Tournament Recap: Phoenix Open Pre-Qualifier

• Posted on Grant
• in My Journey, Tournament Recap
• on January 28, 2016
• 2 Comments.

Overview: It was great to be out on the golf course playing a tournament today! I haven’t had the opportunity to play a tournament in quite a while, so it was really fun to feel that heat of competition again! I needed to place in the top 5 to advance to the Monday qualifier so I won’t be advancing this year. Even though I came up 4 shots short of advancing to the Monday qualifier, I had a very satisfying round of golf.  The weather was perfect today with no wind and 70 degree temperature. I teed off at 1pm and played in 4 hours and 45 minutes.

Highlights:

Hole #1: My first shot of the day was one of the best highlights. I was a little nervous, but I ripped a driver 300 yards down the middle of the fairway in between an out-of-bounds fence that was 10 yards left of the fairway and a water hazard that was 10 yards right of the fairway. Then I hit my 60 degree lob wedge to 20 feet and two putted for par.

Hole #2: I hit driver, then 3-wood into the greenside bunker. From there I splashed out to 5 feet and made the putt for birdie.

Hole #10: I pushed my drive into the trees on the right. From there, I hit a punch 4 iron to 15 feet and two putted for par.

Hole #15: I hit the best drive of the day: About 320 yards right down the middle of the fairway into about a 20 yard wide gap between the water on the left and trees on the right. Then from 191 yards, I hit a 6-iron to 30 feet and just missed the eagle putt, but tapped in for an easy birdie.

Positives: I stuck to my shot-by-shot process on every shot. I backed off of two shots because I lost focus, but I was 100% committed on about 95% of my shots today. Also, I got up and down 4 out of 4 times to save par when I missed greens.

Areas to Improve: My distance control with my approach shots was a little inconsistent. Most of my shots were online, but I had quite a few that were 15 to 20 feet from the flag instead of sticking them close. This left me with lots of 20 foot birdie putts on bumpy greens that led to a lot of pars.