Follow Casey Grice this season on Twitter, Facebook and at www.caseygrice.com
My rookie season on the Epson Tour has officially started. The first swing of tournaments took me to Mesa, AZ and then to City of Industry, CA. I was very fortunate to find a friend to travel with and help make the very long drive West. Katie Mundy and I met at LPGA Qualifying School last Fall and with us both living in Texas now it seemed like the perfect fit to travel together. Katie is from England, played college golf at FIU, and lives in Burnet where she and her fiancee will be getting married next month.
Our first tournament, the VisitMesa Gateway Classic, was held at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, AZ. We were fortunate to get host housing for the entire event with a fantastic couple. They shared my love of the Toyota Prius! The Epson Tour also hosted a junior clinic for The First Tee of Phoenix that I was able to be apart of before the tournament began. They compiled a video showcasing the event to the right. I ended up shooting 77-74 for the event and missed the cut by three strokes. It was an awesome learning experience though and I was excited to move forward to California!
Then we made the drive to City of Industry, CA for the The Volvik Championship. The weather was nice for the first few days and the course was beautiful. We even fit some sight seeing in after one of our practice rounds. It was the first time either of us had been to Los Angeles, CA so we wanted to see everything! We ended up going on a bus tour and saw so much more than we had ever expected. They showed us the Hollywood sign, many celebrity houses, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Blvd., and then dropped us off so we could walk along the Walk of Fame. Coincidentally, the Oscars were setting up for that next weekend so we were able to stand on the actual red carpet!
Little did we know the weather we were about to experience. Everyone the week before had seen the forecast and knew there was a pretty high chance of rain, but the wind that came with it made the conditions pretty tough. The tournament was shortened to 36 holes which we played over the course of 4 days. I ended up shooting 72-75 to finish in a tie for 27th place and I earned my first paycheck! Overall, it was a very fun few weeks and I am looking forward to the next few tournaments! We leave again on Sunday for Lake Wales, FL. Results will be posted here after the tournament and live scoring will be at www.epsontour.com. Thank you for following!!
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