Sorry for the Delay

I've been having some trouble with this website as of late, getting alot of Service Unavailable alerts, but I seem to have gotten it fixed. I'm a little behind, but about two weeks ago I played in the Sts. John and Paul golf outing. That's the church I go to. We played out at Cranberry Highlands. The highlight of the day might have been when Father Mac, who I was playing with, poured in a 20-footer for birdie and out of sure excitement jumped as high as he could in celebration. It was legendary. We shot 57, but that was no good. It came in fourth or fifth, but we had a blast out there. I rode with Dr. Manley during the round, and we had a lot of fun talking about Pine-Richland, golf, and Neil Walker's success on the Pirates.

I was home for about a week after that and just finished up an eGolf event last week in Kannapolis, NC. I'm continuing to make progress with the swing. I shot a 64 out at Treesdale when I was home, and shot a pair of even-par 72's, which failed to make the cut. So I'm feeling better about the game, and it's coming around at the right time.

Again I hit the road and headed to the coast where I'm now gearing up for another eGolf event at St. James Plantation. The tournament starts Wednesday and we're playing a tough course. It's going to come down to driving the ball in play, which I didn't do well the last time I played here in March. But it's a new day and I'm definitely playing better. Q-School is around the corner, and I couldn't ask for it to come at a better time.

I'm stopping at Reynolds Plantation to check out my swing and some equipment at the TaylorMade Kingdom on October 8th. I haven't been there yet, and it should be a fun experience. They have my swing saved on their MAT system, from when I was at the Kingdom in Carlsbad, CA, and it's from before the US Am last year when I was really striking the ball well, so it will be good to compare my swing then to now and see if anything sticks out.

Sewickley Today

Played well today over at Sewickley in severely blustering winds. Shot an even par 72, which is more like a 68 out there for me, considering I never score very well out there. The greens are so difficult and fast that I don't ever make many putts on their greens. Course is in awesome shape though. I'm really hitting it well... FINALLY! And I'm stroking it well too. I officially received my Q-School assignment and will be playing First Stage at the Club at Irish Creek near Charlotte. I played an eGolf event there and the course suits my game well. Looking forward to a few more days of practice to get what I'm working on turned into habit.

Good day of practice

I've spent the last couple days getting some really good practice in. I had a really good lesson today with Joe B at Treesdale and really feel confident in what we had me working on. I was hitting it absolutely tremendously and am looking forward to continuing to work on what we had me doing. For those who can try to visualize this, we had me working to feel like my thumbs were underneath the club at the top of the swing, in essence trying to get the face to open and square a little more. It gets me in a much stronger and confident position at the top where I can then attack the ball from. I'm rolling it great on the greens, and I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks to see just how good I'm about to start playing. My next tournament is an eGolf event in a little less than 2 weeks.

Shout out to the Pine-Richland golf team who have gotten off to a solid 5-0 start after a most recent victory out at Treesdale over section rival Butler. They've got a solid team and Coach Torso is poised to lead them to another section title. Go Rams!

Mylan Classic Monday Qualifier

I played in the Mylan Classic Monday qualifier yesterday out at Green Oaks, but to no avail. I had a good start and was 3 under through 6 holes, but made a pair of poor swings on back to back par 3's and made bogies. A scandalous pin position on 18 lead to a double bogey. I finished on the front nine and made 8 pars and a birdie for an even par 70. Interestingly enough, that finished 14th, which is also the number of spots normally available at Nationwide qualifiers. However, since the FedEx Cup is beginning, they took ten spots away from the qualifier and gave it to PGA players not participating this week. I did play better and the game is coming along nicely. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch the break I needed. It's also starting to become apparent that I won't be getting any exemptions anytime soon. If I'm not going to get an exemption when the Nationwide Tour comes into Pittsburgh, I'm not going to get one anywhere. Just more motivation to get the game in shape and play well at Q-School this fall.

My friend Peter Malnati had a nice week last week, Monday qualifying in Knoxville, and then finishing top-25, which got him into the Mylan. I'm taking him out to Treesdale tomorrow while the Pro-Am is going on.

West Penn Open

I may have withdrawn from the West Penn Open, but I still found myself at St Clair CC today. I picked up caddy duties today for papa GVS. I was actually scheduled to be in the group behind him. Instead I carried his bag, wrist brace and all, and helped him out as much as I could. Had a pretty good day reading greens and we made a few, but his ball striking wasn't quite there today. He fought hard though and managed his game well, firing a 3 over par 75. The course wasn't easy, and he managed to tie Rachel Rohanna, who was playing with the men today. Saw her on the range and she can really stripe it.

Highlight of the day came on our 14th hole. We were on the tee of the par 3 and I said, "Alright, time for a good swing. Let's stuff this one." My dad proceeded to hit an 8-iron to Stonesville, maybe a foot, for a deuce and his lone tweeter of the day. We played with a real nice gentlemen who was a member at the club, and a college player from RMU named Donny. On the 18th, he asked me, "Didn't you go to Pine-Richland..." and after nodding he responded by saying, "I went to NA." I dropped the bag and with a stern look, jokingly said, "Those are fighting words!" Laughs were had by all, and obviously I mentioned my game winning basketball shot my junior year against them... as if he expected me not to.

It's really too bad I decided to sit this one out too, because the course really set up well for me. The fairway bunkers were all 280 or less to cover, so I would've had no probs carrying all of them with driver. Plus fast greens are always up my alley. Yet, I had a fun day with my dad, and my wrist is one day closer to being 100% again.

PA and WPGA Opens

Some poor driving led to some precarious spots out at Applebrook for the State Open. Granted it would have been hard to catch Rohanna even if I had hit it well, but I fired a 74-73 and missed the cut. Unfortunately the spots I hit it were mostly covered in foot high fescue grass. A few too many hacks out of there and my wrist wasn't feeling too good, but I didn't think too much of it. After a couple days of practice back home my wrist got a little worse. I saw the doctor today and he has me taking some time off until next Wednesday, which means I've had to withdraw from the West Penn Open. But getting ready for Q-School is what's important and I can't afford to not be 100%

Philly Cricket Club

Found my new favorite vacation spot! Wow is Nantucket a really cool place... even if Verizon doesn't know it exists... I took a few days off and energized the batteries. The Fenway game was awesome, and we saw Ortiz bring the BoSox back with a Grand Slam in the bottom 9, but it was just not quite enough. Went to the Cape for a day and then rode the ferry over to Nantucket where I had a pair of beach days and played a cool little public course on the island. What's amazing is when it gets dark out there. I've never seen that many stars before! You could actually see the "milk" of the Milky Way and we were even able to see satellites quickly moving through the night sky. It was an amazing four days. Now it's back to golf!

I've spent the last two days playing and practicing at the Philadelphia Cricket Club and Sunnybrook GC. A really great guy, Steve Harrington, is a member at both and graciously had me out to play with him. The facilities at the Cricket Club are awesome and I've gotten some great practice in. I've got a practice round scheduled at Applebrook on Sunday with Joe Boros and tee off in the morning on Monday. It's always great to get Joe B's insight and it will be tremendously helpful.

RI Open and Upcoming

Well I made a cut at least. This week's Rhode Island Open was filled with positives and triple the negatives. Three triple bogies that is. Rounds of 75-74-75 netted me a 34th place finish. The ball striking was a little off until my last 9 holes of the tournament, and I had some difficulty reading the greens. The course itself, Quidnessette CC in North Kingstown, RI is actually a tremendous course that sits right near the ocean. A good course for my game if I just could have executed better.

I'm in Hanover, MA now, visiting my former roommate from Marquette, Brendan Lowd. He got us tickets to a Red Sox game and it'll be my first trip to Fenway. I'm always down for rooting against the Tigers... so we'll have fun. Sunday I'm headed up to Nantucket to see another one of my college friends, Tony Watt. Tony lives in Wisconsin right in Bristlecone Pines, site of this year's Wisconsin State Open. He was really excited about caddying for me in the tournament... until the Wisconsin PGA told me that my requests for a special exemption had been declined and I would not be playing in their tournament. Which was too bad, because I really wanted to get back to Wisconsin. No matter though, as now I will be playing in the West Penn Open which is being played at the same time, and I'll be able to sleep in my own bed for that one.

Next on the schedule is the Pennsylvania Open August 9-11 at Applebrook CC just west of Philly. I'll be going for a third State Open title.

Weekend in Connecticut

I had quite the trip down memory lane this last weekend, as I returned to Milford, CT where I lived for 9 years growing up. The Ratzenberger family was kind enough to have me for the weekend. I grew up playing baseball, basketball, soccer and basically any sport every created with their son Bobby. We dominated. It was great to see them again, although it was a scary sight to see his younger brother Danny, now 21, all grown up... it made me feel so old.

It was my first time back there in basically 12 years, and the most amazing thing is how my perspective has changed. What used to seem like a long drive, is actually about 5 minutes. The cul da sac I grew up in, which used to look enormous, and hosted numerous wiffle ball and kickball games growing up, looked underwhelming. And the backyard of our old house, didn't look nearly as sprawling as it used to... granted some family put up a fence and added a garden...lame.

Yale GC was no different. The nice people working there gave me the wave to practice and play, and I must say that it seemed much shorter than it used to. My dad used to tee me up at the 150 yd marker and have me play in from there. Now I was hitting pitching wedge into number 4, the par-5, and 8-iron into the ninth hole, a 200-yd downhill par 3, which I recalled my father hitting 2-iron into when we used to play there. I made a deuce.

The next day one of our friends, Guy Yocum, had me out to my other old home-course, Racebrook. It was in really nice shape, and although I didn't drive it so well, I still managed to shoot one-under, shattering my previous low of 88 out there. It was amazing how many of the holes I still remembered.

That evening I met up with another one of my childhood friends, Ryan Cole, who was on a bowling team with me when we were 10 and 11. The two of us and Bobby went bowling at the 60-lane bowling alley in Milford. Maybe it was the vibes of being back there, but I bowled the best I had since I was 11, putting up 191 and 180 in our first two games. I had broken 200 a couple times when I was 11 though. Ryan bowled a 222 in our 3rd game... where was that when we were in that league??? I had a great time back there, and maybe even picked up some karma. Cathy Ratzenberger, Bobby's mom, came to watch me at my first two collegiate victories at Wexford Plantation and Lake Jovita. Maybe that's all I needed to get back on the winning streak again! Regardless, it really felt great to be back and I'll need to stop there again more frequently than once every 12 years.

I'm in Rhode Island now for the Rhode Island Open and played a practice round today. Hit it great and stroked it even better. One more day of practice and then 18 holes on Wednesday. Then there's a cut and 36 holes on Thursday. Cant wait!

Even Par? No good.

I've been shooting even par a bit lately, and that's just no good. First it was Cincinnati for the Nationwide Monday qualifier. The course there really isn't all that difficult, and I was 3 under through ten with some easier holes coming up. Unfortunately I was about done hitting good shots for the day and struggled my way into an even par 72. Then this last week I played the eGolf event in Kannapolis, NC, where I shot a pair of even par 71's and missed the cut by 3. I brutalized the easy holes the first day, bogeying two easy par 5's and a drivable par 4. I fought back the second day after a tough start and on the much more difficult course of the two, but ultimately didn't get enough putts to drop. So a pair of 71's wound up not being good enough.

I am in Greenwood, SC for a couple days with a wonderful family who put me up for the eGolf event that was here about a month ago. Peter Malnati is down here with me as well and we had a nice early start to this morning and played a tennis match at 7am. Finally some good news, as he was dismantled in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4 by my impregnable forehand and cat-like reflexes. Just got back from a solid 2 hour short game session as well. I'm headed to Greensboro on Monday for two practice rounds for an eGolf event, which begins on Wednesday.