Shell Houston Open : Pre Qualifying 72

I am trying to enter into the Shell Houston Open the same way I entered into the field at the Canadian Open, through Monday qualifying. Unlike the Canadian Open, the Shell has a pre qualifier because of the amount of contestants. Yesterday there were 173 players in the field... 50 moving forward. The qualifying will be done at Cypress Tradition Course which just so happens to be the course I played on for years as a collegiate player and the course in which I practice on daily. Through the practice round I could tell the pins where going to be set in the easiest positions the course which gave me an edge as well (Pins are marked by a paint mark the day before, you just have to find it). So if top 50 move forward I knew I really just had to stay calm, take with me what I had learned in the past couple weeks and cruise through this pre qualifying with as little stress as possible. I tell you what if it wasn't the "pre qualifying" and it was a tournament or the actual Monday qualifier when you have to make just about every birdie chance you are presented I would have been having fits. I struck the ball great , tee shots were again fine and my putts were all rolling smooth, great pace but lipped out 6 times ... 6 lip outs, 1 for eagle and the rest for birdie. I had myself prepared for the event mentally though where I understood that this round meant nothing, you don't have to shoot a real low score, you just have to make it through. I could see from my playing partners they weren't so prepared. One of them was going at every shot possible trying to tear the cover off the ball. Another was so nervous I felt bad for him, he was shanking, he was blocking everything right, his putting was too hard or too soft... I at one point just had to give him a little advice on being in this kind of stuff. I knew how he felt, he looked like I was on those first couple holes of the Canadian Open when everything was moving too fast. So like the season veteran I am ha... I let him know he was still in it, we have plenty of time and not to feel pressured to go quickly. The other fella I played with was a Nationwide member last year, his name was Ben Willman and I had good conversation with him through the round.

Today was the best I had ever felt on a golf course, I wasn't scoring as well as I should've been but I was accomplishing the task that I had set out for. I was calm and had confidence in hitting the shots and really had a laissez faire attitude toward if the putt went in or not... as long as I had my line and I hit it where I wanted it I could do no more. From speaking with Barry it seems that's the attitude you need towards putting is... pick your line, hit it... if it goes in move on... if it lips out and misses, move on. Sometimes that's tough and I still say there is a place for willing the ball into the hole but there sure is a whole lot less stress when you don't care if the ball goes in or out... and i would rather them in all day thank you.

One of the stories Barry had for me on the road was oddly enough from a guy he had met on his travels ... Ken Tarling. Anyone in the golf industry in Ontario for sure would know that name and it's quite ironic. He and Barry had been practicing for a couple days together and after a round Ken asked Barry a question and maybe I'll try and just narrate this thing... good story I learned a great deal from it.

Ken: "How do you feel after a great round of golf when you score well?"

Barry: "I feel great, confident, I love the game and very positive."

Ken: "How do you feel after a bad round of golf?"

Barry: "Quite the contrary, I am negative, upset, angry, I wonder if I'm in the right profession."

Ken: "See you're in the wrong profession if you're going to be changing your state after each individual round... You need to look at the process. You need to be in love with the process of being a professional golfer. You need to love waking up and going to the range and chipping and putting for hours. You need to love the process of meeting the new people and competing, you need to love the process of traveling from place to place. Good or bad days, you will learn from it and move forward within that process."

I really liked that story and it made me realize how great this life actually is and how much I want to be able to do it for years to come. It is the process that makes you a better player and those who learn from it, you can tell because to them a good or bad day is just another day.

By the way ... the pre qualifier moved 50 players forward to Monday qualifying... I was one of them shooting a 72.

JS