Golf Swing

Filmed on the driving range at the TPC of Louisiana, this is the swing that gave my putter the chance to win a Canadian Tour card.

Canadian Tour Schdule

After qualifying for a Canadian Tour card last week, my first two events will come next month in Mexico, beginning with the Corona Mexican PGA Championship. The event is held in Mazitlan, Mexico and following that, I will travel to Puerto Vallarta for the Riviera Niyarit Classic.

Golf stars Steve Stricker, Mike Weir, Arron Oberholser and Will MacKenzie, have used the Canadian Tour as a launching platform to get to the PGA Tour. The Canadian Tour is managed and set-up similar to PGA and Nationwide Tour stops and provide players direct opportunities to play for spots in the Nationwide Wayne Gretzky Invitational and PGA Tour's Canadian Open. As a member of the International Federation of PGA Tours, the Canadian Tour receives world ranking points for every event, allowing players to achieve a world ranking and compete on other tours around the world.

This year has the potential to provide new opportunities and a greater competitive experience. I'm very excited to begin battling with very skilled players on great courses and get myself "in the hunt" to win a Canadian PGA Tour event.

2010 Canadian Tour Q-School

"It would make a great story," said Cindy Cote, Canadian PGA Tour official.

She handed me a rules sheet for the week and I nodded. "Yes it will," I said. I smiled and headed off to walk the front nine of the second qualifying course for the Canadian PGA Tour. The day's light was fading, but I was determined to use every last bit of it.

About 24 hours earlier I was in New Orleans and by chance, had received word that Canadian Tour Q-School had a player withdraw. The tournament was a day and a half away. Surely I couldn't make it to Tampa, play two practice rounds and be prepared for four grueling rounds of competition in one day!

Without a moment's hesitation, and with the support of my golf coach and family, I drove down I-10 with the Allman Brothers' "Jessica" blaring. 10 hours later, I slept at a rest stop in Florida and by late morning, arrived at Hernando Oaks GC in Brooksville, FL. I was to play a practice round at Hernando Oaks and walk a few holes on Southern Hills Plantation CC, the second tournament site.

The impulsive decision to capitalize on this opportunity led to status on the Canadian PGA Tour for the 2010 season. After days of miserable weather and numerous delays, the event was shortened to a 36 hole competition. I posted rounds of 74-69 for -1, 11th place finish. The top 16 finishers were awarded the opportunity to compete on the Canadian tour this year.

Sometimes in life, but almost always in golf, acting on your first instinct pays off. These bets always make a great story.

Kuala Lumpur Swing Video

I've discovered footage of my trip to asia never before seen on the blog. I will continue posting the videos here in the coming days. This was my corner of the range at Bukit Jalal CC in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This crab grass patch of rough was where I called home for a few very humid weeks, at the end of 2007.

Painful Endings and New Beginnings

For the first time in my pro golf career, I had to withdraw mid-event due to a neck injury during last weekend's Emerald Coast Tour event. I went to see a Dr. Jaffe, an Orthopedic Surgeon in Birmingham, this week. X-ray and range of movements tests revealed there was nothing abnormally wrong, so I'm spending the week recovering.

This month, I will Monday qualify for the Nationwide Tour Louisiana Open in Lafayette, LA. The LA Open is the same event I Monday qualified for last year and missed the cut by a single stroke. This year, I expect improved results.

I am starting a new movement on this blog for the coming year. While continuing to 'tweet' results via Twitter (screen name: markbaldwin1), I will add short video blog posts to my site. This is going to be a new year with exciting results I will describe and exhibit with video.

2010: A New Golf Odyssey

"Reality is an illusion. Albeit, a persistent one." ~Einstein

There is no sport more indicative of this statement than golf. Imagine: you are playing the best round of the year, you can do no wrong. You step on the 18th tee and stare down the par 5 you've birdied 100 times. "Oh yeah, I've got the perfect baby draw working today. What water hazard on the right!? All I'm seeing is that perfect angle into the flag about 300 out."

You tee your ball up and feel a slight gust from the gods moving the hair to the right side of your head. As you take your practice swing and feel the breeze pressing your shirt into your back (you are right handed of course), it occurs to you to aim farther left to account for the breeze. You open your stance slightly too much and now aim farther left than you would have advised yourself, just to be safe.

"A miss left is better than a miss right," you subconsciously rationalize.

Your swing is a bit more aggressive than normal causing your upper body to move outside "the slot." The club face moves across the ball along your toe line, starting left and cutting. The wind accentuates the ball spin and that minor setup miscue now has you playing your next shot in knee-deep mud.

This is the golf and this is life. In my world, the two are intertwined. Previous attempts to move up the pro golf hierarchy have ended this way. The "I was so close to..." is an all too familiar story.

With 5 months of golf education in Birmingham with my coach, I am ready to rewrite this story. Tournament finishes in the past months are as follows: 5th, 2nd, 4th, 1st. This week I will play the Emerald Coast Tour in Ocean Springs, Alabama in an effort to add a second consecutive win to this recent resume and to strengthen my preparation for that final tee shot with everything on the line.

Twitter Postings

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