andrew scott jensen

Today was my second attempt at qualifying for a PGA Tour event.  The pre qualifier for the PODS Championship was at one of the most challenging courses I have ever played.  To add to the challenge, the weather was very interesting today.  It was around 10 degrees and the wind was blowing a steady 30-40 mph.

All that being said, I missed by 2 shots from advancing into the Monday qualifier.

I shot 77!

77!

Last week a 75 was out by 5, this week 77 is out by 2.  I think it speaks for itself how challenging the day was.  It was survival golf, make as many pars as possible.

I was frustrated for sure(and I took it out in the gym this evening)

I played very well the entire day, but struggled to survive with pars on my last 5 holes.  Maybe because my practice round was cut short due to weather yesterday, so I missed out on playing 14 through 18.  They were some very difficult closing holes.  I played those 5 holes at 4 over par.  I was coming right into the teeth of the wind and it was very difficult to hit the green and then getting up and down was no cake walk.

Here’s some examples:
17- 479 yards par 4 uphill right into the wind to a very sloping green.
18- 459 yards par 4 dead into the wind with a very sloping green.

I had putts at par on both holes, but could not convert.  Making them would have got me through.

Even though I did not get through, I have a load of positives to take away from this round.
-I trusted the minor change made in my setup.
-I only hit one bad shot, 2 less than last week.
-I made putts!  progress from last week.
-I hit a lot of half shots,cuts,draws: really controlling my ball, something  I have been working very hard on.
-The weather was great learning for eventual St. Andrews, Pebble Beach etc…

The forecast for tomorrow is terrible.  It will be a day to stay indoors and get some good work in the gym done, and then relax with a good book.

Looking back over these past two rounds, I am very proud of my play.  The scores don’t reflect my ball striking or attitude.  Getting the ball in the hole in fewer strokes on tour is something I must learn.  I will take tomorrow to have a serious assessment of what it will take to turn any round into something a few strokes lower.

Though I did not reach the goals set for these events, I learned a great deal.  I will allow these two rounds to teach me as much as possible.  I will take all this knowledge into my next event and so on and so on.

Next on the schedule is March 24th and a Nationwide Tour monday qualifier in Louisiana.  I have just under a month to tune up and get that much better and able to compete for one of the 14 spots up for grabs.

I only have 4 more weeks here in Florida!  I can’t wait to hit the road and have the Canadian Tour season start.  I can’t wait to start working on achieving the goals for 2008.

Here’s to learning and growing from past experiences…

I am comfortably back in Bradenton and am still soaking in the experience of the last few days.  My day in Orlando was a blast!  I got lost a few times trying to find the Orlando outlet mall.  I finally found it and did a few laps to kill time while I waited to meet with my swing coach later that afternoon.

Thankfully I was very disciplined and only bought a 40$ watch in the near 2 hours of cruising the outlet mall.
I got lost trying to find the golf course next.  Google Maps really let me down that day.  To keep you laughing, I got lost in Vero Beach the day before as well.  I will get better at this I promise.

I finally met with my swing coach and we had a great session.  We discussed what has been happening with my game since I got down here, and what went right and wrong at my pre qualifier the day before.

Having the extra set of eyes looking over my swing was great.  I was thinking that there was more wrong than there actually was, my swing is looking good.  All we really worked on was my posture throughout the swing, and a some minor tweaks here and there with my swing.  I feel very confident with seeing these minor changes through.  I feel very comfortable and confident over the ball now, and if I practice it more and more it can only get better.  You can have a look at my swing from this session in my new intro video to my website here.

The putting green was were we did the most work; and believe me, I have lots to work on on the practice green now.  I am basically tearing down the way I putted before(as inconsistent as it was) and starting with an entire new approach to hitting putts.  There is a lot of work for me to do get it to a place of full trust and commitment, but I love a challenge.  I have some drills and things to look for each time I set out to ingrain this new way to putt into my body and mind.  I did it for a little while today, and it will be a large test of my patience because it was very difficult to accomplish anything my first time attempting it.

I will work as hard as possible because putting is everything.  A good example is a competitor I played with on Tuesday, he had 9 less putts than I did and shot 10 shots lower than me.  I need to get to that place on the greens in order to compete out in the big show.  I am determined to improve and if improvements come as I know they should, this could be a very special time ahead of me.

I have a few days to work at it before I hit competition again.  This coming Wednesday I will be at the pre qualifier for the PODS Championship in Tampa.  I am so excited to work with this round in mind.  Now that I have a better feeling for what it takes to get through to the Monday qualifier, I am eager to work at making myself more prepared for advancing through the pre qualifier.

Here’s to even more hard work…

I’m writing this blog from a Starbucks in Orlando today.  My travels over the past 3 days have brought me from Bradenton to Palm City to West Palm to Vero Beach and now finally to the Orlando area.   I will be back in my own bed in Bradenton late tonight.

Yesterday’s pre qualifier did not go exactly as expected.  I shot 75 and missed out on advancing to the Monday qualifier by 5 shots.  That being said, it was a great experience and I learned a lot from it.

I learned a lot about how I have matured as a player.  After making an early double on the 5th hole, I remained very patient and gave myself many, many birdie chances over the rest of the round.  I was very strong mentally, proof that all of the hard work I have been putting into my thought process and pre and post shot routines is making good ground in competition.

Tee to green I was excellent, with the exception of 3 poor swings.  This was the most consistent I can remember me playing in competition.  I hit almost every fairway and almost every green.  I was hitting it long and straight and close to the hole, giving myself  a lot of good looks at birdies. Unfortunately, once I got on the greens I was very poor to say the least.  I made one putt outside 4 feet, a 15 footer for birdie on the 8th hole.  That was it.  I had many looks inside 15 feet but never converted any of them.  I just kept going and tried to hit it closer.

Much to my chagrin, that didn’t solve the problem of a cold putter.  A good summary of the round on the greens was my 16th and 17th holes.  I was 3 over on the 16th tee, thinking that I needed to at least birdie in to have some kind of chance.  On 16 I hit it to about 4 feet and missed it.  On 17 I hit it to about 6 feet and missed it.  I was quite disappointed after the round because I had such high hopes and left it all out on the greens.

That being said, a 70 was in my bag yesterday.  It is now time for me to look back on that round and see where the 5 strokes were lost.  One swing cost me 2, maybe even 3 strokes.  I hit a 3 iron into the water for my second shot to the par 5 5th, leading to a double bogey 7.  This was a possible 4 turned into a 7.  The two putts on 16 and 17 can equate for the other 2 strokes.   The 70 was there, just some rookie mistakes were made.

I have to work very hard on my putting.  My technique needs improving, but more importantly my thought process needs the most improving.  I need to find a way to simplify it mentally and then trust it.  I need to get back to the way I putted as a junior, with no fear or hesitation of what could happen next.   Just see the hole and get the ball in it.  Its very simple but very hard to apply and trust.

The experience of this event was great.  Getting to stay over in Palm City with some familiar faces from Ottawa was great.  Also, having Rick caddy for me in the practice round and actual event was a lot of fun.  We had a great time both rounds and he was a great help in keeping me patient and focused.  Thanks Rick.

After the round I drove up to Vero Beach and met with Dave, one of the pros from the Hunt Club.  We played his course down here; John’s Island.  It was one of the best tracks in Florida I have ever seen.  It was nice playing 36 holes yesterday and seeing more familiar faces from back home.

I am now in Orlando to work with Dave my swing coach from back home.  I am very excited to put in some work and have another set of eyes looking over my swing.  I am also excited to see if we can figure anything out on the greens.  If we can work on getting my ball in the hole more often.

I am sure that after a few more days of reflection I will have learned even more about what happened with my first event as a pro.  So you can expect more from my end on the experience yesterday brought.  Until then I am off to enjoy a bit of Orlando and to work hard in preparation for next weeks PODS Championship pre qualifier.

Here’s to taking this experience and using it to go one step ahead next week…

On this beautiful Sunday afternoon, I have taken my first true day off since getting down here for my pre season “training camp”. Today is an Andrew day, a day all about me relaxing and taking it easy. This will be another routine I will be attempting to apply to my life on the road.

This routine birthed from a principle I already try to apply to my life; the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day to rest, relax, and ultimately produce nothing.

In our busy lives we are driven to produce, produce, produce. If we don’t, we feel that we are falling behind or being left behind by life moving along without us. For me as a touring pro, my day to day production looks something like this:

time on the range
time on the course
time in the gym
making phone calls
making travel plans
driving to a new city
booking hotels
answering emails

If I do not do this everyday, it is easy for me to feel that I will be jumped by somebody else that I’m competing against.

In the long run I believe taking these Sabbath’s will allow me to be the jumper as opposed to jumped. I will be refreshed week in and week out, and hopefully will never feel the consequences of burnout on my golf game. I will be anxious and excited to start the routine up again on monday, or tuesday(whatever the case may be) that my drive and work ethic will be at 100%, and not at an easy to maintain 75% because I’m trying to conserve myself.

This comes from a fear of mine. A fear that every day will be the same. Eat, Sleep, Repeat. I lived that life before, and it was not enjoyable at all. I never want that to happen again. There is absolutely no passion in making every day a copy of the one before. I always want to have passion in golf, and in everything I do. Taking a day off to restore that passion will help me avoid the trappings of the eat, sleep, repeat lifestyle.

Back to today…

Today is a day that I planned for. I worked hard all week long and took care of all that I needed to take care of. My emails are answered, my travel itinerary is set for tomorrow, my body is feeling great, my game is feeling solid. So today I will not feel guilty about not doing anything towards the goals for this year.

Tomorrow morning I will wake up so excited about going over to West Palm Beach and trying out for the Honda Classic. Even thinking about it right now, I am so much more excited than I was in the midst of the grinding on the range and in the gym over the past weeks. Taking today to relax is giving me time to put everything into perspective.

I can’t wait to play my first event as a professional golfer on Tuesday. THAT’S SO COOL!!! I’m a professional golfer and it all starts on Tuesday, I am so blessed, it’s hard to believe sometimes!! Writing this is solidifying in me how important this day is. I would have never had time to realize what is happening on Tuesday if I were just grinding away on the range trying to make everything perfect by Tuesday. I want to keep this childlike perspective on my career, I want to be so excited with every event I play. With every opportunity that comes my way, I want it to make me smile, and never make me feel like “here we we go again, some old same old, new tournament, new city”. I want to be going nuts while approaching each new city and each new event.

I am doing something that such a small percentage of people who play this game get to do. I should never take it for granted and always be thankful and excited that I get to play this game I love for a living.

I have the Sabbath to thank for this outlook. In not producing today, I have realized so much more about me and my passion for this game.

Can you take a day to do nothing? Can you put the pressures of life to the side? Can you turn off the Blackberry? Turn off the computer? Can you spend a day with the people you love and truly appreciate their company and not just treat it as a weekend duty? Can you take a day to reflect on the week that passed and the week to come?

Whatever it looks like to you, I encourage you to take a day a week, or every two weeks to produce nothing. It will feel awkward at first and even guilty, but I promise you it will do a great deal of good for your life, relationships, career, etc.

Here’s to doing nothing today…

Today is another rain threatened, overcast day.  I luckily got out to the course for a few hours early this morning to beat the weather.  I now am relaxing and taking some time to look back over the progress of the past weeks and see where I am heading into my pre-qualifier for the Honda Classic next Tuesday.

First of all,

I am in such a better place emotionally than I was a few weeks ago.  I am glad I came down here when I did.  It gave me time to go through the rough patches and heal with time to spare before competition started.  If I had come down 2 weeks ago instead of 4 weeks, I would have not learned what I have and would be nowhere as prepared for this event as I am now.

I am feeling so great because of the support I am getting from you my readers.  The encouraging comments and e-mails I am getting is adding fuel to my fire to keep going strong.

Yesterday I received a great e-mail from my personal trainer back home and it meant the world to me.  It means so much to know that people are still caring about me and paying attention and willing to let me know that they are.

The support I am receiving from my girlfriend is the most important to me.  It’s unbelievable knowing that she is supporting me 100% even though the distance is the hardest thing in the world for the both of us.  It’s very comforting knowing that she will stick it out for me through thick and thin.  I am very blessed to have her as the head of my support system.

All the lovey-dovey stuff aside, lets focus back to golf…

I am feeling very prepared for the pre-qualifier on Tuesday.  My swing and long game is not fully there, but I don’t think it has ever been in my life, it is always a work in progress and competition is the time to see if the work is progressing.

My short game is feeling very,very solid.  I have been working hard on quieting my eyes when I chip and putt.  Doing this has allowed me to better feel the line with my senses and allow the ball to track on that line with ease.  Before, my eyes were very quick when surveying the line from ball to hole.  This never allowed me to fully absorb everything that was going into the chip or putt.  Having fast eyes restricted my feel around and on the greens, now I can say that my feel and senses are heightened to levels they have never been before.  I feel so confident around and on the greens right now.  I believe this is how pro golfers make money; they make the putts and get up and down when it really matters.  If I want to succeed that is what I will have to do when it really matters.

With regards to my tournament next week, all I can control is what I do to prepare.  I feel very prepared.  I am working on all the things that I think will be demanded of me in trying to qualify for a PGA Tour event.

For the rest of the week, I will keep my practice to the range.  When I play this week it will not be practice on the golf course, but golf time.  It will be time for me to play golf, let it happen, put myself in a competitive mindset, and see where I’m at heading into this event.

Here’s to the rest of the week making me feel even more prepared for Tuesday…

Here’s to you the readers for your support…

It’s a rainy friday morning, so I find myself in Starbucks reflecting over what has been happening to my game lately. Since I started reading “the game before the game” I’ve gained a greater appreciation and focus for my practice time. Each chapter in the book is full of drills and routines to use on the practice range. Along with the drills and routines, there is a great framework about how to mentally approach your practice.

I have come to the understanding that all the rounds of golf I play down here are merely practice rounds, times for me to see if the work on the range can carry over to the golf course. Each round is an opportunity for me to see if I can build on what I’m working on and carry that toward my goals for the year. Getting caught up on the results of each round as the be all and end all of wether or not I am improving is an aimless endeavor. I’m playing rounds knowing that even if I only execute one shot exactly how I have been practicing, it is the positive I need to carry back to the range, and then back to the next round I play.

This thought process was on full display with my round yesterday. I went out with the intention to see if the mental key I found on the range this week could be applied on the course. The first 10 holes of my round were awful, nothing was clicking, the ball was going everywhere, I missed every green and was 7 over par. If I allowed the results of the round be my measuring stick I would have thought that I needed to start over.

Fortunately, with these rounds I am not result driven, but process driven. I knew what I was working on, so I kept plugging away at it. From 11 to 18 things started to click, I hit every green and made 3 birdies in 8 holes. More importantly, the mental routine I was working on was actually carrying over to the course from the range. I can now carry over the 8 holes of positives to my next range session and then to my next round of practice golf.

That being said, I still need to test my progress often. To keep me sharp, I play one competitive round a week down here, a skins game on Saturdays. This round is time for me to forget about the practice and just let it happen. Wether it happens or not, thats a different story. Having this round is a great place for me to work on my focus in a competitive setting.

Here’s to tomorrow’s round being a great confidence building experience of competitive golf…(and maybe a few skins)…

I’m still alive, just not as active on my blog this past week.  Not a whole lot has happened in the past week.

No conflict, no revelations, just a week of routine on the course, at the gym, and at starbucks reading.

Good things are happening with my game, and my confidence is growing.  I’m off to practice now, I’m going to put to work some of the drills from”the game before the game”

I’ll let you know how it goes

I am moving today.  The people I am staying with are moving into a new house in the Rosedale community.  Hopefully I will be able to get in some work on the range later this aternoon.

Until then it is time for me to read this new book I picked up yesterday.  It’s the follow up to “every shot must have a purpose”, written by the coaches behind Vision54.  “the game before the game” is all about the perfect 30 minute practice routine.  Since I am down here to practice, I am loving the idea of having the drills and games centered around vision 54.  I hope one day in the near future to meet up with the Vision54 people and maybe spark up a full time coach/student relationship with them.

Here’s to this book helping me have better practice that will get me to new height with me game…