Q-School Recap
Special Thanks To My Father For His Caddy Expertise!
My parents were scheduled to fly down the day before the first round and my father was going to caddy for me. When hurricane Wilma made landfall, flights into Orlando were cancelled. So, he drove 8 hours straight through, caddied the next 4 days, and then drove 8 hours back. He’s become a very competent caddy and was a huge asset for me at the event.
I finished 3 shots out of advancing to stage 2 of Q-School yesterday. My final score was even par over 4 days for a 24th place finish. This was my fourth attempt at Q-School, and I’m much more encouraged and motivated after this attempt than from the previous three. This was because I really felt like I was one of the best in the field and really belonged there. My ball striking absolutely proved that. My comfort level with the entire experience was the best it’s ever been as well.
So, why didn’t I qualify? I will probably continue to go through it over the next week, but I have some initial thoughts. First, my putting really wasn’t good…especially in the first round and a half. The greens down there were rolling about a 12 on the stimpmeter (very, very fast), and I hadn’t played anything this fast in quite a while. What this did was bring out a mechanical flaw I’ve been fighting for the last couple of years. So, I started to focus too much on mechanics and less on making a good confident stroke along the line I picked out in my read. I rolled putts better over the last 2 and a half rounds, but didn’t really make anything. Second, my chipping wasn’t as good as it could have been. I only saved par on 12 of the 26 greens (45\%) that I missed this week. This is down from about 60\%. Admittedly, this is probably due in large part to my putting problems and the difficult rough around the greens. But, I know from my experience this week that my short game could have been a little bit better.
What was good this week? As I mentioned, my ball striking was very good. I felt like it was among the best in the field this week. I was definitely one of the longer players off the tee and was very accurate. My irons were solid and I was controlling distance and ball flight well. I was hitting my wedges close. I’m very satisfied with where my long game is. I was also very pleased with my mental game. I charted a course strategy for the week that was appropriate and only deviated from it on one hole (the 71st) when I needed to get extremely aggressive with my play. I managed dealing with slow play over the first two rounds well and didn’t let it affect my game. I rebounded from poor shots well. Difficult holes, pin placement and course conditions didn’t intimidate me. I could have improved with how I reacted to the extremely high wind on Tuesday or to a ridiculous official telling us we were out of position on Thursday. But, overall, my mental game is miles ahead of where it was when I first turned professional.
So, here’s the challenge. I have a good idea of what and why I’m doing things well and not so well. I know how I can squeeze a bit more performance out of my game. However, the season is effectively over. I know that I need a break from competition, but I feel very motivated and excited about my game. I’m going to take the next week or so to think about off-season improvements and then get back into them.