"We just got back from the ORU Shootout in Tulsa. We finished third. We hoped to win, but we didn't play quite well enough. But it was a fun tournament. It was played on a really tough course, really long and narrow. That was a challenge.
]]> "Our next tournament is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Las Cruces. We're only playing 18 holes a day, which is nice. I like that course. We played really well there last year, so hopefully we'll play well again this year. It's our fourth tournament of the fall, and we only have one more Oct. 24-25 and that's it."Teresa and Shang are playing well and Camino Sardinero has been playing really well for being a freshman. I played bad in our first tournament and the last one. Other than I've felt good, and I think I'll play well in the coming tournaments. I feel confident.
"We'll take one individual to Las Cruces, so six of the seven members of the team will play there. We have the last day of qualifying today. I'm in the lead right now. We played Fort Bliss yesterday and we play El Paso today.
"I'm really good friends with my Swedish teammates, but I like everyone on the team. We're close and we're having fun. Right now we don't have time to do much since we're away on tournaments every weekend. We just have time to do homework and play golf. So it has been kind of hectic.
"I'm surprised, but I'm doing really well in all of my classes. That feels good! There's a lot of stuff to do, especially when you're taking five classes and you have papers due. I'm taking Calculus, English 1312, Macro Economy, Business Communication and one online course, Ethics. The online class ends tomorrow. You're so tired when you're playing 18 or 36 holes and the last thing you want to do afterwards is study, but you have to. The offseason will be kind of chill when we have more time to focus on school. "I talk with my family a lot. I'll get to see them in December because we're going to Hawaii over Christmas! That's the only time I'll see them until the summer."
]]>"We have played in two tournaments since my last post. We went to Albuquerque for the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate first. I tied for 18th there, which tied the best finish of my college career. We didn't do too well as a team, but I saw some glimpses of good play from everybody. Then we went to Lake Tahoe to play in the Wolf Pack Classic, and none of us did well and we ended up finishing last. What we took from that is we need to change how we prepare for tournaments and focus more on our short games, putting and chipping instead of going out and hitting balls for practice.
]]> "It was tough going from one tournament to the other. Personally I was kind of beat heading into that second tournament. Life on the road is tough. We still have to maintain our schoolwork and being away for a week is really hard. It's just something we have to get used to and that's one of the criteria for being a college player, we have to keep up with school and play golf week in and week out. We get tutors if we're having trouble in school, but they don't travel with us, so when we're on the road we're pretty much on our own. You have to put in an extra amount of work to keep up with your classes."Our next tournament is the Lone Star Invitational Oct. 16-18 in San Antonio. It's a course that I've played the last two years. I think we finished fifth there last year. A lot of guys on the team know that course well, so we're expecting some good results. We start qualifying Sunday for three spots. Our two freshmen, Jacob Loya and Jere Pelletier, are already exempt and are going automatically. We're actually qualifying for one spot, and coach takes the next two players that he feels are ready to go. Usually he'll pick the next two in the scoring. We're going to have three rounds of qualifying on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
"With only two tournaments left in our fall season, we really just want to see where we stand and what areas we need to improve in. It's a process, and pretty much all fall coach Lieberwirth is evaluating all of us. Once the fall season winds down, we'll sit down as a team and look at what needs to be done and work on it during the Christmas break so we can hit the spring running.
"I'm going to swing by and see my family because I haven't seen them in a week, and I'll probably head up to New Mexico State to see my sister dance. She's on the Sundancers team. Other than that, I'm looking forward to watching some college football this weekend, since it's my second love. I don't know if people are going to like it, but Texas is my other favorite team because I went there for a year. I've always loved the Longhorns."
]]>"Practice is slowly approaching. I think all of the guys are more excited than I am. I have been through four or five years of practice. I'm used to practice and I know how to prepare for it. With the young guys, this is their first go-round so they really don't know what to expect and they're ready to experience a collegiate practice. I'm a little more excited about the games and the season, but practice is where it all starts.
]]> "This is my last year, and I want it to be a good year personally. I'm finishing up midterm with all of my classes and enjoying all of the other sports going on."My family is doing all right. Everything is everything back in Memphis. Everything is still the same. I want to have a lot of my family down here for senior night. I'm going to try to get Mariachis to welcome them off the plane when they come. None of my family members have ever been to El Paso, so I'm going to try to get them to experience the culture. "I'm very excited about the season. I have never played at Oregon. We played at UNLV my freshman year, and I know that's going to be a great environment. I'm looking forward to going to Hawaii. I have never been there and we're playing a great team in Clemson.
"There are a lot of things to be excited about. I just want to grab a hold of it and embrace it and have a good year going out."
]]>"We had our first tournament last weekend [in Fort Collins, Colo.] and did well as a team. Our next tournament is in Albuquerque. We leave on Friday and play on Sunday and Monday. We're in the process of qualifying for the tournament and today I made my first hole in one! I never thought it would happen but finally it did. It was kind of cool. Now I have to buy some champagne!
]]> "We have practice two days a week, but we play pretty much every day for four hours. We usually play the Butterfield, Fort Bliss and El Paso Country Club courses. We practice at Coronado and tomorrow we're going to play at Painted Dunes. I haven't played there before, and it's going to be fun. I have heard it's one of El Paso's best courses."I'd say Butterfield is my personal favorite because it's really pretty and I like the layout of the course. The greens are pretty fast and we get golf carts there. We have to walk the other courses.
"Two of my teammates, Johanna Permatz and Emma Burman, went to the same high school as me so we hang out at home as well. Four of us, including Nathalie Castillo, are from the Stockholm area. We know each other from years back. It's kind of crazy that we all ended up here in El Paso, four Swedes! "I don't know anyone named Emma here in El Paso, but it's a very common name back home. Two or three people think Emma Burman and I are the same person. We're both kind of blonde. I had one class with this guy and Emma had another class with him and he was talking to me about things I didn't know. "My major is finance. I'm still taking my basic courses. My GPA is really good and I want an A in all my classes, so that's what I'm aiming for. I want to graduate with a 4.0, but we'll see!"
]]>"I'm looking forward to the season with our new coach, Scott Lieberwirth. So far everybody has been adjusting to each other. I do see some improvement being made. We're taking this fall schedule as an opportunity to get better, and I believe we have the talent to do it. It's just a matter of everybody working hard and getting the results we want.
]]> "Coach and I go back a long way. He has seen me play since high school. He knows my game real well and he's teaching me about course management. He's really a positive guy and that has helped us a lot. I was really excited when I found out he was going to be our coach. He has the credentials and when we brought him here I knew this was a new era and a time for UTEP to get back to the top."We just finished playing in our second tournament of the year, the Gene Miranda Invitational in Colorado Springs. Personally I'm very disappointed in myself. I felt I hit the ball well, but there was a stretch of three or four holes that turned my score from even par or under par to four or five over. We all see the areas that we need to work on as we prepare for the next tournament (Sept. 30-Oct. 1 in Albuquerque).
"This is a process. We might struggle early in the season, but we're going to try to take something positive out of each tournament and focus on what we did wrong.
"We have a couple of freshmen, Jere Pelletier and Jacob Loya, and I'm kind of surprised with how quickly they have transitioned from high school to college golf. When I went through this transition, it was really rough for me, but they have really hit the ground running. I'm proud to see it happen and it's a sign of greater things to come with this team.
"School has gone really well for me. I'll be a class short of my degree after May. My major right now is social studies composite, a combination of economics, history and political science. I'm minoring in secondary education. Eventually I would like to make it on the tour and if that doesn't work out I'll stay in the golf business because I love this game to death!"
]]>"So far this year has been an experience for me. I'm used to being one of the young guys on the team, and now I'm the OG and the young guys look up to me. It's kind of weird, but it's funny at the same time because I see these guys making some of the same mistakes I made when I was younger. "We just finished up team individuals yesterday. We've got a lot of guys learning some new things. We're still got a ways to go to get prepared for the beginning of the season.
]]> "Some of the guys just went and checked out the new Lion King 3-D and said it's awesome. Those guys love to play Call of Duty and battle each other in the game with zombies. Me, I just live the old man life and do my homework at home and chill with the wife. "I'm working on my master's in leadership studies. School has been kind of easy for me. I'm taking three courses and doing a lot of my work from home, but stats is kind of kicking my butt right now. If anybody out there is good with stats I may need some help!" ]]>