Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happy 4th!!!

Today was a nice and relaxing day which happened to be the 4th of July!  I spent most of the day with my family and some friends.  We played badminton, I fished, and we threw the dogs in the pool.  I didn't want to get in because it wasn't sunny and it eventually poured down raining!  We watched fireworks at UCO and then headed home.  

I'm super excited about tomorrow.  First up will be Roddick vs. Federer and then a few hours later will be Tiger vs. AK.  It can't get any better! I love Tiger but my boy is AK so that's who I'll be cheering for tomorrow.  I'll prolly play once AK accepts his trophy for the second year in a row.

Things have been crazy but good this summer.  I've been on the road a lot with golf and have been to some gorgeous places.  When I'm back in Oklahoma, it seems like I'm either on a golf course or meeting with people discussing my pro career working on sponsorships.  It's not as easy as I thought but I really can't complain.  Having the golf course as my "office" is probably the best job anyone can ever have.  I just want to make it last forever.  

My first pro tournament was in Denver, CO late May and I came away with a 2nd place finish.  I made $8400 which I feel weird telling people about but I guess it's public knowledge.  Why can't everyone's income be known to the public?  That would make it fair.  

After Colorado I came home for 24 hours and went to two weddings in one night and then headed out to Pinehurst, NC the very next morning.  Pinehurst is one of my favorite places in all of America.  I love the environment and the people.  Their accents are by far the best and the chicken salad and sweet tea is indescribable.  I had my trainer from OU caddy for me in the US Womens Open qualifier and he did a great job.  We made it on to the sectional qualifier which happened two weeks later.  My mom and I drove up to Chapel Hill and the following morning I played with Alex on a mountain at one of Jack Nicklaus' courses called The Governors Club.  It's absolutely gorgeous.  After we played we drove over to Durham and I got to go inside Cameron Indoor Stadium and ran into Grant Hill! Of course I got a picture with him and we talked to him for a little while.  My life is complete now that I met him haha.  

I had my friend go down to Bryan, TX with me and my mom to caddy for me in the US Womens Open Sectional qualifier.  Unfortunately, I decided to let my emotions take over and my patience was down to nothing so my road to the Open ended there.  I put 4 balls in the water and three putted 7 times and ended up missing the Big Dance by 4 shots.  I learned that every shot is important and no matter how my round is going to never give up because you never know what can happen if you give every shot 110%.  I will give it my all next year and by doing that, I'm pretty sure I'll have a good chance at being in the US Womens Open.  

My mom and I drove down to Garland, TX to play in the Texas Womens Open two weeks ago.  I'm not a fan of that town but I could definitely live in Dallas.  I don't mind traveling 45 minutes to a good restaurant or across town for a good mall.  I also like driving 80mph and not feel like I'm flying like a bat out of hell because everyone drives that fast!  I played in a pro am with 3 guys (a grandpa with his two sons-in-laws?).  They owned a wine cellar company and we ended up winning by 9 shots! We had a lot of fun that day even though I felt like I didn't play my best for them.  Unfortunately my luck ended there because my game didn't turn around for the tournament either.  I hit the ball well and had no more than two putts on every green but I wasn't hitting greens as often as I should and I wasn't making birdies like I normally do.  I had some big holes but kept my emotions level and I was happy about that because my patience has been very low lately.  I didn't get upset about how I played until I started driving back to Oklahoma.

Golf is like a rollercoaster.  When you have a good day on the course, you feel like you can beat anybody but on a day that doesn't go your way, you feel like quitting and going to find a new job.  At least that's how I felt.  I learned a lot in the past few weeks by having some adversity.  I know that success as a professional golfer is not going to come overnight and that it's a marathon.  I need to put my time in as a pro golfer and use every round and every tournament as an experience.  I need to learn quickly from my mistakes and to give it my all.  This is a very expensive dream I'm pursuing but I have found that if I think about that while I'm playing, it's only going to hurt me.  I have tried to stay organized about my schedule and about my expenses but that stuff creeps into my mind too often and it just makes me go a little crazy.  I'm working on slowing down and enjoying this time in my life.  I know that in ten years I will be looking back at my time as a 22 year old and beating myself up thinking, "why didn't I enjoy my time when I could be a kid?"  Life goes too fast so I need to slow myself down and live in the moment.  

I don't head off until the middle of July for Crossville, TN.  I'm playing in the Tennessee Open and then turning around and playing in the Illinois Open in Romeoville, TN.  They should be two tournaments that will have a good amount of competition but two tournaments that I have a chance to win.  Coming home with some moo-lah wouldn't be a bad thing either.  

This week will be fun because I'm playing with some sports anchors on Monday morning, helping out with a US Kids golf tournament, playing with an old teammate, doing a press conference at my country club, and maybe taking it a little more easy this week. Hope everyone had a happy 4th like I did!  Until next time...