TL;DR of my first season on the US Am Tour (2023–2024)

My first win on US Am Tour at The Santaluz Club, which happened a day before I left for my wedding in Korea.

Two wins, four second places, a demotion and a promotion capped an addictive first season on the US Am Tour.

For those who don’t know, US Am Tour is an amateur golf tour in North America where the league places you in appropriate handicap flights to have tour-like competitive experience. As it’s gross score vs. net, it’s truly just like the ones I played in college.

My ‘23-’24 season on the US Am Tour, with Strawberry Farms Fall Classic, OC Invitational, Osprey Open and Southern California Tour Championship played in the Champion Flight and the rest as a Players Flight.

Early Season (November to March)

I lowered my handicap to around a 1.0 handicap and wanted to put it to the test in a handicap play. Of course I quickly got intimidated in the Champion flight where people were hitting it 40 yards further than me and hitting darts that I only dreamt about — and it affected my process. After awful +13 and +12 rounds, I took a long hiatus thinking that this wouldn’t be the right thing.

But as I was preparing for the inaugural Arccos Invitational at TPC Sawgrass, I decided to play in a US Am Tour event nearby Florida again to warm up. I played in my opinion at a 90% level of my abilities and still finished in 4th place — 7 shots back of the leader.

After the Arccos Invitational where I was leading day 1 and then had an awful back nine to finish in second, I emailed the Tour Director and said I want to compete in a flight that makes sense and asked to be back in the Players Flight. As context, on April 1, my Tournament Index was a 6.3 in April 2024 and my GHIN handicap was 4.2, and the Player flight is between 4–7 handicappers.

Players Flight (April to July)

New flight didn’t mean better results (initially).

I kept making really bad course management choices and very silly swings. My first in a new flight barely broke bogey golf at 86. I struggled mightily in the front nine of my next tournament, but finished the last six holes at 2-under-par and was proud to not have given up in a tourney round.

Scorecards for my first two rounds as a Players Flight. You can see my propensity for big scores (double bogey or worse) and really struggling in a tournament format.

And to my first tournament win started the same. Started two-over-par after 3 holes and +3 after six. Then a birdie, then two more bogeys. Despite a 4-over-par front nine, I rolled off 9 pars in a row that easily could’ve been two under par to win my first event by 3 strokes.

Arccos Data in comparison to a scratch golfer’s round. Basically drove the ball well and managed slightly below average on all other parts of the game.

After that, something clicked. I think it was the classic small 1% improvements and then all of the sudden seeing the benefits.

Similar to my earlier tourneys, I was still dealing with having all of the sudden bad rounds. The first tournament after my win and back from my honeymoon was the Southern California Open, a two-day event, where I shot an 84 to open the tourney and then finished with a 74 to finish in 5th place.

Slowly but surely, I was figuring out how to score and really stack up my strokes gained to gain a slight edge.

The next couple tournaments, though, started a heartbreak train:

12th.

2nd place, losing by 1 stroke after getting a 2-stroke penalty for hitting someone else’s ball.

T2.

1st, after winning with a birdie on the first playoff hole.

2nd, after losing on the first playoff hole to Jesse who drained a 50 footer.

8th.

2nd.

It was clear to me I needed to learn how to play a bit better in tourneys since my game is clearly there, but couldn’t close it out consistently.

Champion Flight (August)

My trophy for the 2024 Player of the Year since I locked up the 1st place finish in the Player flight prior to being promoted on the last month of the year.

To be honest, I argued against this promotion. I finished 2nd to Jesse twice in tournaments and he was still in the Players Flight despite winning 7 times in that flight. I said if he doesn’t get promoted and I do, I don’t think it’s fair.

And while my scores were good, it’s nowhere near Champion flight good — and it basically cost me a chance to compete in nationals. I was very bummed about that because I think my 4-day tourney skills now can be better than anyone in the nation at the Player Flight.

But, rules and rules, and I originally started in Champion flight.

And this is why I wanted to post this here because ‘24-’25 season is going to be about my journey to win and compete in the Champion flight. I need to play my absolute best with almost zero mistakes in course management.

My Clippd data for my last 20 rounds.

There are key things I need to work on — iron play so I can hit more GIRs. I can drive really well for my height, but I’m not capitalizing on my approaches, which is leaving me to depend too much on my short game.

I’ve also started to work with a swing coach virtually. I’m excited to work with TJ and will share progress there, too.

Aiming for consistency, better flushers, and better course management.

For now, I’ll leave it here. More detailed posts to come!