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JOHN ROLLINS ARCHIVE
JOHN ROLLINS NEWS
| Blog: Rollins on charity golf outings and home games Special to PGATOUR.com Editor's note: John Rollins is home in Las Colinas, Texas, taking a week off after tying for 58th at THE PLAYERS Championship. He's already had two runner-up finishes this year, and he'll be looking for his third PGA TOUR win next week at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. Rollins took a little time out this week to write another installment of his exclusive PGATOUR.com blog. ![]() John Rollins has made 13 of 14 cuts so far in 2007. (WireImage)
LAS COLINAS, Texas -- I'm off this week, and I spent Monday hosting a pro-am in my hometown of Richmond, Va. We had a good turnout and a great group of guys who lent us their time -- Tom Pernice, Jr., Rich Beem, Lucas Glover, Eric Axley, Robert Gamez, Aaron Baddeley and Daniel Chopra all came. Juli Inkster was there, too. The pro-am was called "Genworth Presents John Rollins and Friends" and it benefited St. Joseph's Villa, which is one of Richmond's largest and most-respected non-profit organizations for children. The Villa was founded in 1834 and serves more than 600 kids with special needs and their families every day. I had looked for a charity to become affiliated with and my agent helped me do some research. We found that The Villa already had a golf tournament every year. So we thought that by bringing in some players we could help to make it an even bigger event, and that's exactly what happened. We actually sold out two different courses at the Country Club of Virginia, and we had 50 different teams. At the James River course, each group got to play with two different pros for nine holes each. This is the second year I've been involved, and we made over $100,000 -- which is pretty good. I want to help make it even bigger. Obviously, as everyone knows, the PGA TOUR raises a crazy amount for charity. And for me to be in a position where I could help a charity like this in my hometown and support the community that has supported me is a very special thing. Hopefully, we'll be able to make this grow and grow. Now I'm home in Las Colinas. I got back Tuesday night, and it's nice to be home again. We moved into a new house right before the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. We look like we're settled in, but when you come back after a few weeks on the road, there's always something to do. We had a lot of appointments today, but they're all done now. We're just relaxing and trying to get everything ready for next week. We have a lot of family and friends coming in for the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. My parents are coming, along with another couple from Richmond. My wife Heather's mother and stepfather will also be here. Tom Pernice is actually staying with us, too. So we'll have a house of nine running around here, and I'm sure we'll have some friends hanging out, too. But at the same time, they know I have to work next week. They know when to go home and when to give us some space. It will be a busy week, but hopefully a successful one. It's nice to have a "home" game. On the course and when you're practicing, you give it all you've got. But you don't have that many options to get your mind off the game when you're on the road. You go out to dinner and then go back to your room and watch TV. But when you're playing a tournament at home, you leave the course and you can spend time with your family and friends. I can watch a movie in our theater room or shoot pool or get in the swimming pool. I really enjoy shooting pool. I'm better at that than I am at playing the guitar, which is another one of my other interests. I don't think I'm good at either one of them. But I'm more comfortable shooting pool in front of people than playing guitar. I would love to be able to pick up a guitar and sit around the pool or on the patio, picking and strumming, but unfortunately, I'm not to that level. I do have a collection of seven or eight guitars, though. One of them is singed by Dave Matthews. Another's signed by Willie Nelson and a few other country singers. I got that one at an auction. I actually didn't start playing guitar until I was 21. I haven't had many formal lessons. A couple of times, I've had someone listen to a song I wanted to play and write down the tabs and chords for me. Then I listen to the CD and teach myself the rhythm of the song as I play along. Sometimes I'll look the music up on line. I do a little country like Garth Brooks, but mostly I like to play songs from bands like Dave Matthews, Hootie and the Blowfish and the Eagles. I wish I could be like James Taylor, but I have to play golf for a living. It is fun when I get the song right, though. As far as my golf is concerned, I am a little disappointed coming off the Wachovia Championship and THE PLAYERS last week. Those are my worst finishes of the year. I still made the cut, I picked up some money and earned some FedExCup points. But right now, I am frustrated with my irons. I am not giving myself as many good opportunities as I was at the beginning of the season. The first eight events, it seemed like I was right there every week. I was driving it so well, and I was hitting quality shots with my irons. I was not necessarily hitting it stiff every time, but for 18 holes, it seemed like I would have about 12 opportunities from 18 feet in. And when you do that, with as good greens as we putt on, you're going to make your share if the putter is working. That's been the difference lately. I've had to really grind it out the last two weeks. Now, instead of hitting it close, I'm missing a few greens or I'm hitting it 25 to 30 feet, and that makes it tougher to score. I just need to get my irons back to where they were. Everything else is there. The hardest part is being patient. I get frustrated with myself. Morris Pickens, my sports psychologist, understands where I'm coming from. He says that I got so used to playing at a certain level and now that it's not quite there, it's a shock. So you get more frustrated and you're harder on yourself than you should be. I need to just continue working on playing golf. You can't force it. At the same time, though, it's hard. You want to be back where you were. Tiger and Phil and Vijay -- they don't wait for you. There's $10 million up for grabs at the end of the season. I got off to a good start, but I have to maintain it. So I think that makes you a little tighter. I'll probably hit the range tomorrow -- or, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, for sure. My instructor, Todd Anderson, is going to call me tonight. He came up for THE PLAYERS early in the week, and then he came back with his family on Sunday. He watched the whole first nine that day, and I didn't play very well. He told me yesterday he had some ideas he wanted me to think about before I went back to practice again. I'm interested to see what he has to say. I look forward to getting back on track, and next week would be a great time to put it all back together. |