Monday, May 28, 2012

Monday Qualifier Today

Today is another great opportunity for me to get my foot in the door this year.  I'm playing in the Nationwide Monday Qualifier today for the Raleigh event.  I played a practice round yesterday and made a good number of birdies.  It's maybe not your signature MVS course, as it forces some shorter clubs off the tee, but certainly a course I can definitely have some success at.  I tee off today at 1:05

This last week went pretty well, for a while at least.  I shot a 69 in the first round of the eGolf event in Lake Wylie.  The 69 included 7 birdies and 2 Doubles at the Palisades.  A great 16 holes of golf, too bad we play 18 holes…  I would go on to shoot 74 the next day, but with more incident.  I was on 12, sitting at 1-over par on the day, 2-under for the tournament.  Waiting to hit 8-iron in on my 2nd shot of a par-5 when I was almost struck with a tee shot from the group behind us.  This was the third time we had been driven into on the day, and the second time in 3 holes.  I was visably shaken and dumped my shot in a right bunker, made par, and was still rattled on the next tee when I sudo-shanked a 4-iron off the tee into a hazard, leading to a double.  There was no confrontation with the players behind us, as they were too slow in playing the hole.  But I had a long and frustrated discussion with eGolf officials after the round.  And basically received the response, "Sorry, that's too bad, nothing we can do."  Obviously a very frustrating day on the course, being in position to shoot a good score on a tough course and have that sort of thing happen, but I'm over it now and looking ahead.

In the unlikely event I don't qualify today, my plan is to head home and prepare for the US Open Sectional qualifier in Columbus.  I'm playing June 4th, here's my pairings…

7:00am off the 10th tee at Scioto with Scott Piercy and Nick O'Hern
12:00 off the 1st tee at the Scarlet Course, same pairing

Feeling good about the game, think these qualifiers are two great opportunities I'm about to take advantage of!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

What's coming up...

I played in an Autism Benefit at Treesdale yesterday.  We played a scramble format and I had a really fun day, on top of playing really well.  The group is called Autism Speaks, it's a great cause.  Check it out!
http://www.autismspeaks.org/

I've got about a week here in Pittsburgh to continue to hone my game, and I've been making great progress.  I'm really hitting it well and I'm excited for my upcoming schedule.  I just signed up for an eGolf event at River Hills on May 23-26, then I'll be headed to Raleigh for a Nationwide Monday qualifier which is on May 28th.  With any luck I'll get in that event.  US Open sectionals begin on June 4th in Columbus at the Scarlet Course and Sciota.

That's what's coming up!


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

On to Sectionals!

After some near misses in the Nationwide qualifiers the last few weeks, I finally broke through and qualified for something, US Open Sectionals that is.  I plodded along most of the day before getting hot on the back 9 at Quicksilver GC.  I birdied 5 of my last 7 holes to finish with a 5-under par 67 and medalist honors by two shots.  70 wound up in a 3 for 1 playoff.  It was an odd start to the day though to say the least…

We started in the pouring rain and after hitting the first green, I was faced with a putt through lots of casual water.  I was very fortunate to two putt and had an 8-footer for birdie on two when they blew the siren.  In a decision that goes down as one of the most puzzling in the history of golf, the West Penn decided to wipe out all 90 minutes of play and start ALL the rounds over, as opposed to just restarting where we left off.  No worries though, just needed to refocus and get ready for the new round.  I got off to a nice start with a made 15-footer on 2. Bogied 6, the par 3, and birdied nine.  I would go on to birdie 12, bogey 13 to drop back to 1-under par.  I would go on to birdie 14, 15, 16, and 17 to finish off the round.  I hit it great, but hit a couple mediocre chips and missed four putts inside 6 feet.  So it could have been even better, but it showed that it wouldn't hurt to spend some added time on the short game this week.  All in all, a very positive performance and I'm headed back to Columbus for my third try at US Open Sectionals.  The last time I was at the Olympic Club, this year's Open site, was for the US Junior Amateur.  Joe Zinsky was on my bag when I qualified for the Junior Am back then, and he was on the bag again yesterday.  He'll be looping in Columbus as well, hopefully we can continue this successful run en route to a tournament at the Olympic Club.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

US Open Qualifier Today

Today is the US Open Local qualifier at Quicksilver GC, a course I have made an effort of becoming more familiar with this spring.  I've probably played 10 or 12 rounds out there already this year.  It's fairly wide open off the tee which is always good for a longer hitter like me, but the greens are where the course can get you.  You need to place your ball well and try to stay under the whole as much as possible.  The forecast today is looking like rain all morning, but possibly thunderstorms, which could mean a delay.  I tee off at 8:49 off the 1st tee.  My dad and I played out there yesterday and I fired a bogey free 65 and feel really good about things.  The goal is to play the course and execute like I did yesterday.  Today is a new day though, and I'm going to play as good as I can.  I've made it through Local qualifying twice already in past years, now I'm going to go make it number 3!  I might be able to tweet during any rain delays, so be sure to follow me  @MVS_Golf

Stay dry today!