Up and Downs - My Life as a Professional Golfer

The Home Stretch

2010-02-19T18:06:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!

Wow, it's been a long time since I last wrote a blog! We have been in a little bit of a break with the tour recently, but we have hit the home stretch. There is only one more event left on the schedule, which will take place this coming week. The event is at a course called Panther Trails, at the Woodlands Canongate Resort, and I am very familiar with it. It will be great to play an event on a course that I have played many times before.

Today I finished my seventh event of the winter, and again I have seen some positives in my play. While I shot 77-73, I am focusing on what was very positive over the course of the two days. This event was only a two day tournament, so instead of a cut after two days, only the top 30% of the field were paid. I finished four shots out of the money, but this was my first event where I was in contention to make some money. After struggling with getting a good score out of a mediocre day, I went into today with confidence that I could turn it around, shoot a good number, and finish in the prize money. I began the day extremely solidly, and was two under par through eight holes, and three over par for the tournament. It was expected that two over par would be in the prize money, so I knew I was close, providing I could keep my good play up.

It is a different feeling to play golf when you begin to allow a target score creep into your mind. I really felt good with my game, and my decision making was solid, but I let my mind wander to thoughts of holes ahead, or making birdies, and I let a good chance to shoot a good score slip away. I made three bogies over the last ten holes, and finished with a one over par 73, and six over par for the tournament. I take a lot of positives out of this though, as you need to put yourself into these types of situations, and into positions to make cuts and compete, to gain the experience to continue progressing. I was very happy with a number of things I saw in my game today, and I am hoping that these experiences and the feelings I felt today, will allow my to perform at the level I know I can, over the coming months.

After next week, I will be doing a little bit of travelling, and ultimately will make my way to San Diego, California, for Canadian Tour Qualifying School. The Canadian Tour has really grown into a wonderful tour, and I am really looking forward to the opportunity to playing out there this summer!

Take care everyone!
Stew

Grinding, Pain, and Swallowing Your Pride

2010-01-20T10:07:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

This week has been a strange one. On Saturday night, I began to notice some stiffness in my back. Thinking I had probably just slept on it wrong, I went to sleep expecting it to feel a little better on Sunday. Sunday was not any better. I spent the day stretching and resting, and avoided playing any golf, as I had my tournament to look out for. On Monday, with the aid of some back pain relief aspirin I bought at the grocery store, and a heat wrap, I was able to play my practice round without any real bother, and I was looking forward to this week's tournament.

Yesterday was a different story. As the round progressed, I had less and less confidence that I could swing through the golf ball, as I was worried about the pain in my back. While I grinded very well, I hit some pretty strange shots out there, and ended up shooting 77. It was a tough day, and I was fairly happy with how I kept working hard until the round was finished. There were some swings that I did not finish in fear of pain, but I was able to limit my mistakes fairly well. Aside from two double bogies on the front nine after two terrible drives, I played a fairly solid round of golf. I was also very happy that I found a way to get the golf ball into play off the tee, when I was not at my best. I saw a Chiropractor after the round, and while I had an adjustment, it did not make enough of a difference to really feel well.

Today, I only was able to play nine holes before having to withdraw from the tournament. I was in a lot of pain, and I knew that continuing to play only would increase the chance of hurting myself greater. While I wanted to finish, I knew that it was time to call it a tournament. This is the first time I have ever withdrawn from a tournament, and while it bothers me that I had to do it, I know it was the best decision. I have tried to play through pain before, and only ended up making the injury worse, and I did not want to do that again. I will take a little time off, identify what the problem is, and make sure that I give myself the best chance of not having it happen again!

It is upsetting because I was really feeling good about my game heading into this event. Even yesterday, playing through the pain I was in, I was quite happy in how I managed my game. I did learn that I do have a shot I can rely on to get the golf ball into play, as well. There have been many times that I was uncomfortable on the tee box, and I have found out a way to make sure I get the ball in play now. This will be very valuable in the future of my golf career!

I hope everyone is having a great day, and is in good health!!!

Stew

One Step Closer!

2010-01-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

Just got home from round two of the event, and I can happily report that the score was much better today. I finished with an even-par 72 on a tough day at Bentwater, which I was pleased with. I putted the ball beautifully, and the work that I did with Cory over the holidays really started to show.

I spent about an hour working on my speed after the round yesterday, and that made all the difference today. The putts that I was leaving short yesterday were finding their way to the bottom of the hole today. I did not strike the ball as solidly as yesterday, and it was quite windy out there. This meant that the putter needed to be working, and I had seven less putts than yesterday, which was great. I am very excited to continue to work on my game, and to keep working towards my goals.

This week's event is only a two-day event, so that means that there is no cut. The Tour also announced a new method of determining the cut line. The change to the rule now means that only the top thirty percent of the field makes the cut. In the past, no matter the field size, the top fifteen players made the cut, and if the top thirty percent was more than fifteen, the cut was increased. The fields have been small this year, so that means that if I want to get paid, I am going to have to keep playing good rounds! This Tour has been a wonderful experience for me so far, and I am looking forward to the upcoming events. There are five more events on the schedule, and I am looking at playing three to four more.

Thanks for reading everyone, hit it straight!
Stew

Shaking the Rust Off!

2010-01-14T14:23:00.001-08:00

Hello Everyone!

Over a month since the last entry, and there really hasn't been much going on. I had a great time home for Christmas, but with the snow and cold, it sure has been nice to be back! The weather has been a little spotty here in Texas, but as long as I can get out and play golf, I certainly cannot complain.

We have started our fifth tournament, and I struggled to a 77 today. It is very frustrating to continuously show potential and not see the results. I did not control the ball as well as I did at Cypresswood, in the last event, but I did not play as poorly as my score indicated. I felt good out there, but made some mental errors that I shouldn't have made. It took me about nine holes to really feel comfortable with my alignment, and pre-shot routine. These are things I should have spent a little more time working on while warming up today, and I do not think I will make tomorrow. I hit a poor tee shot off the 7th hole, which ended up out of bounds, that I feel was directly a result of poor alignment. Once I addressed these issues, I really felt good on the back nine, and hit the ball quite well. I am looking forward to tomorrow!

While I made a few errors that I could chalk up to being rusty, after a week of practice, that is not a very good excuse! My short game was not sharp. I did hit one fantastic bunker shot on the 3rd hole, and some pretty nice bump and run chips. That was very positive. I struggled specifically with my 58 degree wedge around the greens, and that just means I need to focus a little more on that club during practice! The game ultimately comes down to getting the ball in the hole, and today I just did not do that. I had 33 putts, and you cannot be competitive at this level doing that.

I spent a good amount of time working on my putting with my coach, Cory Kartusch, while back in Winnipeg. We changed my putting posture, and it has freed me up to stroke the putts better, and see the line much better. I really stroked the ball well, but I was not hitting the putts with enough speed to go in the hole on the lines I chose. This is easy to fix, I just need to hit them a little firmer!!!

Tomorrow is round two, and I am looking forward to building on today's round. I am going to be a little harder on myself, as I expect more than what I am currently displaying. I am happy with my effort, and the work I am putting in, but it is time to start seeing better scores! We have a great schedule of tournaments coming up over the next couple months, and I cannot wait to play them!

All the best!
Stew

Getting Closer

2009-12-08T16:40:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

This is sort of a combination blog, as I didn't write anything after my third event finished, and I just finished my fourth.

Progress! It was great to see some good signs at the last two events. Even though I missed both cuts, I am getting much closer. At Kingwood, I finally drove the ball very well in a tournament. I was hitting my driver with conviction and making very confident swings, which is a must at this level. I also felt I controlled the ball well with my irons, in fairly tough, windy, cold, conditions. I didn't score well, as my short game and my putting were very poor, but the ball-striking side of things made me very happy heading into our fourth event at Cypresswood GC.

It was a strange order of events leading up to the last few days. Adam Speirs and I had played a few practice rounds at the Tradition course, where our event was, and the greens were in extremely bad shape. The Tradition course is absolutely wonderful, but the greens were in close to the worst condition I have ever seen for a tournament.

On Sunday, the day before the event, we were phoned, and told that the Adams Tour had changed the venue from the Tradition course to the Cypress course at Cypresswood. Adam and I raced over to the course to play a practice round, as neither of us had seen the Cypress course before. It was a neat little track, and it was good to get the practice round in. It was a little surprising to have the venue changed so soon before the event started, but we were able to get a practice round in, which made everything ok.

I really hit the ball well the past few days during the event at Cypresswood. I would actually consider the two rounds of golf some of my finest ball-striking I've ever had in a tournament. I was never in trouble off the tee, and I hit a lot of shots very close to the hole. I shot 73-72, one over par, and even though I missed the cut, I am very happy with the progress. My putting really let me down, as I missed a very large number of putts inside ten feet, but I really felt like I belonged out there over the past few days. I need to get back into a good solid routine of practice, as I have been spending a lot more time playing lately. I had been working very hard on my short game when I first arrived in Texas, and I felt very good about it over the first few events, while my ball striking struggled. Now that my ball striking is at a good level, I need to make sure I am giving the short game the time it deserves! I am still learning a lot about how to manage my practice and playing time, and how to find the best routine for myself, but I really feel like I am on the right track.

I will be down here for another week and a half, before heading back to Winnipeg for the holidays. It will be great to see all my friends and family back up North, even if I wont be playing golf for a little while! The Adams Tour starts up again the second week of January, so I'll arrive back down here a week or so before, and get everything back in shape to give the second leg a good run!

I know I finish my blogs like this all the time, but I really appreciate the support and well-wishes I am receiving from all of you! It is great to see my E-Mail inbox filled with messages from everyone, and I can't thank you all enough!

Stew

Back to Business!

2009-12-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

Hello!

It's been a good while since I've written anything, but we had a small break in the schedule with the Thanksgiving holiday. I had an absolutely wonderful time in Norman, Oklahoma with my friends JR and Erin, and their families, and I can't thank them enough for being such great hosts! It was a week of great fun, great golf, great weather, great friends, and just an overall great time! We even were joined by our friends Fergal and Lindsey for the weekend, and got to witness the Oklahoma Sooners beat up on the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the big Thanksgiving weekend college football game. It was an absolutely incredible week, and even though it was tough to leave, it is great to back in the Woodlands.

We start another tournament tomorrow morning on the Forest Course at Kingwood Golf Club. It is a great golf course, although it will be a little wet, as we have had a good amount of rain the last few days, and it is pouring right now! It is always tough to be patient when the course is very wet, as you will get mud on your golf ball, bad lies, have to deal with casual water, and usually just a number of frustrations that you don't normally experience. Hopefully we will be playing lift, clean and place, through the green, but if we don't, you have to accept the bad breaks, benefit from the good breaks, and just keep grinding until the last putt is holed on 18. My dad has always taught me to be prepared for anything, so I most definitely will be more ready than just about anyone else, for any type of weather or course conditions!

This week has been really fun for me because Adam Speirs is down here playing the next two tournaments as well. Adam has always been a very good friend and someone I have looked up to, and it's been a blast playing and practicing with him the past few days. Adam has accomplished quite a lot in his golfing career thus far, and I am trying as hard as I can to pick up a few pointers and tips along the way!

I have partially solved my driver dilemma, as Adam brought a driver head down for me to use while mine is being replaced. My good friends at the Caddy Shed graciously lent me one that I can play until I have received my replacement from Taylor Made, and I can't thank them enough. I heard there was a big sale down at the Shed, so go find all your Christmas presents for all your friends there, and tell them Stewart sent you!!!

Well, it's bedtime for me, and I'm really excited about getting this tournament underway tomorrow.

Wish me luck!
Stew

Dented Drivers, New Commitments and The Future

2009-11-16T08:53:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

It's a little bit of a crummy day here in the Woodlands today, so I've been taking it easy this morning. Had my first little sleep in for quite some time, and just got back from my morning workout at the gym. The last week has been a good week, and I've been regaining my confidence on the golf course, and starting to feel a lot more comfortable again.

Unfortunately, in the middle of last week, I noticed a strange almost dent on the toe of my driver. I was cleaning the face off, and as my thumb brushed over the toe side grooves, the face felt flat. Drivers have what is called bulge and roll on the face, and there is curvature to the entire driver, from heel to toe, and top to bottom. For some reason, the toe side of my driver is almost flat. I had a few people take a look at it, and the general consensus is that the driver face has caved in. This happens with drivers, and is usually a product of hitting too many old range balls. Range balls are often solid, and they do not react exactly like a real golf ball. They are much harder in most cases, and as they get older, get put through cleaning machines, and just get more worn out, they tend to get very hard. With as thin as a driver face is, it doesn't take much if you hit the wrong ball in the wrong spot on the face, and you can run into a problem. It is funny, my friend Scott Staub almost slapped me when I said I was only bringing one driver head down here with me, and I guess he was right! This happens a lot with drivers (by my count, this is the eighth or ninth driver I've caved in since I was 13), and the driver is being replaced, very courteously, by Taylor Made.

We have a tournament on the schedule this week, at Lake Windcrest Golf Club, but I am not playing because of not having a driver. This could turn out to be a good thing, though, because I now have a two week break before our next event. Thanksgiving weekend is next week, so there is no event scheduled. This gives me a bunch of time to work hard on my game, and get myself ready for our next tournament at Kingwood Country Club, the first week of December. I am going up to Norman, Oklahoma to spend Thanksgiving with my good friend J.R. and his family, and we'll have some good days of playing and practicing before and after!

I have made a very strong commitment lately to getting into a lot better shape. I have never been in bad shape, but I have never really worked hard to get into very good shape, especially on the aerobic side of things. The last week I have been waking up early every morning, and heading to the gym for around an hour of cardio work. This is very new to me, as I've always hated doing cardio, but I know it will pay off! I feel much better when I am at the course in the afternoon, I have much more energy, and I know the work I'm doing in the gym will only benefit me on the course. Once I get home from the golf course in the evenings, I also head back to the gym for my strength training workouts. I can't imagine there are many people who know me that would ever believe I'm doing two-a-days! The cardio and the strength training is something that I know will really help me reach my goals, and something I really need to do!

Things have been really good lately, and I am really looking forward to the last three events of the season. I have been spending a lot of time on the golf course working on my confidence, and it is starting to come back to the points it has been. I am working very hard on my putting, and I see it starting to pay off. I am confident that in a few weeks, when we tee it up at Kingwood, I will be ready to put my best effort forward, and continue my progress in my professional tournament play.

Take care everyone!
Stew

The Lessons Learned From a Struggle

2009-11-10T14:47:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

It was another tough week for me on the Adams Pro Golf Tour Winter Series. April Sound beat me up pretty good, and I wound up missing the cut after shooting scores of 78-82. I am pretty frustrated right now, but these past two weeks are showing me that I still have a long way to go before I reach where I want to be. It would be very easy to get down on myself, and start to question whether or not I am making the right choices being out here, but I am not going to allow that to happen. I am viewing every round, every day, every experience, as a very important lesson, and thus far I have learned a lot about my golf game, and about myself, that I did not know before.

I made errors today on the golf course that I do not normally make. On at least three occasions that I can think of, I let myself get out of my normal routine, and it wound up costing me shots. Whether they were slight slip-ups mentally, or lack of focus, they were inexcusable. Two of the mistakes were on the green, with putts I wound up missing, and the third was off the tee, where I got overly aggressive, stepped away from my game plan, and wound up hitting a ball out of bounds. The tee shot mistake led to a quadruple bogey 9 on the 17th hole, which is next to impossible to recover from. These types of things cannot happen, and the reason that we create our routines or our game plans is to follow them! We all make mistakes, and we will always make them, but little ones like I made today need to be eliminated in order to help me perform my best.

Golf is a cruel game, but at the same point, it is the most rewarding game in sports. You are out there by yourself. There are no teammates, no opponents affecting you, and nobody responsible for the outcome except yourself. Everything that happens on a golf course is entirely what you make of it. Golf can fill you with excitement and great feelings, or it can beat you up and leave you broken. It is incredible when you think about it.

So where do we go from here? Thus far, I have not played near the level I expect, nor the level I am capable of. I am enjoying every second of my new life, but it is clear that I need to work harder, and smarter, both on and off the course. That means a better use of my time while I am practicing at Augusta Pines. My practice sessions have to begin to include some technical work, as well as simulation of tournament-like situations. The more I can make my practice mimic a tournament, the more comfortable I will be in tournaments. I also need to make better use of my time when I am at home. My fitness needs to improve, and the frequency and quality of my gym workouts needs to improve. The better shape I can get myself into, the better I will feel on the golf course.

There is a long, hard road ahead, and even after some struggles, I still could not be happier about doing what I am doing. I wake up every morning, and I am chasing the dream I have had since I was very young. Nobody ever said it would be easy, and the most exciting thing is that the work I am putting in today will make me better tomorrow.

Take care everyone!
Stew

Event #2!

2009-11-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

Hello!

After a little bit of deliberation, I have decided that I am going to play in the second event on the Adams Winter Series. I was not sure if I was ready, but after talking with some friends and family, I have realized that I am not going to get the experience I need anywhere but playing tournaments! My golf game is progressing nicely, and the most important work that needs to be done is with how I approach tournament golf. I was not myself last week at the beginning of the week at Cypress Lakes, but as the tournament went on, I began to feel more comfortable. I know that this will continue to happen as I play more tournaments!

I had a good week after the tournament. I was able to get some good work done on the range, and had a good time off the course as well. I even went to my first Houston Rockets NBA game with some friends on Friday night. I spent a little time in Huntsville, where I went to college, as some good friends from Oklahoma were in town, and all of us got to hang out. It is most definitely important to keep busy when I'm not golfing, as it can get pretty lonely sitting in my apartment all by myself! I'm pretty lucky to have such great friends just up the road.

We played a practice round at April Sound Country Club today, which is where the tournament is this week. I felt a lot more comfortable out there, and the quality of my golf was much improved. I hit the ball much better, and on a tight course like April Sound, you need to do that! It is a very tricky golf course, and ball striking will certainly be a premium this week. I was very happy with how I struck the ball today, and I am feeling good going into tomorrow's first round. The old cliche of taking everything one shot at a time is certainly very true at this point. I still have a long way to go to reach my goals, but I am very happy with the progress so far. Every tournament round is a new lesson for me, and I am really excited to get out there!

I hope everyone is having a great time wherever they are, and I really appreciate all of the e-mails and well-wishes I have received thus far. Keep in touch, and hit it straight!

Stew

The First Event

2009-11-05T12:08:00.000-08:00

Well, I just finished my first tournament as a professional, and it was certainly a week of many positives and negatives for me. It was very exciting to begin this new phase in my golfing career, and there is a long, uphill battle to fight as I move ahead!

I shot 78-75, and missed the cut by quite a few shots. The field is cut to the top 30% of players after the second round, so you have to be inside of the top 20 in order to make it through to play the final round, and to make money. It was a tough two days, but it was most definitely an eye-opener to what I need to work on, and what needs to improve greatly as I progress.

I did not drive the golf ball well at all over the two days. I was very nervous, and I let this get to me when I was on the tee boxes. I have always been a big believer that the driver is the most important club in the bag, as it sets your entire hole up, and I struggled all week. I was not putting committed swings on the ball, and as a result, was hitting the golf ball into a lot of places that you cannot score well from. This is something that I most definitely need to work on, and I need to gain the confidence to make good, committed swings off the tee. There were a lot of holes at Cypress Lakes that you could make birdies on, assuming you hit good tee shots, and I let those opportunities slip by due to my inconsistency off the tee box.

I also struggled a little on the greens, missing some putts that I should have made. I found myself getting a little timid, and not finishing my putting stroke, which resulted in leaving a lot of make-able putts short. I only three-putted one time, which was decent on the fast greens we were playing, but I missed a lot of make-able putts that could have helped my scores. I have been working hard on my speed control, and striking my putts solid, and I know this will continue to improve. I was very happy with my distance control with lag putts, but the short ones need to be hit with more authority and a little better speed.

I am very happy with how my attitude was over the past few days, even though I was very nervous, and struggling with my game. It could have been very easy for me to get down on myself, get frustrated, and throw in the towel, but I grinded from the second I put the tee in the ground on the first hole until I putted out on the eighteenth, both days. I am very happy that even though I got off to poor starts both days, I was able to grind it in without giving a lot of shots away the first day, and improve my score over the last 13 holes today. With a better start, I know I could have posted some good numbers, but even though I struggled, I am happy to know that my mental attitude was positive, and I did not give up.

As I look ahead, I am not sure if I will play in the next event on the Winter Series, which begins on Monday of this coming week. I want to be ready to play, and I want to be ready to compete, and I think it might be better to spend this week working on the things I need to work on, before I hit the final stretch of four events before the Christmas break. I have not decided one way or the other, but I have until Saturday night to make a decision on whether I enter or not. No matter what happens, I know that I am moving in the right direction, and I will only get more comfortable playing professional golf. I need to begin trusting myself more that I do belong out here, and that I do have the ability to play with these guys!

Take care everyone!
Stew

The Night Before!

2009-11-03T17:53:00.000-08:00

Hi guys!

Tomorrow is the day everything gets going! At 10:00am, I begin my professional golf career in my first event. We are playing at Cypress Lakes Golf Club, in Cypress, Texas, which is a great course. I have played a tournament there many years ago, when I played on the Texas Junior Golf Tour. I wasn't too familiar with the course, but after a practice round this afternoon, I feel confident that I know enough about it to play well!

It is a very strange feeling to be beginning a new chapter in my life. Even though I have played golf all my life, and competitively since I was 13, I've never done this before. That is a pretty scary feeling! Once the tee goes into the ground on the first tee tomorrow, it's the same game, and the same feelings and emotions as normal, but everything leading up to the event has seemed very different to me. After so many years of practicing for this, and so many years of dreaming about this, it's finally here. To say I'm nervous would be an understatement. Hopefully it will all pass, but it is a strange feeling to be beginning something that shouldn't feel as different as it is!

No matter what happens tomorrow, it will be very exciting. I've thought about this, and dreamed about this, and prepared for this, and now it is finally time to start living it! I wake up in the mornings, and I'm finally doing the one thing I've wanted to do more than anything else with my life. It is all a learning experience, and no matter what happens, I know I will take a lot from it. I know I have the ability to play well, compete, and win out here. I also understand that there is a heck of a lot to learn about playing the game professionally. I am going to hit that shot off the first tee, find it, hit it again, and go from there!

Wish me luck!

Stew

Remembering How to Practice...

2009-10-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

It's been a week since I last wrote anything, so I figured I should give a little update on how things are going! It's been a tough week for practicing and playing, because we've had just tons of rain. We had a big storm on Monday, and then to make it worse, an even bigger storm on Thursday and into early Friday. I think I heard somewhere that we had over four inches of rain on Thursday. Obviously, there wasn't very much practicing going on!

I had a chance to play a bit, and I was fortunate enough to play one of the courses I will be playing in two weeks for my second event. The course was called April Sound Country Club, in Montgomery, TX, and it was good to see it early. I will play another practice round before the event, but it is a quirky little track, and it was very beneficial to get out there and learn some of the lines off the tees, and how the greens play! I played with a good friend of mine, Brandon Frankhouser, and the superintendent of April Sound, Justin Lonon, which was great. Both guys were a lot of fun, and knew the course very well, which helped me out a bunch!

It has been strange to be back in a situation where I have nothing but time to practice, play, and improve my golf game. The first few days I was here, I had a hard time practicing. I know that sounds funny, but it was difficult to remember how to spend six or eight hours of quality time working on my game, as opposed to just six or eight mindless hours on the range, short game area, or putting green. I could have gone to the driving range and just beat ball after ball for three or four hours, but I know that I would not have really benefited from that at all. It really took me a few days to get back into the "swing" (sorry for the bad pun) of things, and really make my practicing start to pay off in a positive way!

I have come to the realization that a lot of the practicing I have done in my life was not the most beneficial. I would hit lots of balls, video tape my swing a lot, constantly search for that "perfect" swing, whether it exists or not. Since I have been out here, I have focused more on practicing in an effort to improve my golf game. When I hit balls, I work much more on the flight of the ball, distance control, and making sure that the golf ball is starting on the correct line, more than I work on my swing itself. My tournaments start on Wednesday, so I don't think there will be any big swing changes made in the next five days! This has been a big change for me, because I think in the past, I have always spent more time trying to improve my golf swing.

In the past, I would go to the short game area, I might hit forty or fifty bunker shots, hit some pitches, some flop shots, some bump and runs, and then call it a day. That might take an hour or so, and I never felt like my short game improved. Sure, I would learn the odd new shot that might come in handy, but the fundamental short game shots that I always needed never seemed to get any better. Since I have been here, I have worked to focus more on how the ball is struck, and how and where it lands, as opposed to trying to make the shot, or chip it close to the pin I am targeting. Obviously I want to hit good shots, but while I am practicing, focusing on the things I can control is much more important. Every green will react differently, and you can never practice every shot you will need over your golf career, so I have found that spending more time focusing on the strike of the ball, and controlling where it lands, has benefited me far more than short game practice I have done in the past.

It has also been great to be able to spend a lot of time on the putting green. I have always felt that I am a good putter, but it seems that at the end of a round, I always feel like I missed a lot of very makeable putts. I am fortunate to be able to practice on a really great putting green at Augusta Pines, and while there is an extreme amount of slope on the green, this has given me a great opportunity to improve my speed control, as well as work on putts of all different breaks and lengths. I have a number of putting drills I do every day, some that work on my stroke, some that work on the strike of the ball, and some that work on my speed and distance control. I know that if I keep working on them, I won't just feel like a good putter, I will be a great putter!

I hope everyone is doing great wherever they are, as things are going great down here. Every morning I wake up I am realizing more and more how much I love being here, and that I made the right decision coming down here. My first tournament kicks off on Wednesday, at Cypress Lakes Golf Club, so this will be a very exciting week!

You can follow the scores once we start, as well as see information about the tour at the Adams Pro Golf Tour Winter Series website.
http://www.adamsgolfprotourseries.com/WinterSeries_%20Information.htm

Take care everyone!
Stew

The First Week!

2009-10-24T19:08:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone,

For those of you that know me, you're probably wondering why someone who had a scoring average of about 76, didn't break par in a tournament this year, and barely even played much golf this summer, would turn professional. And, quite honestly, that is a fair question. After finishing college in the spring of 2008, I had thought that highly competitive golf was coming to an end for me. I wasn't enjoying myself on the golf course nearly as much as I should, and I didn't have the motivation to practice like I needed to. I assumed that I was moving on to other things, and I put golf on the back burner. I had been playing non-stop golf for almost five years, and I think I burned myself out a little. One winter in Winnipeg changed all of that!

Winter could not have been more difficult for me. Not only was it FREEZING in Winnipeg, it was the first time in quite a while that the option of playing golf wasn't there. I had the golf dome, I had the hitting bay at Caddy Shed, where I worked, but it wasn't the same. I couldn't go play nine holes in the evening, and I couldn't just spend an afternoon beating balls on a driving range if the urge came. As the winter went on, I could feel that itch coming back. I had thought golf was going to take a step back in my life, but the winter proved to me that I wasn't ready for that. Once the spring hit, I was extremely excited to get back on the course.

Of course, Winnipeg's spring was awful! We were about a month behind in getting out to play, and the courses suffered from a very difficult winter. I was working a lot, both at Caddy Shed, and with Taylor Made/Adidas Golf, so I was busy, and didn't miss too many great days to play. I didn't even expect to want to play that much, so working two jobs was just fine with me! As the weather got nicer, and the courses got into better condition, I started to notice myself dying to be out on the course. No kidding, right? Who wouldn't want to leave work and play golf? This was very different for me though, because it was a complete 180 from the summer of 2008. Golf was fun again! Good shots were exciting, bad shots gave me a chance to hit a great one the next time. This is what it was all about! I couldn't wait to get to the golf course, and when I was there, I never wanted to leave.

As the summer went on, and even though I did not perform at the level I expected to, I knew that professional golf was still what I wanted to do. I started thinking about it more and more, and as the summer got closer to ending, I knew it was time to take the next step.

That leads me to right now, as I sit in my room in the Woodlands, Texas. I'm just down the road from where I went to college, in one of my favorite places in the world, and the dream has finally taken shape. I'm a professional golfer. I wake up in the morning, and I go to work at the beautiful Augusta Pines Golf Club. When I leave the course, I head to the gym, where I work to get myself into better shape. When I am done at the gym, it's back to my place, where I plan out how I'm going to get better tomorrow.

This is the life...I hope you guys are along for the ride!

Hit it straight!
Stew