Brian Quackenbush Golf

I’m in. For the second time in three attempts this season, I made it through the Monday qualifier. This time I shot 65 (6 under) to finish in 3rd place and avoid the playoff at 66.

We played Eagle Crest Golf Club in Alma, AR. Heading into the back nine, I was 1 under par and figured I needed about 5 or 6 to have a shot. I knew that the 3 par fives on the back could be reached with irons after a good drive. There were a few opportunities on the other holes. So, I knew that I could get the 5 or 6 under with some good shots.

I got hot on the 12th with a birdie on the par 5 and followed that up with a birdie on the par 3 13th…both with putts of about 10 feet. I made a two-putt birdie on the par 5 16th and then made a slick downhill birdie from 8 feet on the 17th. After a good drive on 18 that ended up just slightly behind a tree, I laid up with 7 iron to 40 yards short. From there, I got up and down for another birdie to get to 6 under. Then, it was a matter of waiting to make sure I got in.

It’s looking like a bunch of rain tomorrow and Wednesday, so I’m going to try to get in my practice round early tomorrow.

Calling all experienced airline travelers!!!

I need some advice on setting up airline travel for 6-10 events this season. I have a unique travel situation for these events. My departure date, return date and originations are variable. Plus, I may need to schedule the travel on short notice.

Here’s an example with all possibilities for my Mitchellville Nationwide event. For this event, I will probably drive to Mitchellville, MD on May 19th in order to play a practice round for the qualifier on May 21st.

• I make it through the qualifier into the event which starts on May 24th.
• I make the cut and finish in the top 25, thereby gaining entry into the next Nationwide Tour event in Glenview, IL beginning on May 31st. In this case I need to be in Glenview anytime on Monday, May 28th to get registered and play my practice rounds.
• I make the cut and finish outside the top 25, so I have to be in Glenview, IL for the qualifier on May 28th. Since this is the day after the final round, I need to leave immediately after my round Sunday.
• I miss the cut and need to be in Glenview, IL for the qualifier on May 28th. Since I have two days before the qualifier, I need to get out there on Saturday May 26th in order to play a practice round on Sunday.
• I don’t make it through the qualifier and drive back to Aiken that night or the next morning. In this case, I need to schedule a flight from Augusta, Columbia or Atlanta on May 26th. This gives me time to get in a practice round on Sunday before the qualifier on Monday May 28th.

That’s just the portion of the trip that involves getting to Glenview. It doesn’t consider the 3 different dates that I could be returning (Tuesday after the Monday qualifier, Saturday after the first two rounds or Monday after all 4 rounds). So, I have two possible origins (Mitchellville and Aiken area), 4 possible departure dates and 3 possible return dates. I went around with a US Air rep for about an hour the other day and couldn’t figure out the most economical way to set this up. If anybody has any advice, I would really appreciate your help!

After much thought, I changed my schedule around for the remainder of the year. The current version is posted on my schedule page. Over the last month or so, I’ve been leaning toward a greater mix of Nationwide Tour qualifiers versus mini tour events. After 5 years playing mini tour golf, I don’t think I need any more experience playing on that level. I need to give myself more opportunities to get into the Nationwide Tour events.

For the rest of the season, I will play 19 Nationwide Tour qualifiers and 8 Tarheel Tour events. In total for the 2007 season, I will play 21 Nationwide Tour qualifiers, 12 Tarheel Tour events, the US Open qualifier(s) and Q-School. That’s more events than normal, but they’re well-spaced out. There is only one time where I have events with no days between them.

I believe this will give me the opportunities to get out on the Nationwide Tour more often with a goal of earning enough money to gain conditional status for the remainder of the year. That requires that I earn about $84,000 in Nationwide Tour events for the season, an amount equal to last year’s 70th position on the money list.

I learned some geography yesterday. The area around Fort Smith, Arkansas is referred to as Arklahoma because of its proximity to Oklahoma. The area is nothing like what most people describe to me when I talk about Arkansas or Oklahoma. Normally they describe flat, brown plainslands. It’s completely the opposite. Very green with rolling hills. It’s really beautiful country.

So, yesterday I spent about 12 hours getting out here. 3 hours down to Raleigh airport in order to save a few hundred dollars on the flight change (I was originally flying out of Richmond). About 7 hours on airplanes and layovers. Another 2 hours driving from Fayetteville down to Fort Smith. It was a long day, but I got in about 2 hours putting and chipping at the course. The nice thing about getting out here Saturday was that I was able to get in my practice round early today before the Sunday afternoon “death march”. Sunday afternoon practice rounds for Nationwide qualifiers usually run about 5 hours. My practice round this morning took just under four.

The course is incredibly hilly and very poorly laid out for walking…huge walks between greens and tees. Rumor is that we may have a few shuttle carts between holes which would be incredibly helpful. The course is in good condition and is a pretty straightforward layout. The greens are very undulating, so you need to know where to leave your approach shots. Tee-to-green it’s not incredbily challenging, so it will be about placing your approach shots correctly and making some putts. I play at 9am tomorrow morning.

I fired a second round 67 at the Nationwide Tour event at the Dominion Club today. Going into the round, I knew that I needed probably 6 under par to have a shot at making the cut. I also knew that there were 10 holes that were reasonable birdie opportunities…the other 8 were just “hang on and be happy with par”. I birdied 7 of the 10, but made two bogies to offset them and finished two shots short of the cut.

I can’t complain about the week. As I wrote yesterday, I just had no gas in the tank mentally in the first round. There is nothing I could have done differently about that. I finished up on Sunday last week and got a good night’s sleep before taking my time getting up to Richmond on Monday. I only played the practice round on Tuesday…no long practice session. On Wednesday - pro-am day - I only spent two hours working on my game. Every night I got at least 8 and sometimes 10 hours of sleep. In the end, it simply wasn’t enough to recharge by Thursday. Today, however, I felt normal again and was able to piece together a pretty good round.

This week’s mental challenges won’t be repeated in the future. The challenge of playing at the top of the field on this new level was something that I had to do one time to get used to. It will be less draining the next time I do it.

So, I’m off to Arkansas tomorrow to get ready for the next Nationwide Tour qualifier on Monday.

Here’s something you might find interesting about life as a professional golfer. The US Air representative I worked with today said that my schedule was the most challenging he’s ever had to work with. I explained that I needed to change a ticket from departing on Sunday night to departing tomorrow and out of Raleigh instead of Richmond. I told him I would either be returning on Tuesday, Saturday or Monday of the following week. He was an “aware” customer service rep, but it still took the two of us about 20 minutes to figure out the best way to route and write the tickets.

A few notes from the week:

• I found a very good caddy back in Athens who stayed on the bag this week in Richmond. He’s quiet, laid-back and competent which is exactly what I was looking for in a caddy. He will be on my speed-dial list for the next qualifier that I make it through.
• Thanks to my friends from school for putting me up at their place in Richmond for the week…and helping to get my staff bag down here from Fairfax…and feeding me…and kicking my butt repeatedly on the Nintendo Wii.

Thanks to everyone who followed along and called, commented or emailed. Your support meant a lot this week.

Round one of the Nationwide Tour event at The Dominion Club didn’t quite go as planned. I had trouble hitting fairways off the tee, and with 6-inch high rough that was a problem. I simply didn’t have many opportunities for birdies and had to hack it out sideways several times. The rough was so severe that I actually hit a solid 8-iron on my 17th hole that went less than 10 yards. It got caught up in the rough on the way up and had no velocity to escape the grass. It’s about the most severe rough I’ve ever played…including US Amateurs.

The core problem for me today was that I didn’t seem to have my normal mental energy. I’ve been getting plenty of rest since last week, but I don’t think I ever fully recharged. It shouldn’t be a problem in the future because now I have a good Nationwide Tour finish under my belt. Good finishes shouldn’t take as much energy to accomplish down the road. But, at least for the last few days, it’s been a struggle to get my energy level up.

On another topic, I had a not so good tee time today. This isn’t an excuse, but I’m not sure why the PGA would pair me dead last with the Monday Qualifiers. It seems that if I get into the event by finishing well in the previous event and I am 117th on the money list heading into the tournament I would get something better than the last group finishing in the dark. But, I guess those are the rules. Even if they don’t make any sense, that’s what I have to play by.

Thanks to my friends Joe Balsamo and Brian King for helping to get my staff bag from Fairfax where it’s been for the last 18 months down to Richmond for this week’s event. My caddie mentioned on Tuesday that it may be useful to have the staff bag if it rains this week. So, I put the wheels in motion and after a lot of coordination, they got it done. It’s now sitting at Brian’s office and I will be reunited with it this evening in time for tomorrow’s first round.

I’m playing the Nationwide Tour event this week, the Henrico County Open, at The Dominion Club in Richmond, VA. I got into town last night and am staying with good friends. I played a practice round today and was impressed by the course. It’s your basic Virginia golf course. I can’t put my finger on it, but it just seems to say “Virginia” as I play it. The grasses are exactly what I grew up playing at International. Bent greens with some poa annua (you just can’t avoid it in this region) and blue or rye in the fairways and roughs. The rough is very deep and players seem to be concerned about it. Personally, I’m excited to be chipping in this stuff again. It’s more predictable for me than the Bermuda that I’m used to playing in the southern states. It just always seems to come out the same way. The greens are firm, fast and pretty true.

It was also shopping day for me at the event. I picked up a set of Zero Restriction rain pants and jacket that I’ve had on my list for about 6 months (much needed). I also replaced my old, beaten-up umbrella with a Titleist model. I still haven’t had a chance to try out some different utility clubs, and after playing the course I don’t think I’m going to pursue it this week. What I have in the bag now (Sonartec) seems to work well here.

I’ve got the last time again this week…2:20 on Thursday and 9:20 on Friday. I’m fine with the later times because the greens look like they will hold up well all day and I’m happy to get the extra sleep.

I’m in Richmond and finally settled down a bit, so now I have some time to write about last week’s event.

First off, thank you to everyone who emailed, commented, called, text messaged or simply sent positive thoughts my way. I felt a tremendous amount of support from so many different directions that was a great help through the week. The “Pardsies” at International, the guys at Woodside, and all my friends and family were really there for me. Although Dad wasn’t “on the bag”, he was right there with me for all 72 holes.

The members, volunteers and staff at the event were incredible. Everyone went out of their way to be helpful and friendly. I still can’t believe that the members would give up their course for 7 days and be so cheerful about it.

The charity/title sponsor of the event, The Athens Regional Foundation is really a tremendous organization. They seem to be a cornerstone of the community. If you have the chance, take the time to read up about them on the website link listed above. I particularly appreciated the employee G.I.F.T. (”Getting Involved For Tomorrow”) program where employees make financial pledges to ensure quality healthcare.

The event itself reminded and reinforced in me where I want to be playing. The competition, course and pressure are exactly why I play the game. It focused me tremendously this week.

The final round yesterday was a great time. I was paired with Robert Damron who was super to play with. His easy-going attitude gave me a good outlet for the pressure of the final round trying to finish in the top-25. I started out with a tough break on the first hole when a very slightly pulled lob wedge bounced off the green. The resulting recovery from the short-side was difficult and I made bogey. However, I righted the ship quickly with a two-putt birdie on the short second and a good birdie on the par-3 third. After a good two-putt par on the fourth, I made another birdie on 5 with a slick, downhill 10 footer.

On 6, I lipped out a 20 foot birdie putt. I played seven conservatively as a three-shot hole - same as I had all week. My lob wedge from 90 yards almost went in leaving me less than a foot for an easy birdie. I finally parred the ninth - first time all week - to turn in 3 under par and 9 under for the tournament.

Feeling a bit more comfortable on the back, I made a series of pars on 10-15 including near misses for birdies on 11 and 14. On 16 I made one of the few bad swings of the day and hit my drive out of bounds. This could have derailed me, but I buckled down and made a really good up-and-down for double. On 17 I hit a 9-iron to about 3 feet for my fifth birdie of the day. This got me back to 8 under for the tournament and I felt like that would make it into the top 25. But, I still had a dangerous drive left off of 18. I hit a 3-iron down the center, laid up with a 4-iron and then hit a lob wedge exactly on my target, 10 feet right of the hole. From there, I made the putt for another birdie to finish out the tournament.

So, what did I learn this week? Most importantly, it reinforced that I can play and win out here. The level of competition is deeper, but no better at the top than what I’m used to. Playing well wins on any level. It also reinforced that you never give up. I could have mailed it in a few times during the tournament. The pressure was higher than what I’ve been used to and small mistakes can be magnified in your mind’s eye. By sticking to it throughout the event, I was able to move past my mistakes and do well for the week. Also, I re-exposed myself to this level of competition and pressure. In doing so, I reinforced in my mind that shots are just shots regardless of the situation. Every competitive situation means something, so they may as well mean nothing. This leaves you with just the shot that matters.

I had a good caddie for the week. His attitude seemed to match up with mine fairly well. He helped when I needed help and stayed quiet and out of the way when I needed it as well. He will be on the bag again this week in Richmond.

My host family was incredible. They made the week so much fun and took care of so many details that I normally would have to take care of myself. I appreciate them so much and am happy to know that I’ve made a few good new friends.

I’m back in Aiken for a night after the final round of the Nationwide Tour event in Athens, GA. In summary - Mission Accomplished. I finished 14th which was good enough to secure a spot in next week’s Nationwide Tour event in Richmond. I was 3 under par today…could have been better, but also could have been worse. I finished birdie-birdie to make it into the top 25 which is the threshold for getting into the next week’s event.

I’m heading on up the road tomorrow late morning to Richmond. I’ll spend the day driving up there and then get into a good practice round Tuesday morning.

It’s been a long week and I’m exhausted. I’ll probably write more when I get a chance. Sleep takes priority for now.