The Heritage (Hilton Head Island)

Happy Easter.

I was a little busy with the family this week and along with the weather delay on Thursday, I wasn't able to blog each day. Kevin and I both arrived early Monday morning and met Rickey for an early practice round. Harbour Town Golf Links has to be my favorite course on Tour. I wish more golf courses were like this one; 6950 yards with narrow, tree lined, dog-legged fairways and small greens. It was a nice relief from the big 7400 yard golf courses we see so often now.

Monday and Tuesday practice sessions went well. On Wednesday, Kevin went and played off site with Garrett Willis, Brennan Webb and Lee Janzen. I had the day off and took the family to the beach. We all had a great time. Geraldine and the kids fell in love with Hilton Head Island and they all informed me that we WILL be coming back here for a family vacation.

We teed off Thursday afternoon at 1:40. A three-putt on number 3 and then a miscue on the wind and/or club selection on the par 3 fourth caused a solid 5 iron to finish short in the water; ending with a double bogey. A thunderstorm rolled in when we were on the 12th hole. They brought everyone in off the course and play did not resume until 7:10pm. A three-putt on 13 after the resumption of play left us at 4 over through 14 when play was suspended due to darkness at 8pm.

Friday morning we had to be back into position at 7:45am. I was feeling good about the day because Kevin has been hitting the ball well all week and we just needed to clean up the short game. When play resumed, Kevin started strong; opening up with 2 birdies and finished the first round at two over par 73. We only had about 20 minutes until our round two tee time, so we went to the range to stay loose. Kevin continued playing well and was able to get it to 3 under for the second round; one under for the tournament through 15 holes. Two late bogeys on our 16th and 17th holes put us back to one over for the tournament and we ended up missing the cut by one shot. I was encouraged with what I saw from Kevin this week. I felt we were back playing golf again and I could see it in his attitude and confidence. I know Kevin is extremely disappointed with the final results. He had so much support this week from family and friends and he wanted to play well for everyone. But I'm sure that everyone that came out to watch him play will agree with me; he is close to really playing well. Thanks again for every ones support. I wasn't able to say good-bye to most of you but it was great seeing everyone and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

On Saturday, the family and I drove to Jacksonville, FL to spend Easter with my parents. I will be leaving here after our Easter dinner tonight and start driving to New Orleans. I will try to knock out about 5 hours of my 8 hour drive tonight. I am meeting Kevin tomorrow morning for an 11am pro-am at the TPC Louisiana in New Orleans. Geraldine and the kids are flying back to Charlotte tomorrow morning.

Texas Open - Friday

We met this morning at 10:30. After a some short game practice we headed out to the range. Kevin and Rickey worked for about an hour. Nothing new was introduced, we just continued to work on the same thoughts we had from last night. During lunch, we found out that the Tour delayed the afternoon tee times 20 minutes due to the extreme wind conditions. The pace of play in the morning was much slower due to the difficult conditions. The delay moved our tee time back to 1:55pm

On a day where the scoring average (75.289) was the highest on the PGA Tour since the 2008 British Open, Kevin's game stayed strong in the tough conditions. We still had some loose swings with the driver, but for the most part, it was a good day. Two late bogeys on our 17th and 18th holes put us at 3 over (75) for the day but Kevin's iron game was solid along with his short game and putting. Now we can carry this into next week and build on it.

Tonight, I changed my flight home and will be leaving in the morning at 7am. I am excited about next week because Geraldine and the kids will be coming to Hilton Head with me. It is spring break week for Albany so the kids are ready to go. We will leave on Sunday and start work on Monday.   

Texas Open (San Antonio)

OK, don't think you are going to open this blog and start reading a bunch of negative stuff. It's not gonna happen. I'm sure you all have seen the score today and continue to wonder, what is going on? But I'm here to tell you all, we are close and I'm getting excited about it.

I flew in on Monday night. Kevin played in a pro-am on Monday in Myrtle Beach, SC and came in on Tuesday with his instructor, Rickey Sullivan. We played a late afternoon practice round and Kevin hit it extremely well. On Wednesday, Kevin continued to hit the ball well as he played in an on-site pro-am hosted on the Canyons Course here at the TPC of San Antonio. Unfortunately, during competition today, Kevin fell back into some old habits. Some of those misses put us into poor positions for scoring and therefore, it reflected on the scorecard. But this is part of the process. Each and everyday we are building a solid foundation and once this foundation is built we will start seeing the rewards. Kevin and Rickey had a great session this afternoon after the round and we are right back on track. Our tee time tomorrow is 1:35pm but we are going to go out early for a little more work in the morning before lunch. Looking forward to putting it to the test again tomorrow. We're gonna be alright!!