Tomorrow I will be teeing it up in my first Nationwide open qualifier at the Pocono Farms CC in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

A couple days ago I drove back to Los Angeles from Phoenix so I could fly out to the East Coast. The only convienent flights to Greensboro, NC, were actually conections through Phoenix which was a bit painfull as I had just driven 6 hours from Phoenix…. but I HAD to return the car rental to Los Angeles…. a time killer there. Oh well; win some, lose some.

I’ve decided to base my east coast swing in Greensboro due to the PGA Tour event, the Wyndham Championship, being held here next week. I will be doing the open qualifier for it, and even if I don’t qualify it will be my first time to a PGA Tour Event. The PGA Tour is where I dream of playing, So I’m all excited about being there.

It was then a last minute decision to fly up yesterday from Greensboro to Philidelphia and then drive to Scranton for the N.E. Pennsylvania Classic qualifier. Time to go low and earn a spot. Scoring can be followed here.

After this event it will be back to Greensboro.

I will now be heading back to the Los Angeles area for a few days before heading east to try pre-qualifying for some events. I’ve got a bit of work to do on my game in preparation for those.

The dates of the events I am playing in are the 25th – 27th July, and 30th July – 2nd Aug.

Results can be found on their website: The Gateway Tour
In the centre of their home page, look at the current tournament for the Desert Summer Series and click on the leaderboard link.

Desert Series Tournament #7
Scores: 69 – 67 – 77 (-3) 33rd
Prize money: US$1178

Hey, it’s nice to finally be in the money!

Desert Series Tournament #8
Scores: 75 – 74 (+5) MC

Today I made my way across the dry landscape from Los Angeles to Phoenix for the second leg of my American trip. Phoenix is home to a part of the Gateway Tour. It is probably America’s second strongest pay-for-play tour outside the NGA Hooters Tour.

At this time of the year the Gateway Tour hold a series of events to form what’s called the Desert Summer Series. I will be playing event 7 and maybe 8. The buy in for each event is $1200 and $1600 respectively. Such is pay-for-play.

Due to the dry desert heat, the courses in Phoenix are quite similar to what can be found back in Queensland.

The Lake Hills Jeju Open has had a date change. The event, which was just announced last week, is now to be held Aug 30 – Sep 2. This is great as it tightens up the Korean Tour schedule, meaning I can spend another week in the US doing something usefull…. as long as I can change my flight again 😀 So woopee!

The Korean Tour has changed it’s schedule again. On a good note, one of the cancelled events has been replaced with the LakeHills Jeju Open starting Aug 23, with a prize purse of US$300,000. This will cut two weeks off my US trip. My priority lies in playing in Korea to develop my game.

I just played in the CrossCreek Open on the Golden State Pro Tour to gain some experience in the US. The tournament was played over three rounds with a two round cut. Unfortunately I missed the cut shooting 78-71 (+7).

The tour is based soley in California. It is a pay-for-play tour, with a buy in of US$1000 per event. At the moment they get around 70 players per event, well short of their desired 140 to create large enough purses to make it a profitable tour to play on. Mainly Californian professionals compete on the tour to keep their competitive juices flowing between other opportunities during the year.

A couple of days ago I arrived in Los Angeles to spend a few weeks in the US to play some pay-for-play events and attend some Nationwide Tour pre-qualifiers.

75 today, +4. As a result I will miss the cut by a couple.

I hit the ball well this week but my putting was terrible. That’s the simple difference.

73 today, +2.