A good week!

It's been about two weeks since my last update. So to fill you in on everything that has been going on, I'll start with St. James Bay. While I was at St. George Island for a vacation, I was able to take two days to play the course. The facility now "comps" my rounds, meaning the rounds are completely free since I am a professional. This is great! One of my favorite courses now doesn't cost me anything to play, and I am capable of getting some quality practice in on a championship style course. I really appreciate the people at St. James Bay for helping me out this way.

I went early one morning to beat the crowd and was able to take my time and focus. I won't talk about the round because I have a lot to get in on this blog, but I tied the course record from the hardest tees by shooting a 68, -4. I was real excited! So the next day, I grabbed Brittany and headed back out there. Once again I played well, but only managed to shoot a 69, -3. Thank you to Brittany's parents for allowing me to stay with them at St. George Island and making it possible for me to play at St. James Bay.

After I had been back in town for a few days, I decided to take one more trip to St. James Bay before I went to Pensacola for the big tourney. Brittany and I left early Tuesday morning so we could be the first ones on the course. I didn't play as well, shooting a 73, +1, but got in some good practice.

I was very excited about the Pensacola Open because it was on the Pensacola Naval Base. The Naval Air Museum is there, along with a lot interesting things to visit. We were to play two days on AC Read golf course and then travel to Stonebrook for the final round.

I left early Wednesday morning to head west for the Pensacola Open. It was a three day event with big banquets at night. I was greeted on the interstate by lots of rain. Even though my practice round was wet, I was able to see the Blue Angels practicing overhead. I went to the first banquet to get my tee time and meet some of the players. After that I found my Red Roof Inn and was ready to get some rest.

The hotel is a whole different story. I had to change rooms three times. The bed wasn't even made in the first room, the locks didn't work in the second room, and the Internet didn't work in the third room.

Anyway, it was just getting started. I woke up early the next morning, hit the Denny's to get the day started off right, and then was greeted by what seemed like a hurricane. I got to the course and began my usual warm up. It was pouring rain. My tee time came and it was still pouring rain. So I completed my round without a break from the rain. The weather was horrible, but I tried my best. I shot a 75, +3, but felt very good about it considering the variables. I went to the banquet that night and made some good contacts with the people there. I also had some interesting food: Sushi, Fillet Mignon...the works!

The next day I played in even worse weather. It rained so hard! We teed off, but then on the 3rd hole, we had a rain delay. So we had to mark our balls and go inside for a while. When they finally released us to play again, we made it to the 11th hole, only to be greeted by another delay. The only reason we were stopped was because lightning was spotted, not because of the rain. So after a nice nap, we headed back to finish the round. Not! How about one more delay for the books. This time it was on the 17th. By this time we just wanted to finish the round. I ended up shooting a 78. It doesn't sound good, but considering it took us 9 hours instead of the usual 3 1/2 - 4 hours to play, I was pleased with the round. It was very hard to stay in your zone when you had that many delays and distractions. Still in contention for the tourney, I headed to the next course about 45 miles away.

Stonebrook is the home course to Boo Weekley, Bubba Watson, Ben Bates, and Joe Durant, all PGA Professionals. It's a very nice, very hard course on the north side of Pensacola. It plays long and fast, just the way I like it. A buddy and I stayed out late practicing around the greens and hitting approach shots to all the greens, because they were a little different than the AC Read course.

I had an early tee time of 7:21 to hopefully beat the weather. So at 4:30 am, I was sitting at the Waffle House, and at 5:30 am, I was warming up on the lighted driving range. We got to the tee box but were delayed because the fog hadn't risen yet. What's one more delay! So we finally got to tee off. I played the course very well and shot a 69, -3. I made a few stupid, mental errors and should have shot a little better, but I was happy. Shooting that low on the final day put me in second place on the Emerald Coast Tour and eighth place for the entire tournament. I was excited because my final round put me in the money.

I left the course to go to a black tie affair for the golfers afterwards. It was nice and elegant and I had a chance to speak in front of about 200 people about my sponsor, KP3. I headed home and got back to Monticello just in time to make a good friends' birthday party that night. So, needless to say, I've slept well these last few nights.

I am about three weeks away from my trip to California, and I am getting more excited every day. I am still doing odd jobs to raise the funds needed but cannot wait for the opportunity I have come upon. It will be different because it will be windy and cool in California, and I am use to good ol' humidity and heat.

I would like to thank KP3, Jerry Latimer and Steve Trocchio, for their help and apparel for the tournaments. I sported their logos proudly for all three days. I would also like to give my deepest condolences to the Latimer family for their recent loss of Jerry's Dad.

And last, but certainly not least, I want to thank my family for the full tournament sponsorship. I know it was so expensive this time but the experience and knowledge gained from this trip was priceless.

Let me know what you all think!

Glen

"It's a short course...played in the seven inches between your ears." - Mrs. Celano, (our tour director's mother) upon asking her if there was anything she could tell me about the course that would benefit me.