GolfNewsRI

GolfNewsRI is excited to partner with former Moses Brown star Will Dickson to chronicle his journey through professional golf. 

The journal is in Will’s own words, pictures and videos.

Anything written in italics is GolfNewsRI, as we chime in with some details and try to fill some gaps. 

We hope you enjoy the ride….

Setting Up

Will Dickson begins the week on the G-Pro Tour in Georgia before heading to Texas for the Korn Ferry Tour Monday Q.

G-Pro Tour Sanctuary Championship 

April 4 -6, Waverly, Georgia 

So last week I was the down in Waverly, Georgia for the G-Pro Tour’s Sanctuary Championship. It’s near Saint Simon’s, so I was actually able to stay at a friend’s house on Saint Simon’s which was nice.

The guy whose place it was is someone who I met in Waynesboro, Georgia, which is where my girlfriend’s family is from. And he reached out and was like, hey, if you need a place to stay, you and my roommate, Ben Smith, I mentioned his name before, He has two bedrooms in his place there in Saint Simons. So we stayed there, which is awesome. It’s a great spot. So the accommodations for the week were great. 

I think we drove down the day before in the morning because it was a five hour drive from Atlanta. So we got in to play a practice round and then got dinner somewhere. I forget where we got it, but basically a full day, the day before the standard, you know, travel and then afternoon, practice round day. 

This time it was nice because Ben and I had similar tee times. Some weeks we have like opposite waves. So like if we take one car, it becomes a bit more challenging. But this time we’re on  the same times basically. So we were able to go to the course together with one car, the travel and everything worked out pretty well. So that’s always nice when that happens. 

The first day I knew the scores were gonna be pretty low again and similar story to, to the last few G pros. I just kind of shot myself in the foot. The first day wasn’t really there mentally. Probably trying to, you know, not make mistakes, not make bogeys, playing defensive golf rather than playing offensive golf. And basically, I mean, any time you’re playing professionally you don’t have time to fool around and play a defensive golf. Otherwise you’re going to miss the cut or, you know, not play to your potential. 

So a rough first day, but, nothing that I hadn’t seen before. So, you know, reset for, for the second day, had a good, good attitude again, which is something that I’ve mentioned before. And I think that’s been the strongest part of my game almost. The start of t his year is my attitude because obviously I haven’t played the golf that I want to play and that I know I can play. 

So having a good attitude has been key. The second round, I knew I was kind of behind the eight ball and had to have a really good day and I wanna make the cut, but, nothing was really going my direction. 

But eventually I got going, I, birdied 8,9 and then 12, I believe. Then I holed out from a bunker on 14 for birdie, which is one of the toughest holes in the course. That was nice.

There’s definitely times where I’d rather be in the bunker than in the rough. In this particular case, it was a pretty straightforward uphill short kind of bunker shot where I just have to get it on the green, kind of almost like chunk it out and just let it roll. There’s a couple ways I could have played it. But, I mean, under the circumstance, I knew I had to make birdies coming in. So, you’re giving that little extra ounce of focus, that little extra ounce of energy um to the shot and, you know, like it might, you might make it one out of one out of 10 times, one out of 20 times, you’re probably gonna get it up and down, you know, 8 times out of 10.

At this point I’m playing free, you know, kind of free wheeling it, which is what you need to do. I’m playing and hitting golf shots the way I know I can. 

And so I’m like, ok, I got a birdie probably two or three of the next four holes, to make the cut and gave myself opportunities on 15 and 16. Just the putt didn’t fall. And the 17th hole par five, I had about a 15 ft eagle putt that I just missed, I made birdie there and I basically needed to make Eagle there. You know, again, I hit a really good drive, a good second shot, gave myself a chance but two putt from birdie and then, but the the cool part of the story is 18. 

I knew I needed to make Eagle to make the cut, but it’s a par four. So that involves some, you know, like a hole out or something crazy. And I had a really good drive again like over the corner on the 18th  and had 83 yards in just from the left hand side of the left rough.  I hit the shot and it actually, it landed about 15 ft short of the hole, took a bounce and released like a putt and literally did a 180 lip out like a slow, you know, high side, 180 lip out. 

I kinda just kinda dropped my club and put my hands on my head and I was like, oh man, like that was, that was like the cut right there, which would have been pretty, pretty sweet. It would have been an insane finish. But you know, it didn’t fall so tapped in for birdie and missed the cut by one again, which, has kind of been maybe a little bit of a theme the last month or so.

But regardless, lots of that second round was another good score and played how I know I can play. So, try to take that momentum into the Monday Q.

After a few days off, Will travels to Texas for the Korn Ferry Tour Monday Q….

Veritex Bank Championship Monday Q 

April 10, 2023 – Arlington, Texas 

I had all my travel plans laid out for Arlington, Texas, which is where the KFT tournament is being held this week.

So I was ready to go and flew in Saturday afternoon. I wanted to give myself plenty of time. Obviously traveling to Texas isn’t the shortest of travels. When you’re flying, it does make things a bit easier. But it was the first time flying this year for me. So just a little extra preparation on the front end to get, you know, hotels, rental cars, flights and everything booked. When you’re not 25 yet, renting a car is not exactly the cheapest or the easiest thing in the world. So, um choosing rental car companies that don’t charge you extra just because you’re not 25 yet is key. 

But anyway, got in Saturday afternoon, went through the process of just checking into the hotel and everything. Rental cars, all that stuff. 

Turns out we’re like a mile away from AT&T Stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play, which was pretty cool. I got to drive by the stadium almost every day to and from the golf course, or like a restaurant or something. So that stadium is huge. It was pretty cool. 

This was my first time ever to Dallas. So like just driving around, I mean it was pretty cool. Like Dallas is a pretty sweet city. So we were in Arlington specifically and the roads are wide, like everything’s pretty new, so that was kind of a nice surprise. So we get there now I am traveling with Ben as well at this point, but we’re on different golf courses for the Monday. 

So each Monday has two sites, the top four at each site get qualified into the tournament. So we’re on different courses. So we book separate hotels, separate rental cars, we can kinda do our thing, on the weekend and for the Monday. So I played a practice around Sunday and was able to go through my routine. 

Sunday, went to the gym for a little bit, just hung out kind of a pretty chill Sunday just getting prepared for Monday 1:30 p.m. tee time on Monday. 

I was able to watch most of Masters Sunday during my practice round. I was playing with a couple of guys and each one of us had it on our phones. We would look at it every four or five minutes, but it was always on the background. So we were able to follow it and obviously, I’ve been saying it for a while but I think John is the number one player in the world. 

I think he’s, got all, you know, like they, say for baseball players, you know, he’s a five tool player. He’s got all the skills. You know, he, he can putt it, he’s got a great short game, he can work the ball both ways and he’s an insane driver of the golf ball as well.  

It was super cool to see him battle it out against Brooks and take home the victory. He’s had a really, really unbelievable season so far. So hopefully he can keep it going.

So I’m by myself Sunday after the practice round and I’m like, all right, it’s time for dinner, but it’s Easter Sunday. I’m on my phone and I’m like, all right, I wanna get some, some Texas barbecue, like, I love barbecue and there should be some good barbecue in Texas and I look up like Texas, you know, B B Q, right? 

And I’m like, all right, here’s a place, a couple of miles away and go there. It’s closed. I’m like, all right, I’ll try another place. A couple of minutes away. I go there. It’s closed. Like every Texas barbecue place in Arlington was closed at like, 4:30-5 o’clock. And I was like, man, but I guess it was appropriate because it was Easter Sunday. 

But I end up having to get Mexican food and go to a Mexican restaurant on Easter Sunday because that was the only restaurant that was open.

I like playing in the afternoon on Mondays  because I kind of know what I need to shoot.  I feel like I play better when I know what I need to shoot almost. 

So 1:30 p.m. time, everything was good, felt really good. Then I get up onto the first or in my case, the 10th, which I was starting on the back nine. So my, my first of the day, but 10th hole on the golf course, and I hit my first drive out of bounds to the left. 

So quite a little bit of a shock to the system, knowing that I have to shoot, I already saw the scores for the morning wave and I needed to shoot at least seven under, if not eight or nine under to have a chance. 

And so when you start off with a double bogey on your first hole of the day, and it’s a par five you kind of are put behind the eight ball pretty darn quick. I gotta go 10 under for my next 17 holes to have a chance. So I followed it up with a birdie on the next hole and again, I mean, I played really solid the whole day. But on a day like that, you have to have everything go your way. I think there’s an interview out there from Joey who was one of the guys who shot nine under on the other course and he said he got to the course like 10 or 15 minutes before his time. 

He hit three putts, hit three balls on the range, never saw the course before and went out and shot 62. And he said that he was within five feet of the hole almost like every time. So he obviously played lights out and just got extremely hot. And, you know, that’s kind of what it is on a Monday. It’s just like who can show up and get scorching hot and make 10 birdies. And, unfortunately I didn’t do that but, like starting off of the double, I made the turn at one under, so I made three birdies following that on that first nine. 

I had some really good shots. I felt good out there and shot two under, which is nothing to write home about. But at the same time it’s another tournament score under par with the score card in your hand. 

I know that I hit some really good shots and I know that my game is good enough to qualify and to compete with those guys. I guess, like I’ve been saying all year and I know I’m gonna get hot here soon. 

Now I know I’m gonna put it together. It’s just a matter of letting it happen. Over the last six or eight months, I feel like I’ve gotten better. I feel like my short game is better. I feel like I’m putting just as good as I was when I was shooting really, really good scores last summer. I feel like my wedges and my irons are just as good, but I feel like my driving has gotten a lot better. So I feel like my skill set and my golf game physically has gotten better. 

It’s just a matter of me using it and putting it together. So, um, again, nothing too negative to write home about. Just trying to make the most of this week here in Atlanta and get ready for next Monday. 

So it’s, it’s nice to be home here for a few days. I’ll get some good practice and get some good time in the gym in and give it another shot next Monday. So, appreciate you guys following along. And that’s what I got from Texas.