Hello everyone!
I’m updating you after my first road trip of the season–a 5 week trip that started in Hawaii and went to Palm Springs, San Diego, Pebble Beach and Phoenix.
To start, I fulfilled my medical exemption with my 37th place finish at the Farmers at Torrey Pines, so I’ll be able to play the rest of the season out of the major medical category. It also means I’m now exempt to the PLAYERS and the Charles Schwab Challenge this summer!
In my first tournament of the year, I finished T-57 at Sony. It was another week where I felt like I was shaking some rust off, and struggled to hit enough fairways to get the scoring opportunities I needed. But regardless, it felt great to get back out there, fully healthy and competing.
I then took the red-eye flight back to the west coast, and settled in to prep for three golf courses at La Quinta CC and PGA West. I struggled again off the tee in Palm Springs, despite finding some form with a 6 under par second round at the Nicklaus Tournament course. I missed the cut here by a few shots, and drove to Torrey Pines on Sunday.
At Torrey, I hit the ball much better and found myself inside the top 10 going into the final round, where unfortunately, the putter didn’t cooperate. It was a disappointing 75 to finish T-37, during a day where nothing seemed to go right, but I birdied the last two holes to fulfill my medical by one point. I still had 7 starts remaining, but it still felt good to have that done with!
I then flew to Pebble Beach to prep for the AT&T, which had a different format this year. It was one of the signature events on the schedule, with only 80 players, increased FedEx Cup Points, no cut, and an increased purse. I was so fortunate to get one of the four sponsor exemptions– two of the deciding factors were that AT&T is an awesome partner of mine, and that I had played the tournament every year I was exempt, unlike a few of the other sponsor pick candidates. A storm rolled through on Wednesday, dumping water on an already soaked course. It was a very muddy few days, where I again had stretches of playing great and a few loose shots, and ultimately finished T-39 when the tournament was called after 54 holes for weather.
Finally, I made it to Phoenix for the WM Phoenix Open on Monday evening. And just as we thought we were done with bad weather and weather delays, we had one more week of rain, flooded greens, hail, and even frost delays. But this was the week where things started to come together for me–I drove it awesome, my iron play tightened up and I was very clean on and around the greens. I played 8 holes on Thursday afternoon before dark, 28 holes on Friday, another 7 holes on Saturday, and played a marathon 29 hole Sunday that I played in 6 under to finish tied for 6th. This was my best finish since Napa in 2021, and was probably the best ball-striking performance of my career. I took a ton of confidence from this and felt it validated my body being back to 100% and all the work I had done in the offseason.
Maya and I celebrated with a stop at In-n-Out, a drive up to Sedona for the night, and then made the rest of the drive back to Vegas Monday morning for a short 6 day rest at home.
Please follow me this weekend at Vidanta in Mexico, then West Palm Beach. After one week off, I’ll head out to the PLAYERS, Valspar, Houston and San Antonio to cap off an 11 out of 13 stretch to start the year. It’s a good time to be playing good golf!!
If you haven’t done so recently, please visit the Birdies website, check your donation accounts, and sign up to follow and support me this season, Birdies Season 6! Please reach out to Karen
(khallstein@curriki.org, 1-408-655-0233) if you have any questions or need assistance.
Thank you for your support!
Best,
Maverick