Thank you all for checking out my web site, and I think this is an easy way for people to keep up on what I'm doing when they feel like it.

This is my first full year on the Champions Tour after playing for 26 years on the regular PGA Tour.  I must say that this Champions Tour is just a lot more fun!  We don't have a cut except in the Senior PGA Championship, US Senior Open, and the British Senior Open.  The other regular tournaments are with 78 guys and Friday through Sunday with pro-ams on Wednesday and Thursday.  The tournaments don't play for as much money as the regular tour, and raise a lot of the purse through the pro-ams where the regular tour is driven by TV dollars.  It's just different but the Senior Tour is just more relaxed.

I've been really impressed with the golf courses we've played.  They have all been really good, and I think even better than the regular tour.  We don't hit it as far naturally, and so we can play courses that are usually around 7,000 yds.  They've been in great shape too.

They changed the rules on the tour this year so guys can take carts during the tournaments.  They did it that way for about 20 years before changing for a year getting rid of the carts in the tournaments but allowing them for everyone in the pro-ams.  I do take the cart in the pro-ams since everyone does, and I usually drive out to the drive and walk from there.  But during the tournaments I always walk.  I think it's better to play that way rather than racing around in a cart and then waiting since either the player or caddy has to walk. 

I think walking is better for the tournaments because it looks better on TV, more like a golf tournament.  It's also better for spectators walking around to be able to follow the players, and I really think it's safer for everyone out there. 

Golf has been really fun this year.  I got started in Hawaii where I caddied for Parker McLachlin after he qualified and I didn't for the Sony Open on the regular Tour.  Parker caddied for me as a 13 year old junior golfer and we are great friends with his family from when we lived in Hawaii in the early 1990's.  I love Hawaii so much, with the great weather, and even better people!  I had so much fun caddying for him, and actually learned a few things watching him play and work with his sports psychologist Don Greene who has some great ideas on performing under pressure. 

I went to Turtle Bay on the North Shore for our first tournament, and played really well, and after I birdied number 17, tied Loren Roberts with one hole to play.  Well, Loren made eagle on the 18th hole, and I got second place after congratulating him for his second win in a row.  But it was a great way to start, and a big confidence booster.  I played pretty well after that and it's been good with a second place in Puerto Vallarta to Morris Hatalsky.  I again was chasing him, and birdied 16 to get within a shot.  But I bogied 17, and then missed a 6 foot birdie putt after 2 really good shots, and again lost by a shot. 

I worked with my teacher Kip Puterbaugh this off season, and felt better going into the season and have continued to work on the same things.  I'm trying to swing a bit more around with less lift of my head and spine angle in the backswing.  This helps me get a little more consistent and more drive on the ball.  The past few years I've struggled with weak misses to the right, and we've almost eliminated all of those. 

Putting has been off and on this year, and it's funny because I've been rated up near the top in putting but it just hasn't felt like it's that great.  Either my expectations are off, or maybe these guys just don't putt that good!  But really, I've putted good at times and I feel I can improve even more.

I just tied for 5th in the Senior US Open and that was a blast.  We played Prairie Dunes golf course in Hutchinson Kansas and it was fantastic.  It was a links course in the sand dunes and just had a great variety of holes, and some really interesting and tough greens.  It wasn't a long course at about 6,700 yds, but there were a lot of lay up holes so it played longer than that.  I played pretty good the first couple days with 72-70 and was about 12th place because it was kind of windy and tough.  The wind didn't blow as much the 3rd round and due to some rain the greens were holding pretty well.  I shot 66 and moved up to 9th place.  I hit the ball great that day, and after 3 putting 11 for a bogey changed my putting stroke a little bit, and started to make some good putts including a 30 footer on 15 which sure helped.  The 4th round I started with a 3 putt bogey on 2 and then bogeyed 5 from off the edge.  But birdies on 6 and 7 helped get me back under par.  Then I birdied 11,12,13 and got to 5 under and only 2 shots back at the time.  It was really fun and exciting!  I had makeable birdie putts on 14 and 15 that just missed on the edges, but hit a bad iron and left a par putt dead in short on 16.  Then I hit 3 great shots on 17 but it spun back 30 feet short, and then hit a putt that somehow just missed curling around the top edge.  My shot stopped way short on 18 but I made a good 5 foot putt for par, and shot 68.  

It was such a fun week, and it was really a great atmosphere there at Prairie Dunes.  It was such a great course, and there were 20 to 30 thousand people out there every day which was awesome.  It really had the feel of a US Open, and I am already looking forward to next year at Whistling Straits.  

Alan Doyle won and beat Tom Watson by a couple while I was 4 shots back.  I've only played with Doyle once, and he is interesting to watch.  His swing is short, but he's a big guy and can still generate enough power, and he hits it very straight.  He does what all good players do with a good sequence on the downswing of his body leading the swing and rotating and getting to his left side through the shot.  It's his putting that is also amazing to watch.  When I played with him, I thought he might double hit some putts.  He takes it back really short and accelerates right out at the hole, and obviously it works really well when he's hot.  

I guess Tom Watson wasn't so fortunate with his putting the last day, and it's too bad because everyone out there in Kansas was rooting for him.  At least when I beat Tom Watson at Olympic Club I wasn't playing with him, and there were a lot of people rooting for me then.  But he handled the loss with so much class just like he did when I was fortunate enough to beat him 19 years ago.  You know, It is amazing to me that it's almost 20 years since I won the US Open!

So in closing I'll try and write now and then, and until then:  I wish you all the best, and hope you enjoy God's blessing and peace.

Scott