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

It has been a minute, but Will Dickson’s Journal is back and better than ever. 

With the mini-tours mostly taking a break, Will has been limited to Korn Ferry Tour Monday Qualifiers over the last several weeks. 

This episode is highlights the end of May in which Will Monday Q’d for a Korn Ferry Tour event, caught up with Davis Chatfield and then went to a G-Pro. 

All leading up to his return to Providence next week. 

Enjoy the episode.

Korn Ferry Tour Monday Qualifier – Knoxville Open

May 22, 2023 

I know it’s been a while, but I have a week off here so good to catch up. 

I guess we can start with the Knoxville Open. Korn Ferry Tour Monday qualifier was the third week in May. 

What’s funny is the week before that I actually hurt my back in the gym. I kind of tore a muscle in my lower back and I spent the whole week at home sort of recovering and doing every sort of like therapy, basically physical therapy that I could do for it. 

I didn’t touch a club once during the week and it wasn’t until like late afternoon Saturday, even when I woke up Sunday morning, when I was like, oh, I might actually be able to play. I was gonna withdraw from the Monday, but I made the decision when I woke up Sunday morning. 

I got up there Sunday afternoon and played a quick practice round. I didn’t feel great, but I was able to hit every club in my bag. I knew whatever was going on was healing. So I think I knew I’d be good for Monday. 

It helps that I knew that course from the year before. So that was good and got out there and just played good. 

I obviously felt comfortable out there on that golf course and I knew what shots I needed to hit. I knew what the scoring holes were and my putter got hot and I think, I’m not sure if I made nine birdies and a bogey or just eight birdies. I think I was bogey free, so made eight birdie shot 64 and ended up being in a playoff. 

It was a four for three playoff. It went four holes. It came down to me and this other kid, in high school and I told myself, I’m not letting this kid beat me. The last playoff hole was a par-5 and I hit two good shots up there and two putted for birdie and ended up advancing into the event.

So that was nice to get through. It was such a long day. I, I was the second group off in the morning. I think my tee time was like 8:10 and in the morning and I didn’t leave the golf course until about eight o’clock that evening after the playoff. 

So it was such a long grueling day.  

Korn Ferry Tour’s Knoxville Open 

May 25-272023

The next day went over to the tournament course and played a practice round. 

Stepping up to a Korn Ferry Tour event, you definitely feel the difference. 

It’s the small stuff, just like, the grandstand, the fans, you know, just the whole experience of playing in a tour event is, it’s unbelievable and it’s amazing and it’s what I wanna do, but it’s different and you feel more pressure, you’re on a bigger stage and I just have to learn with how to deal with those emotions and those feelings. 

I know I’m talented enough. I know I’m good enough to be out there. It’s just a matter of doing it more often and then succeeding on that stage. And once I do that, then I’ll feel a lot more comfortable out there and, and be able to play to my potential and play some good golf. 

Davis Chatfield also was in the field and the two snapped a picture together… 

Davis, Patrick and I, we all were very competitive. We all wanted to beat each other every week and, and we knew that there was that sort of rivalry, who’s the best player in New England or who’s the best junior golfer in Rhode Island. 

You know, we probably should have been better friends than we were at that time, but we just wanted to beat each other so bad. 

Now it’s a lot of respect for everybody, I’d love to be in Davis’ shoes right now. I think he’s played some really good golf and obviously he’s been successful on the Tour. I’m sure he would like to play a little bit better and get some more points under his belt. But, he’s had a great first year. 

It was great seeing him and we just talked for a few minutes and wished each other the best and I’m sure, I’ll be seeing him more down the road. 

It’d be great to play some practice rounds with him and Patrick and you know just catch up and have a good time.

So the Visit Knoxville Open was on Holston Hills in Tennessee.  

Holston Hills is a Donald Ross course that they had lengthened in previous years. 

So it played a bit more difficult. I grew up on Donald Ross courses in the northeast, obviously, in Rhode Island. And so I kind of knew that style. I had to keep the ball below the hole. You know, the greens were very complicated, tilted back to front, which is common, Donald Ross. And so I really like the golf course, but I just, I didn’t have a very good tournament. 

I wasn’t feeling very good with my swing for some reason. I didn’t really know which way the ball was going, unfortunately. So didn’t play nearly as good as I wanted to. I putted and chipped pretty well. I scrambled well, but, just didn’t hit the ball good enough to make anything happen really. So it was a pretty frustrating week. 

I tried to learn from it and as always, like, you try to take the positives and you try to learn from what you didn’t do well and just keep moving forward. This game is such a journey and a process, you’re not gonna play great every week. You’re gonna have really bad weeks, just like some of the best players in the world did at the U.S. Open last week. 

If you can learn from it and get better, then that’s all that really matters. 

So I went from there to a G-Pro event in Annapolis, North Carolina the following and that was at the Irish Creek golf club, which I’ve also played before. 

They’ve hosted G-Pros in the past that I’ve played in and they also hosted first stage of Q-School last year. 

So again, I was very familiar with that course, felt really good out there and, and in between the event and that tournament, I did some practice and talked to my coach a few times and worked on some things and I felt a lot better. 

I was able to hit some really good shots and was able to score a lot better. So I think I came in fifth at the G-Pro. I think I was like 14-under for three days. So that was definitely a good week, gain some confidence there. 

It’s always nice to be in contention on the back nine to win a golf tournament. I don’t care what tournament it is or what course you’re playing on, anytime you have a chance to win. That means you’re playing good golf. 

Since then I’ve just done a couple of Korn Ferry Tour Monday qualifiers. 

In the summer time it kind of slows down a little bit, the mini tours takes a break in the summertime. I’m not particularly sure why, but they have a full year schedule so they give like a month off now. 

I’ve just been doing some Monday qualifiers, went out to Wichita, Kansas and then just got back from Norman, Oklahoma a couple days ago. 

Two Mondays that I felt like I actually hit the ball really pretty good. I’ve been happy with the way I’ve been hitting it and making some changes and I’m really close to playing some really good golf. 

Just haven’t been able to kind of put it all together for 18 holes yet, but that’s kind of what happens when you’re working on some things. 

I’m in this for the long run and my goal is just to be really prepared for Q-School in the fall. So, you know, these Mondays, they haven’t gone great, I’ve only obviously Monday qualified into one event this year. 

Where they I did three last year. The Mondays haven’t really gone to plan as much, but I feel like overall, I’m in a better position to succeed in Q school this fall. 

Just back here this week, in the gym and practicing and just kind of feeling, getting my body to feel really good for this next stretch in July that I just put together my schedule for yesterday. 

So really looking forward to this July stretch, they got a couple cool things planned out. 

Will Dickson is next playing in the Providence Open at Triggs Memorial Golf Course in Rhode Island.

As GolfNewsRI reported, he is excited to return home.