New England Adventures

My dad has always said that I’ve led a very golden life. I am starting to think that he is right. It’s not anything that I do but it’s the people that I meet along the way who help me out in tremendous ways.

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind but a blast! We had one week off in which I flew to Phoenix to relax and play a little golf at some courses that I had not played. One was a Top 100 course called Estancia, home of Bubba Watson. I have been trying to get on to play for months and they finally had us out one afternoon when it was well over 105 degrees. One week off from the Tour was nice but I could have used an extra one. I flew back to Chicago to pick up my Jeep and headed east to Youngstown, OH for the night. The next day I headed on to White Plains, NY to stay with a friend from Edmond. He works at a country club and up there the clubs house their employees so I stayed the night at the golf course. It was a lot of fun because all of their employees are from Poland so I felt like I was in another country! The next morning I woke up early and drove to Winged Foot West Course to play a two-hour round with my caddy Jose. I didn’t play well but I met some great people and they treated me so well! The starter gave me a goody bag of a hat and Ralph Lauren polo! I met the GM Colin Burns who ended up helping me out in a great way the following weekend.

After I played Winged Foot I had a quick lunch at a cute diner in Stamford, CT then headed on to Bloomfield, CT. I decided to play an 18-hole practice round making that 36 holes in one day. I was tired but had to go to our weekly Meet The Pros Party at the course. I didn’t stay long because I had a 7:00am Pro Am the following morning. I decided not to touch a club on Thursday because it had been a crazy week and my body needed a rest. It turned out to work all right because my opening round went well and put me in great position for the weekend. I shot 67 but continued to score worse and worse as the tournament went on: 70 and 72. I ended up -1 for the tournament and finishing tied for 18th. A year ago I would have been happy with that finish but now that I’ve tasted blood with a top 5 finish I know that I should be toying with that leaderboard every week.

As soon as the tournament finished I hopped in my Jeep and headed north to Boston with some new tires on the baby! Tires are so expensive but since I am almost to 50,000 miles I decided it was time to make their feet feel a little better. It was my first time to Boston but I fell in love as soon as I arrived. The Winged Foot GM hooked me up with a place to stay at The Harvard Club downtown. It was way out of my league so I had to be on my best behavior. I cleaned up my room before the housekeeping ladies could get a hold of it. I don’t ever care to take hotel soap and shampoo but this place was so nice I took it every day! There were about 25 of us from the Tour who hung out in Boston Sunday night for dinner and drinks. I made it an early night because I woke up early and drove to Hingham, MA to play Boston Golf Club. It is a fairly new golf course but one that is new in the Top 100. It was gorgeous!!! I had a great caddy named Danny who was born and raised in Boston. We struggled to understand each other but it was another nice two hour round. I drove back to the city and found myself in Cambridge on Harvard’s campus. I bought a hoodie since I don’t own one and since their colors are similar to OU’s I figured it was okay. The traffic and roads are crazy and sometimes hard to maneuver through but I finally found myself back at The Harvard Club where I walked from to shop for the rest of the day. I had to make a pit stop at Nike Town. It’s a must for me at every large city I visit. I had delicious pad thai and ice cream on my way back to the hotel. The next morning I woke up super early to play The Country Club in Brookline, MA. It is a famous course and well in the top 20 on the Top 100 list. It has been around since the 1800s and a movie called The Greatest Game Ever Played was filmed after the club. I was lucky to be able to play it and once again I had a wonderful caddy named Tom who was a Boston native. We had a great time but my short and sweet trip to Boston came to a conclusion following the round.


My friends Cara, Jessi, and Tara


Boston Golf Club

#18 The Country Club


Cambridge

I made the quick drive up to Concord, NH where we are playing this week. It is night and day from Boston. Concord is very laid back and tiny! It’s been a relaxing week and I’ve only played the course once. I feel good about my game plan and will tee it up later this afternoon. It is going to be a hot one! Well over 100 degrees, which is hot for the northeast! Live scoring will be found on lpgafuturestour.com, check it out!

Hope everyone is doing well and beating the heat this summer! I want to thank my sponsors and everyone else who is making this all possible. I'm having fun and loving what I'm doing. I have met some wonderful people along the way and that is what makes it all worthwhile. I'm blessed.