Good Weekend - T2

I placed T2 at the event at PGA National this past weekend. I was in the running to win all the way through but came up a little short. It was a great learning experience to be in the position where a good round could win the tournament. It's interesting how your perspective changes in that position where you know every shot counts and determines whether you win or not.

At times I had to make 10' putts to save par, and knowing the situation I was in I knew I had to come through (and did). Other times it was a 3' putt, but I was just as aware of the situation and treated those 3-footers no different than the ten-footers.

Probably the biggest situation and one that I'm particularly proud of was a really bad tee shot that was headed out-of-bounds. Amazingly the ball hit a tree and ricocheted off some branches and bounced back out into the fairway, which left 200 yards to the pin on an elevated, small green.

While assessing the shot and making my decisions I recognized the importance of that moment. We were on the 3rd to last hole, and a bogey at this point would hurt any chance I might have to win or place top 3 in the tournament. While walking towards the ball to get into my setup I even said to myself, "This shot is going to determine where you finish, so you have to execute."

The lie was slightly downhill and slightly ball above my feet. The wind was blowing hard left-to-right and slightly hurting. I trusted my swing and let it rip.. the ball took off in a piercing ball flight, landed on the front of the green and bounced hard right and into the rough just off the green, stopping about a foot short of a bunker. I'll take it. I chipped up to 4'. At that point I knew I was going to make the putt. There was no other option.

It was a great experience to go through moments like that, and I had quite a few of them. I can't say I always came through, but as each moment of adversity came I continued to dig deep and do everything in my ability to win the moment.

To top it off, I've now achieved both of my golf goals for the year. The first goal was to win a single day tournament, and I did that in February. The second goal was to place top 3 in a "major", or a 2 day event, and I did that this past weekend. Time for some new goals!