A Jagged Little Pill

The final round at Kingwood will probably stick with me for the rest of my life. Right now I sit, still processing every shot I hit throughout the entire week. No matter how I add it up, the end result was a score of 289, 1 over par, and 1 shot from moving on to Stage Two...

Even if one of the 8 players who finished at even par scored one shot worse I would have gotten in by a tie for the last position. This is, and will remain incredibly hard to swallow. Its hard to sit here and thnk positive going forward, knowing that I came so gut-wrenchingly close. But I can share one thing that I am incredibly proud of from today. I left everything on that golf course.

From the beginning of the round, thanks to some advice from close friends and family I was deep into a game plan and that was "commit to every shot 100%, no matter what..." I knew if I didn't I could spend the rest of my life wondering, "what if..."

In a week when I struggled to find the swing I know I possess, I dug deep enough to hit 17 of the 18 greens around the final loop of Kingwood. I hit many fairways, hit great recovery shots when I missed them, and even hit the last two par 5's in two shots with time running out despite the eminent danger surrounding both of them. I made my final bogey of the tournament on my 11th hole of the day, putting me at +3 overall and needing something special to move on. For the final 7 holes I played absolutely fearless golf and it felt incredible.

I was probably as nervous as I have ever been on a golf course during the closing stretch but it all turned into positive energy to concentrate, dig deeper, and pull off the shot I desperately needed. For anyone who has ever competed at anything, you know that there is no better feeling than to perform well when your body is literally saturated with adrenaline.

The only thing that let me down today was the one element that seemed to be there all week, my putter. I missed many birdie attempts, the two eagle putts, and one crucial par saver on #11. 34 putts was one too many for this day, and a one under par 71 was as well. It sure is a bitter taste now, but at least I had a shot, and more importantly, I took it.