Catching up on Golf Thoughts...

In 2 days it's November...that means my golf season is officially over, the new PGA Tour season has already started, there are 50 new PGA Tour players who graduated from the Web.com Tour,  the Q-school to get into the Web.com Tour has started, and as I've just read, Tiger Woods has announced his "comeback".

For the first time in quite some time, there are no golf shoes in my car...last weekend cleaning the car was on the agenda and that meant it was time to pull out my golf inventory...usually at least 3 pairs of shoes, dozens of golf balls, towels, clothes, random head covers, half empty water bottles, and tees, lots of tees.  The golf season was a fun one for me, but due to "life", I may have played the least amount of golf in a season in over 5 years.  When I could play the weather was crummy, and when it was nice, other commitments took over.  But the times I did play had all the things I love about golf!  ​

I'm grateful for all the fun scrambles, the one day road trips, and a super fun weekend at the end of the season.  Golf friends are the best friends!!

Since posting about the President's Cup - which was awesome to watch - I haven't kept up too much on the world of golf...Justin Thomas made a splash, Dustin Johnson is still #1 in the world, and we're off and running on the 17-18 season.

There are 50 "graduates" who will (or already are) playing in the 2017-18 PGA Tour.  If you need a refresher on who they all are, here's the link to the "Meet The Fifty" article.  In just a quick cruise through the list,  several familiar names popped up, having been on the PGA Tour and needing to earn their way back to the big stage.  I'll have to spend some time reading up on many of the new names to me who will be competing against the best players in the world!

I need to make a point of catching up on Q-school, too.  It wouldn't be a golf season if I didn't lament about how much I miss the old Q-school where dreamers could qualify to make it to the PGA Tour.  I loved the stories!!  The new journey makes sense, but it's just not the same for me.

Now what was it I just read about Tiger?  Oh yes, GolfWRX.com is reporting that Woods has Tweeted that he will be in the 18-man field of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas on Nov. 30.  Well, I guess that puts to bed the commentary that we'd never see Tiger in a professional event again.  I'm happy to see that Woods is going to lace up his golf shoes and play, even if it's a limited field event...actually, that seems like a good idea!  And we should have a month of great speculation from the golf pundits along and the Twitter-verse.

I'm already dreading reading my golf predictions from the beginning of the year, but thankfully I've got a month or two before officially realizing how bad my picks were.

A few other "random thoughts": 
1. SO happy for Phil Mickelson and his play at the President's Cup - he was a captain's pick (by none other Steve Stricker!) and there was definitely some chatter about whether he was "worthy" - I think he proved he was.
2. The Solheim Cup was awesome!!  I'm bummed that it was in Iowa and I just couldn't make it work...but I did talk with a lady who went for the week and said it was an amazing experience.  The Lexi Thompson singles match was so fun to watch!  Way to Go USA and Juli Inkster!!
3. I didn't buy any golf shoes this year...well, I guess there's still time, but this just feels weird!!  Although, good news!  When cleaning out my closet I found a new pair of khaki saddle FootJoy's ready for 2018!
4. Really missed my Me Time on the golf course this year - usually I would spend at least a few evenings a week just hitting balls and enjoying the course, but I maybe did that a handful of times.  Oh happy place, I missed you!
5. I'm hoping to get refocused in the off-season for a great 2018!

Well, I've updated some items on the www.hopejoygolf.com home page, and I've been reading through some of my old blog posts back when my friends at Tees2Greens gave me my own blog...I'm browsing through 2009 right now...oh how life changes, and stays the same sometimes...please feel free to browse with me. ​http://www.hopejoygolf.com/tees2greens-archive-posts

I'm making a pledge to blog regularly again - and I'm getting my October post in just under the wire!!  More to come in November!  Thanks for reading!