Watching my putt lip in on 18 in the final round of Asian Qschool Finals Saturday was a fitting and relieving way to end my two weeks in Thailand and my first trip of the year. The putt was for eagle (the first one of the year) and a 6-under 65, my best round of the two weeks, to finish at -12 total and 2nd place alone. It also capped off the nearly-linear trend of improvement through the 8 competitive rounds I played, slowly but surely knocking off the Kansas winter holiday-season rust.
Despite a 74-74 (+6, t46) start to first stage, nasty poison ivy-like, golf-ball size blisters on my ankles, and getting on the wrong bus at 5:30am to the course, I finished with 70-68 for +2 total and qualified for final stage 1-shot clear. Top 40 and ties in final stage would earn Asian Tour cards for the 2016 season. With the tough side of the draw (hard course in the windy afternoon), I started final stage 68-71 (-3) in a tie for 29th. Weekend rounds of 68-65 earned 2nd place honors and Asian Tour status for the coming season. Here is a link with my translated and then translated back quotes: http://www.asiantour.com/2016/01/16/atqs-rd-4-what-they-said-2/
I can expect 12-15 starts, mostly in the fall, and am currently 5th reserve for the Singapore Open next week (featuring Jordan Speith), a $1M purse event to kick off the season. If I don't get in, I'll play a couple events on the Asian Development Tour leading up to the Bangladesh Open February 10-13.
Ill continue to send tournament links in the days before and also post on facebook and twitter with daily updates. Thanks for all your support!
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Dodge
