Brian Quackenbush Golf

I didn’t have my best stuff today in the third round of the Nationwide Tour event at Jennings Mill. I shot 72 and moved backwards from 4th to 19th. The good news is that I’m only 2 shots out of 5th, so I really didn’t back up that far.

I just hit a few loose shots and didn’t capitalize on a few opportunities. I feel like I left a 67 or so on the course today which would have placed me up near the lead.

I still feel good about my game in general. I’m keeping it in front of me and stroking it well. I’m off at 10:35 tomorrow morning.

I had a radio interview this morning with Brett Wright and Tim Hacker of “Tee Time” on Atlanta’s 680 The Fan. They were great interviewers…really made me feel comfortable and at home. From the questions they were asking, you could tell they had a good feel for all of professional golf including the mini tours. It was a good interview with some good guys. I hope some of you were able to catch it.

12:15 tee time today in the third round. I’m excited and looking forward to it.

After two rounds in the Nationwide Tour event at Jennings Mill, I stand at 6 under par. As I write this, I am currently in 6th place. I expect that to change by the end of the day. The wind looks like it’s laid down for the afternoon play. We had some pretty good wind in the morning and I was able to manage it fairly well. It appears to swirl around the course since it is set in some low spots and sheltered by trees in places. However, I have been able to trust in the general daily wind direction so far without much trouble. Perhaps that is why the wind hasn’t bothered me much so far. Or, perhaps it’s because I’ve played in so much worse wind over the last couple of months.

Yesterday was a challenging day. I didn’t feel comfortable in my ball striking at all. I don’t think it was nerves because I felt very comfortable in the situation. I think it was just an off day. But, I managed my game very well and kept the big mistakes to a minimum. I also putted very well.

You wouldn’t have believed it if you saw me warm up today, but it actually turned into a decent ball striking day. I “found” something that allowed me to keep it pretty much in front of me all day. I putted well again, but did miss 3 inside 6 feet. Two I just misred. Regardless, it was a good day and moved me up toward where I wanted to be at the end of the round.

I must admit that it was nice to look up at the leaderboard on number 4 and see my name on the first page. Hopefully I can keep it there for the weekend.

The course is playing hard and fast…especially the greens. Several were extremely hard. The fourth was about the most difficult approach shot I’ve faced in a long while. If you’re looking for a fun, out-of-the-way hole to watch tomorrow, I would recommend number 4.

Everybody - and I mean every single person - has been incredibly nice and helpful this week. The tournament staff and volunteers are going out of their way to make sure everything is right. My host family has made my stay very pleasant.

In the time it took to write this, I moved up one spot on the leaderboard to 5th. I still think scores will go lower in the afternoon, but based on this perhaps I’m wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.

I just sent a donation to the Capital Hospice for $584.25. This is 10% of my earnings for the beginning part of the season. It also includes 10% of an investment from a sponsor who contacted me directly after he read about the ebay auction.

Total donations since we started the partnership are almost $5,500. Thanks to all of my sponsors for allowing me to do this.

Here is the link for live scoring from the Nationwide Tour Athens Regional Foundation Classic that begins tomorrow:

http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboards/current/h090/index.html

I start at 2:30pm on the first tee.

One good night’s sleep back in Aiken and I’m starting to feel recovered from yesterday’s marathon. It started with my second straight 5:30 wakeup call for an 8:00 tee time. Yesterday’s 7-for-1 playoff started on the first hole with four players in the first group and three, including me, in the second. I wasn’t paying very close attention to the first group, but it looked like someone made a birdie putt. After a good drive and a solid nine-iron that got held up a bit in the wind, I was left with a 25 footer up the hill for birdie. I made a good stroke and it went. Nobody else in my group made birdie and when the guys in the first group started walking back toward the clubhouse I realized nobody in the first group had either. I really expected to have to make birdie to continue…that’s how these playoffs usually work. So, it was a surprise

The day was far from over. I had to drive an hour over to Jenning Mill, register, find a caddy, play a practice round, find housing and do some stuff with the media. Originally I was hoping to play 9 holes and then play the other nine today, but with pro-ams all day today that wasn’t possible. By 5:00 when I left the course I was totally exhausted. The nasty weather practice round on Sunday followed by the tough conditions and stress of waiting on Monday and then all the activities of yesterday took their toll. I was very happy to get a good ten hours of sleep back in my own bed.

I’m getting reorganized and heading back up to Athens for about 3:00 today. My plan is to get in some short game practice and make it a normal practice day.

Thanks to everyone that emailed and called. It was wonderful to see so many people following what I’m doing and even better to get so much support.

I play late on Thursday at 2:30 off of number 1 and then early on Friday - 9:30 off ten.

I made it through the 7-for-1 playoff this morning with a birdie on the first hole. I’m back in Aiken after an incredibly long day. I’m tired and taking tonight and tomorrow morning to recover from the last few days. I’ll write some details after I get a good night’s sleep tonight.

The last groups in today’s Nationwide Tour Monday qualifier finished right at dark and the result was a 7-man playoff for the last spot at 71. Since there wasn’t any light left, the playoff begins tomorrow morning at 8am. I’m spending the night in Gainesville again for what I hope to be a successful playoff tomorrow morning.

I keep talking about opportunities and my mindset is that this is one of them. It was difficult watching a lot of good scores bump me back in the pack today, but I have a good attitude about it going into tomorrow. If you asked me before today’s round if I would take a 7-for-1 playoff before I teed off, I would have said yes…especially in a challenging early-season qualifier such as this. It’s only going to cost me another night in a hotel and a few extra bucks of expenses.

I had the first time of the day in today’s Nationwide Tour Monday qualifier. I shot 71 and am tied for third after the morning wave of players. The afternoon wave will start to finish in about a half an hour. The course has a wireless internet connection, so I’m taking this opportunity to post a “live from the event” update on the website. Honestly, I’ve got nothing else to do except twiddle my thumbs and see how my score holds up.

Having the early time this morning may have been a blessing in disguise. It was incredibly cold…about 40 with a nasty northwest wind. The wind was strong, but steady…not very gusty. After about 5 holes it started to warm up and the wind didn’t really start to howl until 9. So, I think we had relatively good conditions compared to the rest of the field. I spent the last hour on the putting green and it was ridiculous. The wind would blow the same 10-footer 2 feet right and then 2 feet left on the next putt.

After the round I had no idea what to think about my score. I felt like it was reasonable, but nothing special. So, I started the drive back to Aiken. After about an hour, I called and found out that it was still the low score posted, so I turned around and have been sitting here ever since. I’m still not incredibly optimistic about 1 under making it in because it just felt to me like 2-3 under was “out there”. So, not optimistic, but hopeful.

Regardless of the outcome, it promises to be a long night either foraging for a place in Athens or driving back to Aiken. I’ll post the final result tomorrow.

I’m in Greenville, GA this week for the Nationwide Tour Monday qualifier. I drove up this morning to get in an afternoon practice round. When I left Aiken, it was about 65 degrees. When I got out of the car in Greenville 3 hours later, it was about 45 and dropping. The cold front that rolled through left us with low-forties temps in the afternoon and a strong north wind that drove wind chills down into the lower 30’s. I played 4 holes in full winter garb before calling it quits and driving the rest of the course. I got all the pin placements and elevation changes with my rangefinder and I know the distances and lines to take off each tee. I also did some work on Google Earth’s satellite imagery to confirm what I saw when I surveyed the course. So, the limited practice round shouldn’t be a factor tomorrow.

It’s going to be a weather mess for the qualifying round tomorrow. I have the first time of the day at 8am. Temps are expected to be in the low 40’s with a wind chill in the low 30’s. It gets warmer for the afternoon, but the wind looks like it starts to absolutely howl by noon. There should be some interesting scores.