First Tournament of 2021
It is hard for me to believe we are already a week into March, but I am so excited about my season beginning this month. Over the last several weeks I have been looking for tournaments across various mini-tours that will build my tournament schedule for the year. I am in a different place financially this year because I moved down to Houston this past November and my cost of living went up. The money I have set aside for golf expenses is not as much as I have had in the last couple of years, but it will be enough to get me a good start to this season and I am thankful I still have the opportunity to go after my dream. With some good play, I will be able to make money from the course and continue to play a good selection of events for the rest of the year. Time to be a good steward of what I have been given!
As I have been looking for events, I wanted to find something that was reasonably cheap and convenient to play for the first one. I have not played in a golf tournament since October of last year so there will be some rust that needs cleaning in my golf game. I registered for an event put on by the SwingThought Tour hosted at the Golf Club of Houston. I have been familiar with this tour the last couple of years but never teed it up with them. This seemed like a great event to get started with and would require no travel because that course is just 25 minutes from my apartment! Unfortunately, the ice and snow that came through during February caused a lot of problems and the tour decided they would postpone that event until later in the summer.
Instead of waiting for the next tournament on my list, I wanted to find something earlier in March so that I could get into some competition! I found a small handicap tour called the Legacy Golf Tour that seems to be based in Texas. If you have followed my journey over the last couple of years, you will know that I have played in a couple of small handicap tours for more tournament exposure (the Fairway Golf Tour and also the Longshots Tour). I enjoy these events and the competition they bring, but it is certainly different and places me at a slight disadvantage against the field especially if I am playing at a handicap better than 0.
On March 13, the Legacy Golf Tour will be holding an event at the River Plantation course in Conroe, Texas. That's only about 20 minutes from my apartment! The tournament is only one round and the field will be very small, but it's a tournament and it will be just enough competition to get my game ready for the bigger events gaining momentum soon. I am not a member of this tour, but thankfully they have a “non-member sign up” available and my entry fee came to $270. $220 for the tournament and another $50 added for the low net score game. I will play a practice round there this week (maybe 2), but I don’t have to spend any money on travel because this event is so close. The downside to not being a member and only playing one event on this tour is that the earnings will be limited. Typically the tournament winner will receive $1000, but I will only have the chance to make $750 if I come in first. It is typical of these small tours to set a boundary like that so I will just go out and play the best I can and hopefully, that will be enough to make some money over my expenses for the event. At this point, I am not sure what my handicap will be for the round, but after sending them some tournament scores, they will let me know what will be fair and lead to a good competitive field.
I am so excited to get started with some competitive golf!! I love to compete and I am thankful I have had so much opportunity to chase and live out my dream playing professional golf. I hope I am able to use it as a platform to glorify God. I will be preparing for the event for the rest of this week, so check out my content if you want to see the practice rounds, practice, and training that leads into my first tournament for 2021!!
