Lake Wales, FL

I experienced some trials and tribulations this past weekend in Lake Wales, FL.  I got off to a fantastic start in my first round by posting -3, 69 and sat in a tie for 2^nd place.  Then Saturday and Sunday happened.  Somewhere in between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning my golf game took a breather and I did not play my best, whatsoever.  However, I did have a great veteran caddie on my bag, Upstate Jay.  I really enjoyed his company and hope to have him again in the future.  I am glad that weekend is over because I plan on playing a ton better this weekend.

As soon as I finished my round Sunday afternoon, I sat on 18 green and watched the leaders finish the golf tournament.  It was good for me to sit outside of the ropes and watch the golfers play the course I had just played.  It made me realize that I love to be inside the ropes and I love to be the one with the club in my hands over the ball.  I sat there for well over an hour and I feel I walked away with more knowledge.  Normally when a player plays bad, they want to get in their car and leave the course as fast as possible.  I didn’t have a flight to catch so I took the opportunity to watch the tournament end.  It was a valuable experience.  

I left Lake Wales and headed deeper into the sticks of Florida.  I decided to take a little getaway vacation to a place called Streamsong Resort.  It’s not on the map but its somewhere near Fort Meade, FL.  This place is special!  As soon as I pulled up, they knew my name and took care of my bags and car for me.  The resort opened two months ago and was gorgeous.  It is really modern but so comfortable and accommodating.  I had a nice dinner at the clubhouse and retreated back to my beautiful room for the evening.  I had a little room service Monday morning (I would never do that but there isn’t a gas station in a million miles.) I was in heaven!  It was raining but that didn’t discourage me from putting on my golf clothes and rain gear and heading to the clubhouse.  I got a rickshaw pull cart and met my playing partners and teed it up on 1. 450 yard par 4 straight up the hill….we were playing the senior tees.  Welcome to Streamsong.  I rated Streamsong Red for Golf Digest (my off-time gig) and I thoroughly enjoyed the day, the rainy weather and my unique playing partners and caddies in the group.  I was sad to leave but I had another week of work to be done in north Orlando.

I drove up to Longwood, FL and settled in to my hotel for the week.  We are playing Alaqua Country Club in the IOA Classic.  I’ve had two really good practice rounds with my good friend Jessi White and just finished up a pro am with a fun team.  I’m able to stay up tonight and watch a little March Madness before hitting the hay.  I have a veteran caddie on the bag this week, Debbie Raso.  I played really solid today and I have already forgotten about my small blip of poor golf this past weekend.  Golf mojo is a rollercoaster and I prefer riding high.  The forecast looks to be a little rainy but I hope we get lucky so I can make my late Sunday night flight back to Phoenix.  I have missed home this trip!!!  Thanks for the support and cheers.  Hoping to bring back some good news.

What I’m Reading: Frackers

http://www.symetratour.com/golf/blogs/2014-audio-interviews.aspx

Wildfire Cactus Tour

Wow! What a hectic travel day!  Let me describe this experience for you so you can feel the anxiety I felt this morning.

Billy left at 5:30am to be a kind boyfriend and regrip my clubs and polish up some irons before I left for two weeks.  He returned with them looking brand new except he needed to get right back to Ping because his set up guy no showed him this morning.  I called for a cab at 7am to pick me up for the airport at 8:15am. 8. 15. At 8:30am I called to see where my ride was. At 8:45am I called again to see where my ride was. At 9:00am I called to see where my ride was.  At this point I’m not feeling very cheery especially when the dispatcher told me a cab was on its way but wouldn’t arrive for another 20 minutes.  9:20am? I’m pretty sure I made a reservation for 8:15am. My flight was at 10:25am and I do live in a large metropolis city where a few people fly out of on a Monday morning, Spring Break no less.  Oh yea, and Billy had BOTH sets of keys on him at work. As I waited in the house for over an hour I went through a rollercoaster of emotions as one could imagine.  In the end, I decided that I wasn’t going to die over it and no one was going to get hurt. Wait. Let me retract that last statement.  I decided I was in zero control of the situation now and the worst that could happen was dollars being subtracted from my bank account for a flight change.  "Go with the flow and smell the roses."  A taxi man showed up (down the street…he couldn’t find my house with my luggage sitting in the driveway) at 9:25am and I told him “I know it’s not your fault but it’s your company’s fault and I need you to go super fast to the airport. Don’t turn on the GPS. I’ll get you there! Go!”  ...“Go” for him meant the dang speed limit, not getting out in the intersection to turn left on a green light, and surely not going through any yellow lights.  I put my head in my hands and kept telling myself everything will work out.  We finally arrived at the airport after taxi man made a few wrong turns out of the neighborhood and me coaxing him to drive just a litttttle faster. I threw him money and raced to the A list ticket line and security line.  I. MADE. IT. I flew over to Orlando and by the grace of God, both of my bags made it as well. I’m a thankful girl laying in bed watching my Thunder play a close ball game against the Bulls.  Many lessons were learned today.

Quick review of last week! I played in a Cactus Tour event at Wildfire in Phoenix. It was the biggest Cactus Tour event ever! 65 players and a ton of great names.  I fought hard my first round but fell at the very end by finishing bogey bogey to shoot two over.  That left me with a horrible taste in my mouth so I went to my home club The Raven and pounded some shots on the range.  The next round I left a TON of opportunities out there and only shot one under. By a ton I mean I was home in two on par 5s and walked away with par…I missed multiple putts within 5 feet and thankfully stuck it to less than a foot to tap in the birdie on 18 for that one under score.  I was well behind the leaders but knew I could make a decent paycheck if I could just put together one solid round.  I was paired the final day with my good friend Jessi White.  My first tee shot of the day I snapped a three wood into the desert and made bogey.  Not my intentions…  On the 3rd hole, I was just in front of the green on a par 5 in two shots and walked away with par.  This was starting to tick me off.  But then I reached the 4^th hole and made a great 6 footer for birdie.  Then I made a sweeeeet putt on the 5^th hole for birdie.  Then I mishit a putt on 6 for birdie but it found the bottom of the cup.  Then I was home in two on the par 5 9^th and I made the eagle putt.  Then I made my 4 foot birdie putt on 10. And 11. Made a ridiculous save on 13. Made another birdie on 14. 16 gave me drama.  I put my tee shot in the desert, I nailed a tree on the second shot and sent the ball 90 degrees left. I got up and down from 90 yards out for par. Oops. And made my 7^th birdie of the round on 18.  7 birdies. 1 eagle. 3 bogeys for a 66. I moved up the leaderboard to 5^th place and cashed a nice check from the Cactus Tour.  I knew I was bound to crack open the jar. I know it’s in me to play great every round. I know it’s not going to happen everyday because that is the nature of golf but I can feel it in my bones that I am able to throw down some psycho low rounds on a fairly regular basis.  I worked hard on my chipping the past few days.  I will continue to work a large majority of my practice time on my short game.  From the story above, I made it safe and sound to Orlando and will get after it tomorrow.  We play at Lake Wales Country Club this weekend.  I’ve hired a veteran caddy to tote the bag for me this week so that should be good. 

I want to thank John Semcken and Pacific Palms Resort from the City of Industry, CA for a new partnership with me this season.  John and I were paired in the last Symetra Tour’s pro am and won! I am proud to have the Pacific Palms logo on my towels this season and have an ongoing relationship with them in the future.  Thank you so, so much!

What I'm Reading: We Are Water

What I'm Listening To: Eric Church 

We Survived LA!

Wow! What a weekend we just had on the Symetra Tour.  The weather predictions were correct!  We received a ton of rain on our opening round, which was canceled, and the tournament was reduced to 36 holes.  Saturday was another messy day.  We were delayed until the afternoon and then only played 3 holes due to rain and thunder and lightning.  Not a good combination for safe golf.

Talk about frustrating. 

Sunday morning I finished 15 holes and it was an ugly start to the day.  At one point I was five over par.  I haven’t been that many over par in a long time but I told myself “this is one round of many. It’s not life or death. Play hard and control your attitude to be the best it can be.”  I ended up having three birdies in a row on the back nine and salvaged a two over par for the round. 

The tournament went in to Monday (my birthday.)  I was only four shots back of the leaders and had absolutely nothing to lose.  The conditions were really soft so I could pound driver all day long and fire at pins if not behind pins because we were spinning the ball so much.  I was four under par on the front nine including a dumb three-putt bogey.  (All three putts are dumb…I had four for the tournament. Sickening!) I continued to stick it on the back nine but made NOTHING. I ended shooting the most frustrating, easy three under 69 of my life.  When I saw what the leaderboard was doing it made me sick to my stomach thinking what could have been.  I cannot control the ball finding the bottom of the cup but I gave myself a ton of opportunities and that is all I can ask for. 

I ended up tying for 5^th and currently sit 9^th on the season long money list.  A 14^th place and a 5^th place finish is a pretty good start to the season…much better start than last year where I finished 19^th on the money list at the end of the year.  I have a lot of positives to take from the last two tournaments.   Golf is a rollercoaster ride but it’s best to ride out the highs for as long as possible. 

I met some fantastic people in LA this past week and we ended up winning the pro am which was great.  I didn’t get to see much of the city due to the weather and the crazy unpredictable golf schedule.  We bowled. Saw a movie. Slept a lot. I hope to go back to LA sometime soon to play the really nice golf courses and site see. 

I drove Billy and I home last night in record time.  We were both exhausted so we will celebrate me turning one year older at a nice dinner this week.  I’m taking today off from golf to catch up on my life after being gone for so long and then will get back at it tomorrow.  I am playing in a Cactus Tour event next week so I need to prepare to be a contender. I am most likely withdrawing from the Monday Qualifier I had intended to play in for the LPGA Founders Cup in Phoenix.  I have decided to spend 100% of my time devoted to the Symetra Tour and securing my LPGA Card for next season. God willing!

Thanks for the continuous support and the kind words.  Boomer!

2014 is Off and Running!

First Symetra Tour event of 2014 is in the books!

We began our season last week in Mesa, AZ.  I was so thankful that it was in my own backyard!  I was able to sleep in my own bed, cook in my own kitchen, and drive my own Jeep that week.  The simple things in life most people take for granted yet they are the things I crave the most while on the road.

I had played Longbow Golf Club many times so I was pretty comfortable heading into the tournament.  Billy was on the bag and I told him there was one new rule this year…don’t pull my clubs. I sometimes appear to be laid back but when it comes to me and my golf, I love to do my own numbers, read most of my own putts, and rely on my own judgments. I really do appreciate a good caddy to be my teammate but something I learned late in last year’s season was I prefer to pull my clubs from the bag. Golfers are weird and I’m not exempt from that category.

                                                                                                                     

I played pretty solid in my opening round and shot a disappointing two over par. I had work to do on Saturday afternoon and work I did!  Golf came very easy to me and I shot a simple 67, five under par.  It was a pretty easy 67 other than missing a two footer for my lone bogey on the day.  We have a weekend ritual of stuffing our faces with sushi so I celebrated the low round with a ton of fresh fish. I went to bed and woke up on Sunday and golf became more difficult to me on the final round. It was an uphill climb the entire day and thankfully birdied the final hole to get it back to even on the day, 3 under for the tournament.  I ended up placing T-14^th.  With two out of three poor rounds I will take a 14^th place finish.  I have a ton of room for improvement but I also had some moments of greatness in those three rounds. 

Immediately following the final round I drove over to La Quinta for the 15^th Sooners in the Desert weekend.  It was my 5^th year to participate and I was grateful that my schedule was able to fit it in.  It is a huge fundraiser for the University of Oklahoma’s home golf course, Jimmie Austin GC.  A ton of Sooner donors, former student-athletes, coaches, Athletic Directors, and celebrities participate.  It is a ton of fun and we raised a lot of money for the golf course.

I made my way over this morning to Industry Hills, CA for my first practice round on this week’s tournament course.  I have played many, many golf courses in my life but this one ranks high up on the list for being the hilliest course.  I am not sure how we are going to get the players around in a decent amount of time.  We are expected to receive around 4 inches of rain Friday and more on Saturday so it could make out for an interesting weekend.  I’m having Billy fly in to tote my bag thankfully. 

This is my 5^th season on the Symetra Tour.  I love this game.  I love what I do.  I am so thankful for the support from my sponsors Charlie and Cassie. I could not do it without you.  I have many others who push and pull for me and I truly appreciate it.  I think this is going to be a great year!

2013 Season In The Books!

The 2013 Symetra Tour season is in the books! I’m currently on a flight heading home to Phoenix after being in Florida for the last two weeks. I am so ready for a break of travel, practice rounds, and grinding. This season has been a success in many ways. It was my best professional season result wise for starters. I grew as a player and a person this year. I’ve met some fantastic people over the years and this year was no different. My knowledge for the game has grown exponentially and I hope that I will be able to help not only myself in the future but also many others who are looking to perfect this game we call golf. My “team” has grown in number this year and these vital people are a direct reflection of my success on and off the golf course.  As you often hear, I would not be where I am today if it were not for my dear companions in life.  

Life is great! I have such a different perspective today than I did three years ago. It’s taken me a ton of heartache, sleepless nights, and countless counseling sessions with my preciousbest friends and professionals to get a better grasp of how truly blessed I am. I wouldn’t trade my life or my story with anyone. I am a much stronger person than I ever thought could be possible.  I have been heavy weight to so many friends in my life and I hope to be able to pay it forward one day. I am indebted to you all!  

I did not know what 2013 had in store for me but as it’s coming to an end, I’m turning the page with a huge smile on my face.  With the slow start I had, I wouldn’t have predicted this feeling of pride and accomplishment.  My first event of the year was held in my backyard of Arizona and I kicked the year off with a missed cut.  A couple of more tournaments came and went with me making cuts but finishing near the bottom of the totem pole. I remember vividly a conversation I had with my host-housing mom Debbie in her kitchen in Charlotte, NC after I received another meaningless paycheck. I was sick and tired of not seeing my work pay off. It was a turning point. I’m either done playing golf or I’m going to change things up. What isthe definition of insanity? Something like doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result?

I began traveling and staying in hotels by myself. I would show up at the course during practice round days with no one in particular to play with. It was the luck of the draw. Sometimes I’d play the entire round by myself or sometimes I’d play with girls I’d never played with before.  That allowed me to not only meet new friends but also see how my competitors played their golf. Prior to that I was in the same old routine and practice rounds felt like Groundhog’s Day to me, playing with the same people over and over on courses we have seen for four years in a row. Those people were and are still my best friends but it was good for all of us to change the scenery.  I needed to freshen things up and that was one way of doing it.  

I never knew coming in to professional golf that I would be on the Symetra Tour for four years.  I didn’t think it would take me this long. But it has. I used to be bitter about it and not enjoy the moment.  That is one more thing that I made a conscious decision to change. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the people around you.  Why be unhappy with where your life is at the moment if you’re always looking ahead to something that hasn’t happened yet?

After playing on the Ladies European Tour in 2012 I realized that their membership and staff were one big happy family.  I felt like that was something that was missing on the Symetra Tour up until this year. We have a revamped staff and I truly believe that has changed the personality of the Tour, from a player’s point of view. For the most part, the professional female golfers all get along and enjoy each other’s company.  We have had so much fun year. This Tour is getting better and better and it is because of the people who are putting in the hard work to put on our tournaments week in and week out.  

I don’t feel the need to go into nitty gritty details about my golf results other than I had a great second half to the season. After my Charlotte tournament I had two runner-up finishes as well as a sixth place finish. A hole-in-one was made in June and a few other highlights I’m sure. Being happy and whole in my life is one large contributor to my personal success and confidence. I sometimes reflect back to college when I didn’t come on that strong until my last two years as an upperclassman.  I got my feet wet and I saw how things were done and once I put myself into contention a few times I understood it and I liked it.  I’m attaching my professional career to that. I’ve gotten my feet wet. I understand how things are done and after putting myself into contention a few times, I like it and I want to be there every week.  Confidence and self-belief is the recipe for that.  

I found out this morning that I finished 19th on the season ending Symetra Tour money list so that means I will be sent directly to Final Stage of LPGA Q School. That’ll save me some money by not having to go to LPGA 2nd Stage Q School and I get to go home and actually have a longer off-season! I need it, as does everyone else after this long year.  I thank you for being my support, my friends, and my family as I go through this journey of a dream.  

Boomer.

Kendall