Texas Hill Country Classic: Day 1

Today went pretty well! I got off to a great start with a birdie. We played through a mist the entire front 9 which was refreshing...sort of. It stopped after about 12 holes, then the sun came out and the steam room started! It was humid. My back 9 went really well. I played so solid until our 16th hole where I nuked a pitching wedge over the green into the hazard. I had to drop with the grain going away from me, about a 30 yard pitch from the back of the green. All I could see was the flagstick and I put it to 1'! I tapped it in and continued on my way. I had so many looks at birdie on the back 9 which is a way you make more birdies! I bogeyed my 17th hole; had some sand trouble but then came back strong with a birdie [tap in :)] on #18! Great way to end a really solid day.

Can't wait to get back out there tomorrow. I tee off at 12:40 off #10. This golf course is so solid.

Texas Was Cold...Today

Playing tomorrow at 8:50am off #10 with the one and only Julie Wells! What are the odds that I am playing with like one of my five friends [ha]. It was SO cold [70*] today. Randomly cold. The humidity is supposed to be back up tomorrow with highs in the 90s again. Looking forward to a great day in the office. Still getting used to some things out here but it is comforting to be on a great golf course and playing with friends. Nothing is better really!!

On a side note, the Kentucky Derby is on Saturday and I am a fan! I have always been kind of a race horse fan, but I really got hooked last year after Rachel Alexandra went on a tear with the boys [colts]. Rachel Alexandra is a stud and I now have a picture of her in my yardage book. (We share the same first and middle name if you didn't catch that... ;-) )

Texas Hill Country Classic: San Antonio, TX

So far, my impression of San Antonio has been verrry positive! I am staying with a great host family with a friend Jasi Archarya. We are only about three minutes away from the course. We are playing this week at The Dominion Country Club just west of San Antonio. It was home to a Senior PGA event for a number of years. The course is in amazing shape. The front nine reminds me of Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis where I played in the US Amateur. Very old, mature trees, fast greens, well-placed bunkers and very green! The greens today were running at a 12. If you were above the hole, down grain, forget about getting it anywhere close. You had to barely touch it and it would take off rollin'! The area we are in is pretty hilly [shocking for TX, I know]. I went for a run this morning around the neighborhood and my quads burned the rest of the day becuase all I was running up and down were hills! Registration was today so I practiced in the morning then headed out for 18 with Jasi in the afternoon. There was very little wind and the temperature was fantastic. There was very little humidity becuase my yardage that I play in CO was the same down here. That rarely happens.

Tonight we had the 'Meet the Pro' party at the golf course. It was formal so we had to get all dressed up which isn't what you want to do after spending all day on the course but it was a lot of fun to try and guess people's names in formal attire. We usually only see each other in golf clothes. So it made for a fun evening. They put on a great party here in TX. We had live music, a dance floor, great food. It was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow will be the same kind of day. Going to workout in the morning, then head out to the course about 10:30 after the pro-am tees off. Practice all day then get in 9 tomorrow evening with Julie. I am ecstatic to be here this week and really looking forward to playing.

Aint nothin' like a little competition!

San Antonio, Texas

-Population: 1.3 million

-Elevation: 650ft.

-2nd largest city in Texas and 7th in the US

-Named for the Portuguese St. Anthony

-Home to Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, Randolph Air Force Base, and Brooks-City Base, with Camp Bullis [I am staying just west of it] and Camp Stanley outside the city.

-Home to Lara Flynn Boyle, Carol Burnett, TOMMY LEE JONES [I love him], Eva Longoria, David Robinson [who is a member at the course we are playing this week] as well as other Spurs players. Manu Ginobili and Greg Popovich live in the neighborhood as well as George Strait.

Featured In Golfweek's Fashion Blog

Here is the link to a story about Sandbaggers featured in Golfweek's fashion blog by Ashleigh Korzack.

Pretty cool!!

Galloping Armadillos?! Yeah....Galloping Armadillos

Besides missing the cut this week in Brownsville, my week has been pretty eventful. I met a lot of new people, learned a thing or two about my golf game and travel abilities. I drove down from Ft. Worth on Monday and met my house mom for the week, Kathy. She is an avid tennis player and was heading out for a match with her friend when I got there. I hung out and watched some tv and got settled then headed to bed.

Tuesday, I woke up and headed to registration. I registered early then out for some practice. We usually have a 'player area' where we register, have water, and there is even a chiropractor that you can see during the week. They have fruit and internet access up there so it's a common area for everyone. It's really cool that is available. I saw my friend Julie Wells from the Hawaii Big Break and we headed out to play 9. The course is really straight forward like I had said before. Well today, I made up a new name for the crispy, dried out greens/surrounding fringe -- Texas Toast. Ha. I thought it was brilliant. Anyway, later that night we had the 'Meet the Pro' party at a local restaurant. All the players are invited and there is usually food and drinks and some sort of entertainment. On Wednesday we had a shotgun practice round in the AM. I played with two girls that played for Florida Southern where the Hodgkinson sisters attend! So they knew them and that was fun! I practiced in the afternoon for a little while then got dinner and went home.

It was so warm this week. Very humid and steamy but we are in a desert, very arid climate. Doesn't make much sense to me, but that's okay. Brownsville seems like a nice city. I am a fan.

Thursday, I practiced in the morning then played 9 holes with Sydney Cox, a Oklahoma City University grad and NAIA National Champion! We had played together my 2nd round at Qschool in November so it was fun to get to know her a little better. It was a bit more windy out so it was nice to see the course when the winds from the south east kick up. Their wind patterns are pretty reliable. They come from Mexico.

The day of the first round was pretty relaxed. I had a 1:30pm tee time so I set my alarm for 8am. I had no trouble waking up then so I read the paper and did some things around the house for awhile. Before I play, I try to get a good warm up workout in. I do some stretching and a little cardio. Just to get the blood moving. I feel better when I get to the course and warming up on the driving range doesn't take as long. I played with Kim Augusta and Angela Oh. I played decent on my first 9, coming in at even par. My back nine got a little ridiculous. I had some trouble with yardages. Seemed like I never had the right club in my hand on my approach. The greens are very small so if you missed the green sometimes you had a tricky chip. Overall, mentally I was great despite the numbers. Kathy took me to Carino's for dinner the night before so after a long day on the course [I got home at 7pm] it was nice to just reheat my leftovers!

The second day round came quickly. I teed off at 8am, first group off #1. I played with Kirby Dreher and Carolina Llano. They were friendly but we were all business on the course. We had a crazy lady for a cart driver. She tried driving away as we got things out of our coolers and such. On #11 she tried to run me over. Ha. She had me a bit worried that she could really operate a moving vehicle. It's things like this that I think about between shots that make me laugh. Haha. On #4, I was lining up my putt and all of a sudden I hear Peggy say, "watch out! Here he comes!" Having no idea what in the world she was talking about, I looked up to see a galloping armadillo. Yes. Galloping. His shell was hitting the green with every step and it sounded like a faint horse's gallop. It was hysterical. Scared the @#$* out of me but we all had a good laugh then got back to business. Besides that the final round was VERY uneventful. I turned at +3, knowing I had to get something going on the back. Turns out, it backfired, which sometimes happen, but it can also go the other way and you can make a lot of birdies. Just accepting it wasn't my week and moving on is the key. On #18, I hit it left on my approach behind the stands. I got to take relief, immovable obstruction [YES!]. I took relief on the right side of the bleachers so that a palm tree was in the line of my shot to the pin. I had about 20yards [yeah, great shot Rach haha] but it was pin high. No big deal. I had to flop it over the tree, from a downhill lie in front of some fans. Well I kept the same attitude I did all of the back nine, go for it. The shot came off perfectly, bounced twice and rolled out to about 12feet. I putted last, and rolled it right in. I was rather proud that my day ended with SOMETHING positive. It was nice to end with some applause.

Kathy took me to South Padre Island [aka SPRING-BREAK-WOO!-destination] and we had some fried oysters at Pier 19. It was right on the bay so we could watch the boats and the fisherman. South Padre is essentially a sand bar so there were guys fishing 100 yards from shore in not even waist high water. Kinda weird. The island is very narrow. It only had two streets north to south but it is very long. We headed home at the perfect time. We had front row tickets to a beautiful sunset over the bay.

If you miss the cut, you have the choice of heading to our next destination or staying and practicing. I opted for staying becuase my host family isn't expecting me until tomorrow. So I played on the range a bit trying different shots, trying to simulate competition. Moved on to some short game which I spent a great deal of time on and some putting. Not much putting though becuase I heard next week's greens are awesome and there is no sense getting used to crappy ones!

I will head to San Antonio tomorrow staying with a different family and a girl that is also on the tour. I am excited to stay with her.

I am excited for a new week. Knocking off that rust baby.

Historic Brownsville Open

Key this week: The Big Picture

Coming off a disappointing finish in Brownsville, it is easy to focus on the negatives. I didn't chip well, and putts didn't fall but instead, focusing on the positives makes me feel better. Knowing this is my first professional tournament and that there are so many different dynamics that I have never dealt with and the beginning of a new career eases my frustration a bit. It's like any first week on the job. You are a little tentative. There are new people, new protocol. Also keeping a grinders mentality. No matter what you have done during they day to keep grinding for pars and birdies is the goal. Sometimes it works in your favor and sometimes it doesn't. Attitude is huge. When you are on the cut line and you gotta put a good round together you have to know when to play aggressively and when to play a little smarter. That got me into some trouble today but out here, you have to make something happen to make some money! Many different aspects play into a week on the Duramed Futures Tour and I think a lot of girls in college have no idea what to expect. At least I didn't. Just another mile marker on this journey called life.

After the second round, I sat in the scorers tent tallying up and recalled a story I heard from Vision54. Annika Sorenstam was playing in a PGA Tour event at Colonial CC and she was walking to the 1st tee and told her sports psychologist that she was so nervous she couldn't even speak. Her SP turned to her and said think of yourself floating in space like a satellite. Look at Earth. It makes this moment feel very small. And it did. That helped her stripe it down the middle.

Perspective is everything.

When I thought I couldn't go on, I forced myself to keep going. My success is based on persistence, not luck. -Estee Lauder

I move onward, the only direction. Can't be scared to fail, searchin' for perfection... I'm onto the next one, onto the next one. -Jay Z

Love This

So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world that to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 8:15

So Far...

So far the week has been really good. We have already had two practice round days. I practiced in the morning yesterday then played 9 holes with my buddy Julie Wells. We had our meet the pro party last night at a local restaurant and I met some other players there. Trouble was, the band was playing so loud we couldn't hear each other speak so we were pretty much just playing charades.

Today was our shotgun practice round. We were off the golf course by noon which is always nice to get it an early morning. This afternoon looks to be a pretty relaxing one, probably squeeze in a workout and a nap and have dinner with my mom for the week.

The course is very straight forward. There aren't a whole lot of memorable holes out there. Greens are a little bumpy but that just means you really have to commit to your line. The weather is awesome, high-70s with some wind. Thursday it is supposed to get warmer then on Friday we hit 90.

I tee off of #1 at 1:30pm on Friday.

ROADTRIP

I just finished the mother of all roadtrips. Well, sort of. I have a feeling after this summer I might say that about all of the long extended trips. Anyway, I made it down here in under 20 hours which is a little quick but I never got a ticket [DAD!] or even stopped for that matter. I made excellent time because I tried not to drink that much water. Ha. I have covered 1,359 miles in 2 days, gone through 3 states, one that is ridiculously HUGE.

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I am thrilled to have arrived at my host family's house for the week. I received a very warm welcome and I am sooo excited about the week. A friend sent me a video and I figured I'd share it becuase I like my readers and want them to come back! It is inspirational and makes my arm hairs stand up. It sums up a lot of what I am feeling/will feel/have felt. Enjoy!

Brownsville, Texas

-Population: 139,722

-Elevation: 33 whole feet!

-15th largest city in the state of Texas.

-During the Civil War, Brownsville was used as a smuggling point for Confederate goods into Mexico, most importantly cotton smuggled to European ships waiting at the Mexican port of Bagdad.

-Brownsville is the southernmost city in Texas.

-Brownsville is among the southernmost of all U.S. cities. Hawaii has a couple of cities more south, and Florida has North Miami Beach which is also a little more south.

-Home of the 2nd annual Duramed FUTURES Tour Historic Brownsville Open.

Words of Wisdom

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop and look fear into the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."

-Eleanor Roosevelt

The Countdown Begins...

Well, I leave in only 4 short days! I will be heading down to Brownsville, Texas for the Historic Brownsville Open. If you don't know where Brownsville is, look on a map. It is located where the Gulf of Mexico, the country of Mexico and Texas meet. Oh boy. Needless to say, I have a long trek ahead of me but years of driving Denver to Memphis have seasoned me.

My practice the last couple weeks has been awesome. I really feel productive opposed to just being out there mindlessly hitting balls. For me, it has always been a struggle to keep a purpose and practice with consequence. I keep it interesting with little games or challenges for myself. That makes time fly by and before you know it the challenge is complete and it's time to go home! I went to see Eli about my putting alignment and feel really good about it now. Sometimes, it's easy to groove a bad habit and for a set of eyes watching intently on good technique helps tremendously! It definitely avoids hours of grooving that bad habit!

I will be gone for about a month playing in three tournaments. I am very excited to start playing and getting back into that atmosphere. It is something I crave when I practice and knowing the feeling of competing on a high level also helps make practice productive becuase you want to be prepared for those high-pressure events. I feel that I have succeeded in my preparation and I am ready.

What I am reading: The American Plague by Molly Caldwell Crosby
What I am listening to: Tusk - Fleetwood Mac

New Toys

I picked up my new Titleist AP2 irons yesterday from Hotstix [Robert] at the Colorado Golf Academy. They are fantastic. I hit them extremely well and fired a little 72 to welcome them to the bag. I didn't notice a ton of difference in the new grooves, especially out of the rough but it will be more noticeable in the wedges. Those won't come into play until May.

My new irons are 2* upright and my old ones were standard. The newbies are a tad lighter, and less stiff. My other irons had all different shaft frequencies and the 8, 9 irons were stiffer shafts than my 4, 5, 6 irons. Not good. They also have a .600 round grip opposed to the .580 [standard] for my little hands. Altogether it creates more feel and workability for my swing. It was noticeable yesterday, that's for sure.

What I am reading: The American Plague by Molly Caldwell Crosby