This week is a special week for me, playing less than 10 minutes from where I live at TPC Summerlin, at one of my home courses. We also had perfect weather all week, and the golf course was in flawless shape. I took extra pleasure in parking in my usual “Tour Member Reserved” spot in the parking lot.
I enjoyed some long sleeps in my own bed, and was extremely motivated to work hard and improve this week after getting my rear end handed to me on the weekend in Napa. I spent almost all day hitting balls and practicing on Monday (I think I went through 8 or 9 bags of balls, chipped for close to two hours, and putted for another two?). I spent Tuesday playing the entire golf course, and worked with Butch Harmon (my swing coach) on alignment and shot shapes. One more practice session Wednesday and I was feeling ready to go.
I came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders, making the turn at 5 under, and following up with birdies on 11, 13, 15 and 16. I unfortunately bogied 17 and 18 as darkness fell, but I had already put myself in a great position to have a great week. The following morning, I got off to a fast start on the scoreable back-9, getting to 9 under par before a disastrous 17th hole- one ball pulled left in the water, and a wrong yardage calculated on the wedge shot… resulting in a quadruple bogey. I birdied the next two to get the ship righted, but given my start it was a disappointing 2-under-par 69.
I combined for 5 under par over the weekend to finish the tournament at 13 under par and in a tie for 37th.. A solid week other than the 17th hole (which I played a whopping 6 over par!). I was in the top 10 in putting, a huge bright spot, and found myself playing stretches of golf that felt more like the best version of me than I had seen for a while.
With the changing of my iron shafts, I had a sneaking suspicion that my irons were now too upright. I realized I had missed over 90% of my shots left (which was problematic on the 17th hole, with water left…). I planned to get these adjusted in Houston the following day, and it was back to the airport for my 17th event in 21 weeks!