andrew scott jensen

Well, I played in another GLT one day event yesterday and it was yet another learning experience.  I started off my day so steady; fairways, greens, and patience!  I shot 33 on the front and headed to the back nine tied for the lead and much more comfortable than last weeks event.

Unfortunately, the back nine was another struggle.  I shot 40 and finished in a tie for 20 with a 73(+1).  This time around, I felt much better than last week.  I stayed patient and calm and tried all I could to keep the round alive.  I had a couple poor breaks and a few lip outs that really tested my patience.  On the positive note, I handled the pressure of leading the tournament much better this week.  Sure, I didn’t come through and win, but I certainly banked a great lesson and priceless experience.

Like I said last week, being in the lead is where I want to be.  It’s just a matter of time until I’m comfortable in the lead and comfortable maintaining it!

One major positive to take away is the fact that in my last 4 events I’ve been in the lead after the first nine holes in every one.  Wether it’s an 18, 36, or 72 hole event; I’ve been coming out strong.  This is a far cry form last year.  Last year, I would start off struggling and then grinding back to something around par.

I’m very encouraged by all of this.  I’m making all the right moves and putting in the right work.  Again, it’s just a matter of time and repetition until I’m comfortable enough to take a 9 hole lead and turn it into a victory at the end of the day or end of the week.

I’m planning on digging deeper into all of this with my coach and sports psych in an effort to come out strong next week in the 36 hole event taking place monday-tuesday in Welland, ON.

Today was the first round of my first Great Lakes Tour, 36 hole Platinum event.  I’m playing in scenic Niagara Falls.  The day started very well in cold windy conditions.  I played pretty flawless golf on the front and turned in 3 under.  Things were looking very promising….

Upon giving my scores to the scorer at the turn, I was greeted with many well wishes from the volunteers thanks to my 9.  I was also informed that no one has come through better than 3 over!  Fact or fiction, this was information I could have done without!  I proceeded to get very tight and tense, knowing I was apparently leading by 6 strokes.  I played the next 6 holes 6 over.  It was very frustrating to say the least!

I birdied my last hole and shot 2 over.  I sit in a tie for 12th; 5 back, with one round left.  I’m excited about tomorrow because I know that I can make birdies on this course and hopefully plot away at the leaders and climb the board.

Today was a valuable lesson.  I’ve never been in a situation where I’m leading the tournament in the early stages.  As expected, I got spooked and was ripped from my comfort zone.  Leading is what I want; it’s what I work for, but it was still foreign to me.  I’m very happy this happened today and that it’s out of my system.

I seem to be learning something very valuable with every round this year, and it’s great!  Here’s hoping that tomorrow will bring some great play and more valuable lessons about myself and my game when forced to come from behind.

I’m sitting here on my flight from Ottawa to Vancouver, allowing what happened on Wednesday to sink in a little bit more.  It’s amazing what some time to reflect and journal about a round of golf can do for the confidence!

Wednesday was a special day.  Winning a golf tournament is always exciting, regardless of the field, event or tour… we want to win.  That being said, going into the round and throughout the round, the thought of winning was never the intention.  The intention of the day was to play well.  I went into the round wanting to see if I could trust my recent work and play well in competition looking for a boost of confidence heading into Q School.

The day started a little suspect with a double from 100 yards on my second hole.  I didn’t lose focus though, I still knew I could play well.  I birdied the next hole and knew that more could come.  The day just kept moving in the right direction.  I was playing the course for the first time so I was conservatively hitting 3 wood off all the tees.  Luckily, all my short game work paid huge dividends.  I got up and down from inside 120 yards all day.  6 Birdies and a bogey later, I stood on the 18th tee at 3 under thinking I was near the top of the leader board.

I laid up to 130 yards on the par 5 and was faced with a difficult and exciting shot to a tucked pin.  The leader board behind the green was too hard to look away from.  I saw that 3 under had been posted and was leading, with only myself and 2 other guys left on the course who could match it.

What took place for my approach shot is something that will be great for future situations like this in my career.  I began to think ahead about what could happen with a birdie, par, and bogey.  I shook it off and did my routine, but still had some bad thoughts over the ball.  I had to back away and start the routine over again.  I threw myself back into the moment and the shot at hand and ignored the consequences.  I proceeded to hit the best shot to date of my short career.  I stuffed it to 3 and a half feet from the stick!  The putt was easy and my trust in the routine really helped me beat the nerves and roll it in.

The 2 other players couldn’t match my round and I won!  It was great to hold up the trophy at the end of the day.

My confidence got the exact boost it needed heading into Q School this coming Tuesday.  I’m going into the event focused on maintaining the same thoughts and intentions to play well, and to accept where that leaves me on the leader board.  I’m left to trust that my playing well will be enough for me to be smiling after the final round next Friday.

It’s a rainy day here in Ottawa, and I’m enjoying having a day to rest and reflect on what’s taken place over the past few weeks, and also look ahead to what’s coming up in less than two weeks.

The past month’s been amazing.  My progress forward has been very encouraging.  I’ve been working very hard with my coach on a few different things.  The first thing has been my setup and plane of the club.  It’s been very difficult to make these changes after years of bad habits that have hurt my consistency under pressure.  That being said, we are only working on that on the practice tee.  When we’re on the course, the focus is playing golf, not golf swing.  This has been a challenge as well.  My knee jerk reaction to poor shots was to immediately analyze the swing and this took my focus off getting the ball in the hole.  All and all the work’s been very good and encouraging, and my consistency is drastically improving.

I’ve also been putting in lots of work with the flat stick.  I went on a Tomi Putting Machine and it was great for my stroke.  I’ve become aware of some flaws in the stroke and I’m working very hard on improving.  That being said, all the work on the stroke is without a hole.  When I work on the stroke that’s the only focus, not getting the ball in the hole.  When I practice with a hole, the only focus is the target and the stroke doesn’t matter.  This has been great work, that’s really paid off on the course.

I’m also playing more golf now than I would usually like too.  I’m focusing on my routine and thought management on the course, and that’s it.  I’m working on thinking in the think box, committing, and then playing in the play box. It’s been very productive.  After every round I evaluate my mental game and how I managed my thoughts and it has been a steady learning curve.

I’ll be playing another one round Great Lakes event on the 20th and I’m excited to go out there and play golf and manage my thoughts properly in and effort to prepare for the pressure of Q School on the 26th.  I’ll be flying out to BC on the 23rd and I couldn’t be more fired up!  My confidence is rising more every day and I can’t wait to go out there and do what I know I can do.

Expect a blog after my round on the 20th

Yesterday was my first event on the Great Lakes Tour.  Unfortunately, it was a less than stellar debut.  The weather was cold, wet, and windy…which are conditions that I’m actually very happy to compete in.  Pairing my comfort with the weather with the good vibes I had entering this event(after a long month of hard work back home in Ottawa) I went into the round expecting to play well.  Most importantly, I went into the round with the hope to find my feet again in competition after a month and a half away from it.

The first tee was awful!!!  I have no explanation for what happened, but I laid the sod over two consecutive 3 woods and dumped them both into the hazard in front of the tee.  I walked off the first hole with a quintuple bogey 9.  Frustrating, to say the least.

I chose to make the best of the blunder.  I told myself that if I made a 2 or a 9, my mental approach would have to be the same; I’d have to attack the next 17 holes with the same mindset or patience and focus and ultimately the ability to stay present.

This was a big victory for me mentally.  I didn’t let myself get concerned with what others would say or think about me playing yet another poor round, but focused on me and trying to hit great golf shots.  I played the next 17 holes well, not great but well.  I drove it well, hit a descent amount of greens, but struggled with my reads on the greens.  I played the next 17 at 2 over par, not stunning play, but play that re-assured me of the work thats been put in will pay off with patience.

So, I fired a 78 and finished well outside of the money.  But, that’s not what I’m concerning myself with.  I’m concerning myself with the process.  This round is just part of it.  I have to assess the day and take the positives and move forward, with my focus set on my next event, a one day great lakes event on the 12th of May.

If I keep moving in the right direction, this year WILL be the great year that I’m hoping for.

Well, Q School is finished, and I’m disappointed to have not gotten status back out on tour.  I played well today and shot another 2 under, 70.  This was only good for confidence since my second and third rounds really took me out of the race for a card.

This is not what I had worked toward nor expected.  It’s very humbling to work very hard for months in preparing for these four days and coming up short.  It’s a very different feeling than that of missing out last fall at Q School.  I’m not as defeated, discouraged, or depressed as I was in September, so that is progress in the right direction.

I learned a few important things this week about both my game and myself personally.  I learned that my game is SOOOOO good.  I’m making great strides of improvement with my abilities to play elite golf.  My stats were great this week, all and all my stats were better than all of last year, which is forward progress.  My mental game and my putting was solid, not great but solid enough to compete.

More importantly, I learned what is really holding me back.  When things got rough during the second round I was attacked with thoughts of “you did it again, you always do this, you always screw it up”.  Which looking back, was the thoughts to killed me all of 2008.  I tried to ignore them going into the third round but once the struggles came the same negative talk came.  Bottom line, I have to work hard on my self-belief, self-confidence, and self-talk on the golf course.  Failures happen, they don’t mean I’m a failure, I have to truly believe this if I’m to succeed as a pro golfer.

Today I went out with positive self talk and self belief as the sole objective, and it was a great experience.  I didn’t play perfect golf, I made mistakes, I left a lot out there, but not once did I let the negative talk get into my head and bring me down.  I’m very happy with todays round.

The fact that I succeeded today at a positive self-belief encourages me into knowing that I can get back out on tour.  I don’t really know what the path will look like next…and that’s okay.  Believe me, I’m still going to be working hard on getting better. This tournament just brought another thing to my attention that needs to be improved, so it’s not all lost.

Sometimes we have to take some steps backwards before we can go forward again…and I’m okay with that because at the end of the day, I’ll still be moving in the right direction

I have a long trip back home to Ottawa to think about what’s next.  I’ll write about what my future will hold when I have a better idea.  I do know one thing though, I need to get a regular job as soon as I get home.  Not the dream scenario but all part of the process!

This book does something special inside me every time I read it.  I first read it a year ago, and it truly inspired my approach to this great game and my approach to my practice.

Unfortunately; as my 2008 progressed, my poor play really deterred me from the teachings of this great book.  I had lost my passion for the game and for practice.  Golf became a job, a job I was struggling with.  This hurt because golf was always a fun game that I loved, and for a few months last summer, I was falling out of love with the game.

Reading this book cover to cover over the last two days has re-sparked my passion and love for this game, and the quest to get as good I can.

The practice routines in this book are great, and I’m very excited to stick with them all year long.

Pairing the teachings from this book with the last two great reads of Blink, and Talent is Overrated has been monumental.  These 3 books have come together to really motivate and inspire my quest to be great.

Here it is!  After a long year spent traveling and competing, the only constant companion I had was music.  2008 was a phenomenal year for music.  The amount of amazing albums that came out this year has restored my belief in the art of music.  As my list will show, there is a lot of great music coming from all over the globe and covering all sorts of styles.  It’s no wonder that these 10 albums are the albums that grabbed my ears for most of the year.  If you haven’t listened to some of these albums I highly suggest you venture into these gems in 2009.

Enjoy!

10. Augustana – Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt

9. Coldplay – Viva La Vida or Death and all of His Friends

8. Girl Talk – Feed The Animals

7. MGMT – Oracular Spectalur

6. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

5. Anberlin – New Surrender

4. Kanye West – 808’s & Heartbreak

3. The Myriad – With Arrows, With Poise

2. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

1. M83 – Saturdays = Youth

Im happy to say that I finished my South American swing on a higher note.  I played better in Costa Rica, and it translated to another cut made and my highest finish to date out on tour.  It felt great to play four rounds, and it felt even better to not move backwards over the weekend.  All that being said, I finished 51st, so I still have a lot of work to do to get competitive in 2009.

I have to say that these past 3 weeks were much better for me than the entire summer of 08.  Ultimately, the reason these weeks were better was because I cared again and worked hard and didn’t let results get me down.  You could sum it up that I found my confidence again and I re-dedicated myself to this pursuit.

Re-dedicating myself like this has brought many of my flaws to my attention and has given me many things to work on over the off season:
I have a lot of work to do with my strength and conditioning.  I have lost some of my power over the year and it is crucial to regain it out here.
I also have lots of work to do with my swing.  I have some flaws that I have been working on and intend to really correct over the winter months.
My mental game is always a work in progress, and thanks to Adam Kingsbury(my new head doctor) I feel that some real breakthroughs are in the future.

All of the work aside.  I’m truly on a high right now.  I can’t really express the shift that’s taken place within me, but it’s a really good one.  Things are really turning around in the wake of the hard summer.  I have more positives than negatives to take away from the past 3 weeks, and that’s a far cry form the mess of negativity that took place this summer.

I plan on taking 6 weeks off in the new year to really line things up for 2009.  There’s a lot on my plate but I’m not intimidated at all.  Things will be great next year and I believe South America was just a taste of things to come.

As I said a few days ago, I’m in Santiago, Chile this week.  This is the first of my 3 stops around Latin America.  Next week I play in Argentina followed by an event in Costa Rica.

I got into these events based on my affiliate member status on the Canadian Tour.  This member status allows me a chance to regain my full playing status for 2009.  If at any point in the 2009 season I can reach the money equal to 50th place from the 2008 order or merit, I will regain full status.

This was great news when I was told about this yesterday.  It’s great to have an immediate goal.  I’m very encouraged by the thought of earning my status this way and not having to go back to Q School in the Spring.

As for this week, my focus is very simple.  My sports psychologist and I have assessed the 2008 year and came up with a game plan for these 3 events.  If I can accomplish this week I will be very pleased.

It feels great being down here and being back into the tournament world.  My head is clear of the clutter that brought me down all year, and I feel very refreshed.  These events are 2009 events, so 2008 is over and done with.  It’s time to move on, to look ahead and forget about the struggles that got me down all of last year.

I’m playing in the afternoon Pro-Am today, followed by an afternoon tee time on Thursday and a morning start Friday.

Here’s to a great start of the season!