Brian Quackenbush Golf

I’ve received several emails over the last few weeks asking how I’m doing and what my plans are. The outpouring of concern and support has been tremendous, and I appreciate everybody who has checked in.

After a lot of thought in the off-season I finally decided it was best if I moved into a new career. The decision was a difficult one because, with the help of some incredible sponsors and my support team, I had elevated my game to where I was competitive at the pinnacle of my sport. Financial realities were the deciding factor in my decision. It was important that I get into something a bit more secure for my future, and I realized that I could play excellent golf for years and never get my “big break”.

While it’s difficult to leave professional golf, I’m comfortable with the career I am getting into. I’m falling back onto my IT experience - something that I really enjoyed prior to professional golf.

Thanks again for all the support over the last 6 years. The site will remain up and running. Eventually it will change into something more appropriate to my new career, but I will always retain the professional golf portion as a chronicle of my experience.

Thanks to everyone who called or sent messages to me after Stage 2. It’s nice to see so many people show their concern. I’m surprised again at how many people actively follow what I’m doing.

While the timing of the injury was bad, the mental work I’ve done since 2004 enables me to move past it without any problems. Some of you might remember my trip to Stage 2 in 2004 when the event was shortened to 36 holes due to weather. Midway through the third round I was playing very well and probably within the number to move on to Stage 3. But, when we couldn’t finish the third round after 2 extra days the event reverted to 36 hole scores and I missed by one shot. That was a difficult blow to take because I wasn’t mentally prepared for it.

What I’ve learned over time is that the day-to-day process of improvement is more important than individual tournaments. Great performance in tournaments automatically takes care of itself when I stay focused on getting a little better every day. Most of the successful people I know adhere to something like this approach regardless of whether it’s in their career or any aspect of their lives.

I can look back at the last few years and see that by following a well thought out path of improvement I have become better every day. Wins and good finishes in events have naturally followed. The ill-timed injury, while a bump in the road, doesn’t take away from the success I’ve had in taking my game to new levels. Next year will see more improvement and therefore more opportunities.

My doctor diagnosed several possible injuries to my ribcage, all of which would be treated the same way. I’ve either cracked a rib or torn or strained a muscle or other soft tissue. An x-ray might clarify the injury but wouldn’t change the treatment. He prescribed some meds which should speed along the healing. I need to lay off swinging a club for a few weeks and get some physical therapy.

I had to withdraw from Stage 2 of Q-School at Lake Jovita yesterday due to injury. Around November 5th I strained something in my right ribcage through normal practice and play. I recognized there was an injury immediately and took 4 days off without swinging to make sure it didn’t get worse. It was difficult to take this much time off going into such an important event, but I felt like it was more important to get it healed so it didn’t effect my play. I had it worked on twice by a local therapist, and it felt like it was very manageable going into the first round.

On my second hole of the first round I aggravated it very badly trying to hit a utility club into a par-5. Over the first nine I hit several shots that produced more pain than I have ever experienced on a golf course. Plenty of advil and “Icy Hot” got me through most of the second nine until it started to hurt over the last few holes.

That night I got some therapy from a local physical therapist and took plenty of meds. The next morning I still felt a lot of pain but had to give it a shot. Since getting through Stage 2 would have given me some kind of status for next year, I was comfortable risking more damage to the injury even if it meant I would have to take last place in Stage 3.

In the second round the injury bothered me from the first swing. On the 8th hole I hit a 5-iron and had trouble breathing and walking up to the green. When the pain failed to subside on the 9th hole I decided to withdraw from the tournament.

I am seeing a local doctor here in Aiken this morning to get a diagnosis and see how to proceed.

This is about as disappointing of a finish to the season as I can imagine. I felt that every aspect of my game was ready for this tournament, Stage 3 and the Nationwide or PGA Tour next year. To not even have the chance at Stage 2 because of an ill-timed injury is very difficult.

Regardless, I take a lot of satisfaction away from this year. I had a successful season with continued improvement across my entire game. I got into several Nationwide Tour events and proved that I am capable of competing at the next levels.

I got confirmation that I will be competing at Lake Jovita CC for Stage 2 of Q-School on November 14-17. I went to stage 2 at this course last year. It’s a good course all the way around…a very appropriate and fair challenge for a second stage site. I am heading down for a practice session at Sea Island on the 11th and practice rounds at Lake Jovita on the 12th and 13th.

Coverage of the event will be on the PGA Tour’s Q-School website: http://www.pgatour.com/qschool/.

I finished 6th in last week’s first stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament at Florence CC. The top 25 and ties made it at my site. My scores of 67-64-70-68 (-11) were 8 shots inside the cut line and 4 shots off the lead. Finishing this high in the field ensures that I will get my first preference for my Stage 2 site which is Lake Jovita CC in Dade City, FL. This is the same site that I went to last year so I know it well.

Stage 2 is November 14-17 and with coverage at this site.

I’m in Florence, SC this week (Tuesday-Friday) for Stage 1 of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament. Click here for scoring and information.

I removed the qualifier for the Chattanooga Nationwide Tour event off the schedule this week. If everything had gone well, I would have qualified into the event, made the cut and played on Sunday. This would have compressed my practice rounds for Stage 1 of Q-School in Florence to just Monday afternoon. It would also have meant 12 rounds (9 competitive) in 13 consecutive days. This would not have been optimal for performing well at Stage 1.

So, I entered the Tarheel Tour event at Walnut Creek which runs through Friday. This gives me a few good warmup days on a course similar to Florence CC and gives me one day rest before I go to Florence for my Sunday-Monday practice rounds. It’s difficult to give up that last chance at earning my way onto the Nationwide Tour in Chattanooga. Q-School is the one tournament that really matters each year and I needed to be ready for that more than I needed to give myself another shot at a Nationwide Tour event.

I won the MonaVie Open on the Tarheel Tour yesterday at Charlotte National GC. I outlasted a friend and a great golfer, Matt Cannon, in a 4-hole playoff.

I started the day one shot back of the lead. Strong winds meant that anything under par would be a pretty good score. My first 10 holes were unspectacular with 9 pars and a bogey. My ball striking to that point wasn’t where I wanted it and I was hanging in there on some really good scrambling. At this point I was 4 shots back and in third place. My thinking was that if I could narrow the lead to 2 shots going into the last three holes I would still have a chance. The last three holes at Charlotte National are very strong and with the wind against us yesterday they were that much stronger.

I chipped in on the difficult 11th for birdie to get a shot back and then lost that shot again when Matt birdied 12. On 13, a great drive left me with a short second to the par-5 and I made birdie to gain back two shots. Another birdie on 15 narrowed the lead to 1 shot, ahead of the goal I had set for myself heading into the last 3 holes.

On 16 I hit one of my two best shots of the event. With 218 yards to a back left pin, water surrounding the green and strong wind in my face I hit a laser utility to 3 feet. When I made the putt I was tied for the lead.

My drive on the 17th into the lake setup my other best shot of the event. After the drop I had 208 again into the wind with the flag against the left side of the green near the water. I hit another great utility from the rough to 8 feet and made the putt for a great par. We both parred the 18th, a 470 yard par 4 into the wind with water everywhere, to finish tied at 13 under.

After all that the playoff was relatively uneventful. We both parred the first three holes and then I got a break when my par held up on the fourth playoff hole for the win.

I really appreciated this win. I’ve been chasing and narrowly missing Nationwide Monday qualifiers for over two months. This was my first three-day event since mid-July and it was good to perform well under “normal” conditions. I hope to ride the momentum from this win into a successful Q-School season.

My compliments go out to Charlotte National for getting the course ready under incredibly stressful weather circumstances in the Charlotte area. They are under drought conditions in the area. As always, Charlotte National focused their efforts on presenting some of the best greens surfaces we play all year. The quality of the greens was critical to my success this week because I absolutely putted the lights out. I averaged 25.33 putts per round and 1.568 putts per GIR for the week.

I went down to Sea Island last week for a lesson with Jack Lumpkin. I was very happy with where my swing was. What I had been working on before I took a little break was exactly what the doctor ordered. I just need to keep working on my right side stability and getting my arms more in sync with my body. We also noticed some movement in my right hand grip at the start of the backswing and addressed that. The video of my swings is pretty good and I am going to try to put it up on the website.

We also worked on my chipping and putting. Much of what I’m working on with my full swing applies to my chipping as well. Stable right hand grip and get my arms working more with my body instead of behind it. No changes to my putting…everything looked pretty good there.

The video from the lesson got me thinking that it would be nice to see a progression of my full swing from when I started working with Jack until now. I have video of every lesson that I’ve taken with him. A few are on VHS, so I will have to convert them to digital before I post them. It’s a good-sized project that might take me a while to complete, but I think it will be very interesting to see the progression.