I don't know where to start since I've been gone so long but I'll try to remember how it all went down. I chose to fly into Orlando this time because I've never been there and I grew up an Orlando Magic fan....Penny Hardaway was my favorite baller, that's why my dog is named Penny. We were not disappointed. As we drove to our hotel, we got a free showing of Disney's fireworks. The following four days I played practice rounds, trying to learn the four courses that the Futures Q School was being played on. The weather was nice, hot, with calm winds. I played three of my practice rounds with my good friend Lucy Nunn. We had bets going on for the entire tournament that were worth 25 cents. It's a good thing she's tight with her money or else I'd be broke!
I played with some really neat people this past week. One girl was on the Golf Channel's Big Break in Hawaii. She talked me in to applying for next years show...I'll keep you all posted on how that goes. Another girl was getting back into competitive golf because her husband had been killed in Iraq and she wanted to do something that she loved instead of being a manager at a restaurant. How inspiring is that? Other girls I played with were from Australia, Kenya, Columbia, Peru, Mexico, and Canada. I even played with a girl I call "Egg Roll" who's more American than me. She represents the asian homegirls out there even though she's from Dallas...she's just a wannabe Asian :) (She wanted a shout out so there you go Cung). It's a pretty sweet sport I play because I've got friends from all over the world. It was one of the worst weeks with slow play though. I'm a pretty patient player but I've never wanted to rip out my hair more than this week's tournament. 6 hour rounds can kill a person. I'm happy with how my game is going. I had three chip ins in my round today which is probably a personal best. I wouldn't know because I don't have a memory to remember but it was pretty special. I had a 4th chip hanging on the lip but I guess Jesus just wanted me to have 3 today...which is fine by me. I made a 35 yard pitch shot in my first round so 4 chip ins total is a great week to me. I had one horrific round in the middle of the week. For some reason, after going 73-70, I woke up the third morning with absolutely no confidence in my game and a head full of doubts. It's weird how the body works but I am working on understanding it, recognizing it, and changing it for the better. I'm going to meet with my sports psychologist in the coming weeks to get that sort of stuff under control so I will be healthy in the head for my next tournament.
Thankfully I played really well after my major hiccup round and made the four day cut and played well today, therefore I gained full status on the Futures Tour for the 2010 season. I have one more small tournament back in Daytona Beach, FL at the beginning of December. It's a small one that doesn't mean much at all....JUST KIDDING! It's the LPGA Final Stage of Qualifying School. Something I've been working toward for years and years. This past week really prepared me in knowing what I need to do next month in order to make it on the big tour.
Now while I was gone, I didn't just golf. I would go crazy if that's all my days were consumed of. We decided to go to Downtown Disney yesterday afternoon and go check it out. We took my friend Lucy with us and we had a blast. Since I owed her a few quarters from our bets, I bought the two of us these two foot Mickey pencils so that when we did our pin sheets on the first tee this morning, we might get some stares, maybe a laugh or two. I told her that if she shot under par, she had to use it at the scorers tent. They are hilarious looking so hopefully we can start a trend. I worked on sharpening mine for two hours last night and still didn't get it looking right so that's what kept me entertained for my six hour round today. My cart driver from Peru probably thought I was crazy. I also bought this sweet Jamaican guy keychain...I needed a new keychain because my mom said I needed to get rid of my OU lanyard...since I'm not an OU student athlete anymore :( I guess I needed a more mature, sophisticated one so I bought this:
Lucy and I got a little crazy at Downtown Disney...
Welp, we are about to land in Dallas then on up to OK City! I hope everyone is having a great week and an even better weekend! Boomer Sooner!
What I'm Reading: Lovely Bones
What I'm Listening To: Lady Antebellum
Great post, Kendall, and congrats on earning your full status for the Futures Tour next season. I hope you cap it off with a great performance next month at that “little tournament” in Daytona Beach. I’ll be down there to root for a lot of players from the Futures that I know and I’ll look forward to saying hi to you and hopefully watching you play some holes during the week.
ReplyDeleteGood luck going for your LPGA card.
Pars and Birdies!!
Dave