Sunday, January 31, 2010

Team Van-Gray earn first round victory


Today Ted Gray and I played our first round match of the Phoenix Fourball at FireRock CC, earning a 4 & 3 victory. Although I got off to a sluggish start, Ted was ready to go, birdieing 2 of the first 3 holes, putting us 2 up. A deuce by our competitors, on the par 3 6th, put the match back to 1 up... until I drained a 30-footer on 7 and Ted followed with his own birdie on 8. A pitching wedge to a foot on 10 gave me another birdie, and our team a 4 up lead. After some good drives on 11, we really managed to butcher the rest of the hole, making bogey and falling back to 3 up. But a pair of birdies on the 485 yd par-4 15th gained us the 4 & 3 win. You can follow online at the Phoenix Fourball website.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Golden Eagle Tag-Team

I've just signed up for my first tournament of 2010, and although it's not on Tour, it's going to be a fun one. While practicing out at The Golf Club Scottsdale I ran into Big East Champion Ted Gray, my former teammate. He too is out at GCS and giving the golf route a roll. We decided to team up once again and Ring Out Ahoya on some other pros in the area by signing up for the Phoenix FourBall Match Play Tournament. It consists of 32 teams playing in a Best Ball Match Play format. It can be followed on www.Phoenixfourball.com and matches will take place once every two weeks.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the McCahill Award Luncheon! It was great to see so many familiar faces and I really appreciate all the support I've had through the years from the Marquette Community. It was also great to see our boys finally get a bit of a breather and not have a game come down to the wire too.

Go Marquette!

Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year, New Changes

Hey everyone, Mike Van Sickle here. I'm going to be taking over updating the site from now on. A few things have happened since making it through First Stage. Unfortunately my putter went a little cold out at Callaway Gardens in Georgia for the Second Stage of Q-School and I came up a bit short. All in all it was a good experience and I'll be able to really fine tune the aspects of my game that still need perfected this year. I'll most likely be giving Monday qualifyings a run to start the year and play some mini-tour events on the side. Hopefully I can get my foot in the door early on the Nationwide or PGA, but if not, there are many other tours to choose from.

I signed with an agent, David Winkle, from Hambric Sports Management. He's an agent with players such as Justin Leonard, Bob Tway, Dustin Johnson, and other notables... but most importantly he's a truly stand-up guy, and everyone in golf who I've talked to has had nothing but great things to say about David. Since then I have also signed on with TaylorMade/Adidas and will be sporting their equipment and apparel at upcoming tournaments, however I'm still looking to get an MU logo placed on the bag too.

I reached Scottsdale, AZ today from my home in Pittsburgh... a fun 32-hour drive. I'm looking forward to some winter training to get the game in gear. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year!

Fly like an Eagle, Fight like a Warrior!