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.
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