helpful with your own games. I will be using a lot of social media to give insights into what I am doing, the drills and tools I use as well as preparation ideas. I have also created a YouTube Channel where I will be doing more in-depth swing analysis of the average golfer. Please follow me on the networks below and feel free to reach out and comment on anything you like, don’t like or what you would like to see.

I’m excited to share this journey with you and I can’t wait to see where it goes.