After a long off-season and a month of training in Palm Desert I was ready to kick off my competitive golf season. This year I started on the Women’s All Pro Tour (WAPT), the qualifying tour for the Epson Tour, playing two events in Louisiana. I really racked up the kilometers on my car this month. My route from Palm Desert to the east side of Louisiana, back to the west side of Louisiana and finally to Florida totaled 4,590km. It was in an incredible drive and it’s hard to put into words just how big the country is.

Unfortunately, golf is a fickle game, and despite all the hard work you put in, it only takes a few little mistakes to shoot over par and next thing you know you are missing the cut.  That is exactly what happened in my first two events.  I had many important learning moments from these events and found the positives to keep grinding as I prepare for the next.  It’s easy to forget just how hard tournament golf is, especially when you’re playing to pay for the event, put gas in the car, and food on the plate to keep going. The first event I was definitely nervous as I stood on the first tee, and it was good to get those first event jitters out of the way.

By the second event I was feeling more comfortable on the course and my ball striking was much better, but unfortunately that did not translate to the scorecard.  After shaking off my disappointment from these events and having time to reflect on my drive to Florida I think my game is really close.  Over the next week I will be focusing on playing more, hopefully a few friendly matches with my friends and fellow tour players. My goal is to work on shot execution on the golf course and building my competitive mindset. Hopefully this allows me to be more comfortable on the course for the next event so that I can get out of my own way.

Although the Louisiana swing wasn’t my best golf, it got me back to tournament play and did provide some great memories. I had some amazing travel buddies for the two weeks, stayed with lovely host families that took great care of us, and was so impressed by tournament sponsors, especially in Lake Charles, for the great events they put on for us. I have some many memories to highlight, but always look forward to visiting Café du Monde in Louisiana.  The beignets are worth the calories.

My next event is back in Texas to play WAPT’s Wichita Falls Championship and then on to my first Epson event of the season in Garden City, Kansas. From there I will take a little tour break to pop over to Pittsburgh to play a US Open qualifier, a 1 day 36-hole event with the top 2 getting a spot at the Women’s US Open in Pebble Beach, a dream for me and key event that I have been working to get my game ready for.   I am gearing up and ready to go for my next swing and look forward to reporting on much better results on my next blog.