Prague

My time in Europe is over. I can't believe it. 5 weeks across the pond is the right amount of time where you start getting accustom to the taste of Coca Cola Light, lukewarm drinks, not flinching at crazy foreign drivers, and you begin to use European sayings and words without thinking it's not normal for a southern girl to use them. I've always had friends and family travel throughout Europe but I never thought in a million years I would have the chance. This year has been a whirlwind with a lot of last minute across the world travels. Just like any young professional golfer, I have days of doubt with how my season will play out and will my talent be enough to allow me to continue to live out this dream I have. My life is blessed beyond measures and not a day goes by that I don't realize that. I've got the best families back home in Oklahoma City who not only help me financially but are with me every step of the way with positive and encouraging words. They care more about my well-being than my golf scores and that allows me to swing freely and play with a happy heart. God is good. I realized I didn't write about how my 4th week went in Switzerland. I became a local at my bed and breakfast. No one spoke English but when I sat down in the restaurant with a bunch of these old men watching "football" they knew to bring me out a bowl of spaghetti followed up with a scoop of vanilla gelato. I loved it. We had the most beautiful player party down on the water of Ascona. They set up a massive screen so that all the European golfers could watch the Euro Cup. I enjoyed having my American friends Sara Brown and her boyfriend Derek come over for the week. I had been sick the week before in Slovakia and before she left the US she asked if I needed her to bring me anything. I said "yes, a Diet Coke.". I think she was meaning bring drugs for me but the Diet Coke cured me and made me feel so much better! I possibly made my first travel mistake this week and it was not signing up for a local caddy. I'm pretty positive I did weeks before but no one showed up on the first tee for the first round so I huffed it around with my trolley and shot +1, -4 making the cut and playing the weekend! I hired a 21 year old English guy named Ollie who is a regular caddy out on the LET. His player didn't make the cut so she let me use him for the final two rounds. I had such a fun time with him and played okay...just didn't hole enough putts to take it low. Most of the players and I hopped on a charter bus and drove back up to Milan, Italy for the night to fly out the next morning for Prague, Czech Republic! The city of Milan was not convenient to get to from the airport so I stayed put and rested up for my 5th and final week in Europe. The great thing about traveling in Europe is the flights are short and sweet (nothing like this flight I'm currently on back to the States.) I had a long day at the course Tuesday, making really good notes during my practice round. I played with two girls from Finland both Tuesday and Wednesday. That's what I love most about this Tour. The people. We are from all over the world yet we have the commonality of golf and that's what brings us all together. The players and staff of the LET are so friendly and helpful. People learn your name quickly and care about you. But back to Prague...Wednesday morning I discovered my yardage book wasn't in my golf bag where I left it the night before. There had been some problems going on in the bag room with things missing and someone must've gone through my bag and taken my book. I was really upset about it because I spent hours on the course the day before and now I had to start with a fresh book without another practice round before the tournament began. Kind of a bummer but things happen. Interesting fact: in Europe they call yardage books Birdie Books. I like the positivity! On Wednesday afternoon, about 10 LET rookies and our caddies were shuttled to Prague City Golf Club where we played in a 9 hole junior pro am. I'll be honest, we were all exhausted and sometimes pro ams can take the life out of you. This one was different. I played with a 7 year old boy, a 10 year old boy, and a 14 year old girl. We played great! We had to use everyone's drives at least twice so we shot -5 on 9 holes. I was really impressed with how good the kids were. The 14 year old girl could kill her drives when she connected but I felt like the mother of the group as her and her caddy friend smoked an entire pack of cigarettes in 9 holes. That's one thing I can't wait to get away from, smoking! It's everywhere in Europe. In Prague on Thursday I had a short and sweet practice, taking it easy because I was beginning to develop some aches and pains in the old body. That afternoon I hung out with my English buddies Hannah Burke, Ellie Givens and Hannah's caddie Chris. We went out on the river and they pedaled a boat while I sat in the back and relaxed and took pictures. We had dinner out, got ice cream and walked around the city for the evening. I had an early morning round so I made it back to my hotel early. Round 1 was Friday and I met my local caddy Tereza on the first tee. She's a 15 year old girl from Prague. She had never caddied before but she's a golfer so I knew she'd do just fine. On one of the first holes she let me know that she loved America and Americans which isn't something you really hear too often. I kept getting told that Americans are dumb and overweight. That's not a very nice stereotype but as I'm on this flight back to America I can say the latter is definitely true. I haven't seen large people in a long time and I keep catching myself staring at the man who needed to buy himself two seats. Geez. Anywho, I felt really bad for Tereza because one of the other local caddies wore golf shoes so she wasn't allowed to step on the greens to get any of the pins. The other caddy in the group was a mom who stayed far away from the greens so she could get a head start and not lag behind. I had Teresa working overtime, cleaning my ball, grabbing and tending pins and waiting for the entire group to finish out to put the pin back in. She did a fantastic job and kept up which was a huge plus. Something I'll never forget that she told me was that she adored my iron shots. I'd never been told that before but I think she found it interesting that I kept playing my low Oklahoma knock down shot in the windy conditions. We played great the first round with a -1, 71 but Saturday's round didn't work out in my favor. I didn't make putts and I didn't hit it close enough to the hole to give myself a whole lot of birdie opportunities. The wind was tricky for me that day with cross winds and swirly winds which is no excuse but club selection was where I let myself down. I bogeyed 16 and 17 which is never good and I missed making the cut by one single shot. That's always heartbreaking but as soon as I left the golf course I got to thinking "I wonder how much it'd cost to change my flight to come home a day early." I called US Airways as soon as I got back to the hotel and was shocked at the cost of change. It wasn't expensive at all and I'd be spending that if I stayed in Prague an extra day so I have now found myself flying over the Atlantic back to Phoenix. Unfortunately I had to go from Prague to Frankfurt to Philly to Phoenix but I don't care, I'm coming home! What a life changing experience I've had not just these past five weeks but this whole year! I can't believe I had the opportunity to play in such amazing countries this summer but God has been good to me. I plan on not touching the golf clubs for a short while...I might be escaping up to Flagstaff for the weekend to get away from the 115 degree temps do I'll take the clubs then. I've got a lot of catching up to do since I've been traveling for 7 weeks straight. I need to start planning my next adventure which looks like a handful of Symetra Tour events in mid to late July and August on the east coast and if I can find some funds I'd like to make it back over to Ireland and England in August for some more LET events. I'm going to miss the new friends I've made but can't wait to see my Americans again!!! Thank you friends for keeping up with me while I've been gone and cheering me up if I've ever needed it. I'm a lucky girl!