New experience: Tour de las Americas Q-School

With the Q-school for the Tour de las Americas just down the road in Miami, thought I'd give it a try for the first time. It's good experience to play with a different mix of guys.

Those of us on the developmental tours are always looking for opportunities. Even though the TLA has had a lot of growing pains over many years, it seems to be getting things together. One positive sign is its co-sanctioning with the Canadian Tour and the Challenge Tour. There are alsos some entry chances with the Nationwide Tour. These cross-overs help players get momentum in standings and development.

I had a solid week and have gained some status. I'm looking forward to playing in a few upcoming events.

Back on Track

Whew! Got my exempt status Can Tour card, finally. It’s been a tough couple of years sidelined by an injury last year and under the gun with a time-limited medical exemption status this year. It’s good to get back on track.

The last four days were more stressful than PGA Q-School. Not being able to compete regularly in the Can Tour puts a major hole in opportunities to play at the developmental level.

We were all stressed out. One guy completely missed his early tee time for the second round. He made the mistake of clicking into the tee times from last year—he was in the 2008 Q-school. He had to wait till the end of the day to play. His score went wild.

On the final day, one of our threesome just made it to the first hole after two of us were already walking down the fairway. A ball whizzed by us. OK he made it. But, he tripled and doubled before settling down. Cost him exempt status (made non-exempt).

Handling the mental side sure is tough. While we were having trouble keeping a lid on our emotions, Tiger got in the zone and shot a 62 in the third round of the BMW Championship. He’s a great role model.