Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well. I just wanted to give an update on my time down in Florida and my plans for this upcoming summer.
Despite not playing the highest level of golf that I know that I am capable of, my time and experience down in Florida the past 5 months has been very nothing short of awesome. The weather has been fantastic and being able to practice and play everyday makes it nearly impossible to be in a bad mood or lose motivation towards improving each and every day. In addition to practicing a lot and competing in events, I recently started a new part-time job at Championsgate (which I plan on returning to in the fall). It has been an awesome opportunity for me and has given me access to a lot of great resources. All in all, I feel very fortunate to have had such a great winter!
With regards to my tournament performances, I feel that my experiences competing down here have been invaluable for myself. Looking back on each event individually, I feel that in all of them I learned something new about myself, my game, and what I need to improve in order to reach that next level. One of the biggest things that I have learned about my golf game recently is to stay true to my nature. I am very much a "feel" player, and during my first few months down here I began to over analyze my golf swing (particularly my putting stroke). As a result, I got way too mechanical and lost my natural feel, resulting in poor performances. For a large majority of my events, my putter has really been the only club in my bag holding me back from finishing high up the leaderboard and cashing a check every time. For example, last week I played in the Ocala Open, where I made the cut and had one of my best ball striking performances ever during the final round. However, although I hit 16 greens, and had 12 birdie looks inside of 15 feet during that final round, I still only shot even par with a single 2-putt birdie. My only bogeys the entire event were 3-putts, which while extremely frustrating, means that the rest of my game was very good.
Yesterday I competed again in a Korn Ferry Monday Q, where after a couple long putting sessions in my hotel room and prior to my practice round, I tried to let myself do what felt natural with the putter. The result was my best putting performance in a long time, 25 putts. Unfortunately a couple really bad breaks and a few bad iron swings kept from contending for a qualifying spot. All of this said, I still viewed the day as a huge win, as I never got frustrated or let my mind get out of place, gained confidence from having putts drop, and came to an even greater realization that my game is very close to coming all together.
I am extremely optimistic and excited about where my golf game is headed. My mental game is at an all-time high, and feel that I am quickly learning what skills I need to improve and how to improve it. As it stands now, my plan is to head back to Michigan the last week of April, and use my parents house in Saline as a home base. I will continue to update you on my schedule as I am currently in the process of making and finalizing my plans.
As always, thank you for your continued interest and support in me, and I look forward to updating you again soon.
ALSO, please go give my new social media accounts (linked below) a follow for additional updates!
Stay classy,
Ian