• John Stires: John shot his career low of 109 at Bonita. John has only been playing golf a little over 6 months and was averaging around 125 when he started his lessons a couple of months ago.
• Gabriel Moreno: Gabriel tied his career low with 71 at Tijuana CC
• Marillyn Brown: Marilyn shot her career best of 89 at Mt Woodson
• Will Mooney: Will shot his best ever score of 81. This was five strokes lower than his previous career best.
• Mike Jones: Mike (pictured above on the right) passed his Players Ability Test at Encinitas Ranch and became a PGA Member. Mike worked extremely hard on his game to pass this and should be extremely proud of all his hard work.
• Mike Heine: Mike had his first ever hole in one on #13 at RB Inn
• Todd Howeton: Todd shot his career low of 73 at Toscana.
• Ben Leibowitz: Ben (pictured on the left) won the Mrs. Lou Smith Memorial in the 13-14 age category of the San Diego Junior Golf Association. Ben shot 80 at the Sycuan Resort Oak Glen course to capture the event.
• Phil Pressel: Phil took 3 golds and a silver in the first ever transplant swimming games in Pittsburgh. Phil, the recipient of a new kidney in 2006, set a new American record for people in the 70+ age category.

I hope I have not left any of you out. Please let me know if I did and I will make sure to include you in the next newsletter.

Admiral Baker South is located 1 mile east of Stadium Golf Center and is normally only available to the military. It measures 6,061 yards and has a par of 72. Golfers are allowed and encouraged to continue playing as many holes as they can once the nine hole playing lesson is completed. Although the course is somewhat short, it does present quite a few challenges off the tee and gives the golfer a few different options as to how to play each hole.

• Dates: Monday, August 23rd at 8 AM, 11 AM, 2 PM. Wednesday, September 8th at 8AM. Friday, September 17th at 4pm .
• Cost: $110 (includes green fee and cart).
• Sign Up: Please call (858) 254-0889 or email at justin@hicksolf.com
• Space: Limited to first 3 students.

I want to share a few things that I have learned over the years that played a role in my success at the PGA National Championship. First, I had no expectations of how I might play. I went into the event really looking forward to enjoying the experience and spending a week in a wonderful atmosphere. The one time I did have expectations was on the 16th hole of the final round and boy did it cost me. At the time I was two shots ahead of the cutoff for the top 20. I thought I was a lock to qualify and began to think how great it would be to play in PGA Championship. I had not thought about that all week and believe that my beginning to have expectations had a strong part in my poor finish. Second, I stayed with my normal daily routine that I have whenever I play a casual round of golf. This includes having a cup of coffee every morning, not practicing after completion of the round, and only hitting about 20 to 30 balls to get warmed up before the round starts. I learned this from competing in the 2008 Buick where I got away from my normal routine and did not play as well I normally do. Obviously every golfer is different in their normal routine, but I would highly recommend not changing it just because you are playing in a big event. The final reason I believe I played well was I never got too caught up in my golf swing. Although my swing thoughts did change from day to day, and sometimes from hole to hole, I focused on what I needed to do to create some type of repetitive ball flight that I could rely on. I trusted myself in making small adjustments to my swing and was indifferent to how my swing may have looked. I am hopeful that I will finish in the top 11 in this year's section championship (August 30-September 1 at Oakmont Country Club) and compete again in next year's PGA National Championship.