Golf tournament preparation challenge: a post-mortem from a hot day in the Nevada desert

BOULDER CITY, Nev. – I’ll get the spoiler right out of the way: No U.S. Mid-Amateur for me in 2026. My first USGA championship appearance will have to wait at least another year.

If you’re going to fail at something, you’d at least better learn something for next time. My round at Boulder Creek Golf Club about half an hour southeast of Las Vegas taught me a few things that I will try to take forward in my steadfastly mediocre, occasionally plucky competitive golf career.

Score: 73 (+1) – would have needed 68 (-4) to be in a playoff for the final qualifying spot
Fairways: 10/14
Greens: 13/18
32 putts
2 birdies

There are all sorts of ways to reflect on a competitive golf outing. First: the positives.

1. I survived. This seems like a stupid takeaway, but the high temperature in Boulder City, Nevada on August 26, 2026 reached 109 degrees, and all players must walk in all U.S.G.A. qualifiers. I had not walked a golf course on that hot a day before. I am not anywhere near peak physical condition, and it was my concerns about keeling over and making a complete fool out of myself, not the distractions of Las Vegas, that kept me from sleeping well the nights before the qualifier. My friend and caddie John, toting my clubs on a cart, did such an incredible job of keeping me both motivated and hydrated that I feel like I let him down by not playing well enough. I owe him, big-time. I think I drank a gallon of water and high-electrolyte Gatorade over the course of 18 holes, and I kept my trusty blue cooling towel cold and on the back of my neck between shots.

2. I (mostly) gave myself chances. I am not a data analytics whiz, but over a decade of tracking my golf round stats, I have spotted trends and indicators. The main one: when I hit a dozen or more greens in regulation, I usually put up decent scores. I hit 13 greens at Boulder Creek, which could have paved the way for me to get closer to qualifying. Iron play has always been the biggest strength of my game, and I am proud of the way I attacked flagsticks with short irons and wedges.

Now, the negatives:

1. Slow starts kill. Between general competitive nerves and anxiety about the heat, I got off to a rough start, bogeying my first two holes. Qualifiers like the one I played in – 18 holes, dozens of players for precious few spots – are golf’s equivalent of a 100-meter dash. You can’t hobble off the blocks and expect to truly compete.

TAKEAWAY: I want to chalk this one up to my anxiety over the extreme weather conditions, but honestly I just let nerves get the best of me. I have a habit of slow starts, so there is something in my competitive pre-round warmup routine that probably needs to change. I have always avoided spending more than 35 or 40 minutes warming up prior to a tournament round, thinking that fatigue might be a factor if I practice too much, but as I’m getting older I might need to move that interval closer to an hour. My pre-round warmups also don’t typically have much structure, and that might need to change as well.

2. “It’s a make-or-miss league.” This quote is usually used to describe the NBA, but it’s spot-on for 18-hole golf qualifiers, too. The players who get through these things tend to become knock-down shooters from 6 to 15 feet. I was far from that at Boulder Creek, even though the greens were in fantastic shape, with very little movement. I missed back-to-back birdie putts on holes 10 and 11. If I had made them, I would have stood on 12 tee at -2, with two par 5s to come, feeling like I had a real chance to get into the mix down the stretch. Instead, I stalled out, making a bogey and eight pars on the back nine.

TAKEAWAY: Ever since I watched a video where the late two-time Masters champion Jack Burke, Jr. said that he would only practice the putts he never expected to make (long lag putts) and the putts he never expected to miss (inside of 6 feet or so), I have structured my own putting practice in the same way, with decent results over time. But I think I need to mix in some more mid-range putting practice close to tournament time, just to try and dial in my feel and speed right before I am going to face some high-leverage putts from that distance.

Even when I fall short, playing tournament golf always makes me hungry to play more tournament golf. It is a heightened experience of the game that is simply impossible to replicate in a casual setting, with all due respect and love for the age-old four-ball match with buddies or modest multi-group money-game. I'll reiterate what I have said before: if you are a serious player, no matter your handicap, you must make space in your golf life for the occasional tournament.

Luckily, the waning months of 2026 have a few competitive opportunities in store for me. I write this in the midst of my fourth time competing in the Myrtle Beach World Amateur, an exhausting, inspiring all-week golf extravaganza that brings 3,000-plus golfers to South Carolina from across the world. I have competed in the Gross Division intermittently since 2014; watch this space for my notebook from this year’s edition.

This fall will bring another significant tournament-golf opportunity: the National Links Trust Championship outside of Washington, D.C. I can’t wait to tee it up for 54 holes at Northwest Park Golf Course in Maryland in mid-October. The NLT has done wonders improving the three National Parks Service golf courses in its purview and I believe the best is yet to come for those facilities and the golfers they serve as long as the NLT is involved with them.

The days are getting shorter but the last three months have added far more focus and intention to my normal practice sessions, and I look forward to continuing to figure out how to get the absolute most out of every shot. The grind and the learning never ends; that is golf's lifelong dividend. After all, my next U.S. Mid Amateur qualifier is just 11 short months away. I think I'll choose somewhere more temperate next time.