Spending ten days in central Florida during the devastation of Hurricane Joaquin and the storms that hit South Carolina made me very thankful for being spared their wrath. The weather where I was staying was mostly pleasant with a few patches of rain. By the time I traveled home through South Carolina, the roads were open. My thoughts are with the people in S.C. who were affected by these floods.

The first stop on this trip was at the Deltona Club. I was happy to be competing again and also to see some of my friends. I played consistently but couldn’t get many putts to fall. The weather was good for this tournament except for day two when it started to rain on the 4th hole and didn’t stop all day.

In between the tournaments I traveled south to Sarasota and the Venice area, where I was able to play on one of the two courses being used at Q-School and spend an afternoon on the beach. This whole trip gave me a taste of what it’s like to live on the road – the other side of life of a golfer on tour.

The second tournament was at the DeBary Golf and Country Club. The course was challenging (as seen by very few under par rounds). The greens were hard and often guarded by front bunkers. It had more elevation than I was expecting in Florida.

Making it to the final group (top three contenders) on the last day at DeBary was a great experience for me. It was good to be in contention again. I came away from this trip feeling good about adding these events to my Q-School preparations!