Lewis Blog: 'That's the Tour...That's the life.'

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J.L. Lewis' first bout on the Champions Tour didn't end well: he shot 8 over at Carnoustie and missed the cut.

One of the Champions Tour's newest faces is J.L. Lewis. A two-time winner on the PGA TOUR, including the 2003 84 Lumber Classic of Pennsylvania, Lewis is making his debut at this week's Senior British Open. Lewis will file a blog for PGATOUR.COM, sharing his insights on his visit to Scotland and his Champions Tour debut.

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FRIDAY, JULY 23

I played pretty good [Lewis shot a 3-over 74 and missed the cut by one stroke] except I missed a lot of putts early on. I could have been three- or four-under par pretty easy. I got it close on six of the first eight holes but just didn't make any putts. I hit a few bad shots.

I hit a good drive on No. 14 and I guess had kind of a bad lie and I ended up hitting it into one of those spectacle bunkers and made a six on a hole I probably should have made a four. That was it. I hit it off to the right on the next hole and ended up making a bogey. I was trying to take myself from 6-over to 5-over at No. 14. That was the one hole I wanted to make a score on and get two or three ahead of whatever line there was and I could have, but I just choked. I hit a bad shot.

I made pars the last three holes, but it wasn't enough. I'm really disappointed. I don't think I could have played much worse. I don't think I could have scored much worse. This is pretty bad. I hit the ball good the first few holes and was even after nine holes but I started to hit it sideways on the back. My rib is still bothering me a bit and I think it effects me on some shots because I hit some so far offline and I normally don't do that -- sixty or eight yards offline. I've never done that before.

But as I said earlier this is a hard golf course. Once again I had to pitch out of three bunkers in a dead spot. However many times you do that out here that's about how many you shoot over par. I think I did it seven times and I shot eight over.

We'll just have to re-group now and maybe take an earlier flight to Seattle and try to get ready for next week. We're not sure what were going to do yet. Maybe we'll get to Seattle a day earlier which would be three days earlier and I think that will help a lot. No matter when I get there I'm going to have to play a lot better than I did. I really played bad and I'm really disappointed in myself. This rib is bothering me and we've waited four years to get out on the Champions Tour and I'm about 50 percent of my playing ability. My ball striking is about 60 percent now. I just didn't hit many good shots. We'll try to figure it out. But that's the Tour, that's the life and I chose it. I'd choose it over anything else even after days like this. We'll just get ready for next week now.

THURSDAY, JULY 22

A disappointing day [Lewis shot a 5-over 76]. I didn't start my day off very well. I bogeyed No. 9 and then three-putted No. 10 for a double. I hit it close a few times but just never made the putts and I was in three or four bunkers and had to chip out. I also made a couple of bogeys coming in. I got lucky and chipped in from the back of the green on No. 17 for a birdie, but then hit it in the bunker at No. 18 and couldn't get up and down.

I guess I expect more out of myself. I've got a long way to go. It was tough out there; not unplayable tough, but consistently tough. I hit a driver, 3-iron to No. 18 and I had an impossible shot from the bunker there and couldn't get it on the green. I was pretty lucky to make bogey.

I didn't strike the ball very well today. My rib is bothering me and I don't know if that's affecting my ball-striking or not, but I didn't hit very many shots where I wanted to. I had a couple of putts I thought I hit pretty good that just didn't go. I don't know if I hit them on the wrong line or the speed was wrong, but they just didn't go in.

I think the best I could have done was 1- or 2-over if everything had gone right. It's disappointing because I really wanted to come over here and be competitive and I'm not right now.

Tomorrow I've got to go out and regroup and shoot some kind of good score. I play late tomorrow and I don't know what the weather forecast calls for. The wind doesn't seem to die down here. I did a couple of good things today but you've got to be able to shoot a good score. If you can't shoot a score, you're wasting your time basically.

I've got to go out there tomorrow and try to get something going. I'll probably try to ice myself later today, relax, and maybe watch some TV. We've got a long time until tomorrow. I probably won't get started until about two or so (local time). I'm sure the cut will be a couple over par so I'm going to have to shoot 3-under to have a chance. I don't know -- maybe the cut will be 4-over. But I'm really disappointed in the way I played. I wanted to do better than that.

I had opportunities. On No. 6 I was even par and hit it right down the fairway, but I hit the wrong club. It landed in the bunker and it was the only place I couldn't get up and down from. I was hitting a 4-iron into the green but that was kind of the way it went. After that it just got worse.

Maybe it will be better tomorrow.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21

After the pro-am finished on Tuesday, I went to the fitness trailer and had my rib worked on. It's just one of those things that I've had for awhile. After that I went and hit some balls and went out and played. I was pretty pleased with how I played. It just gave me another opportunity to prepare for this golf course.

The wind has been different every day. My caddie and I spent most of the time just figuring out where to hit from on and around the greens as well as from off the tees. This course doesn't really allow you to hit driver that much, especially if you're a fairly long hitter. I know I'm going be hitting 3-wood, 5-wood, and 3-iron on 75 percent of the holes. The greens are long; either long from front-to-back or long from side-to-side. They are not that wide in any area so you're going to have some areas with run-offs. We tried to go to some of those areas and work on various shots either putting it up or chipping it up -- basically, doing whatever we could do to get the ball in the hole.

Lewis during Wednesday's practice.

We're just trying to familiarize ourselves to the conditions out there. I know there are holes on this course where par is a good score. You kind of play for that on certain holes where you have long clubs in your hands and where there are not big landing areas. You just want to try to make pars on those holes and birdies on some of the others.

After my practice yesterday, my wife and I had dinner here at the Carnoustie Hotel and then watched a movie in our room. My wife Dawn went to St. Andrews yesterday with some of the wives and today they visited Glamis Castle which is over 600 years old.

I spent about two and a half hours working on my short game today. I didn't want to make too many full swings today. I'm feeling pretty good. I had a good hard workout earlier in the week on a machine I have which allows me to work on my feet, legs and hips. I also did some stretching with some bands as well. I'll relax the rest of the day and maybe walk around Carnoustie a bit. I'll just take it easy.

I don't play until 10:50 tomorrow morning and if it's not too windy, it will certainly be a lot easier. You don't know what to expect here with the weather. I'm not familiar with the two guys I'm playing with (John Harrison and Brad Smith), but that's probably good. I'll be out there concentrating on my shots, hitting them where I want them to go and hopefully post a good score.

It's been great seeing all the guys again -- people like Fred Funk, Tom Lehman, Larry Mize, and Jay Don Blake. There were probably 15-20 guys I haven't seen in a long time that have been playing out here for awhile. It's been nice to see everybody and catch up. I'm pretty excited to get started, though. To me it's like it is for everybody else. If you're healthy and playing at 100 percent you want to see how you can do. You know you're only 50 once. I've been playing against guys 25 years younger than me the last few years so it will be interesting to see if I play well and what that's going to mean. I know I'm going to have fun. In the little time I've been here it seems like it's a more relaxed atmosphere out here. Maybe it's because there are less people but it's pretty calm and I really enjoy that. It's a different attitude than you take when you're 25.

I won't do too much before my round tomorrow. I'll start warming up around 10:00, do some stretching, hit some full shots for about 30 minutes and then putt for 15 minutes and then get after it. This is a very difficult course and I think it's definitely more difficult than the courses I played last week like Turnberry, Western Gailes, Prestwick and Gleneagles. It is going to be a really good test and it will play really long. I would imagine one, two or three under every day will be a really good score.

We'll see what happens.

TUESDAY, JULY 20

After playing in the John Deere Classic the week prior to the British Open, my wife Dawn and I took the charter flight over here and arrived early last week. With a free week, we decided to spend some time sightseeing and visit some of the local golf courses.

Early on, we stayed at the Marine Hotel in Troon, and though I didn't play the course, we visited and dined in some of the little towns around there like Troon, Ayr and Prestwick. I managed to get in several rounds of golf on the local courses and ended up playing at Turnberry, Prestwick, Western Gailes and Gleneagles, which I thought was the most scenic course I've played over here. It was fantastic.

Lewis at Turnberry

For the most part the weather was good except for part of my round at Gleneagles. It was windy at Turnberry, Prestwick and Western Gailes but it is Scotland after all. I enjoyed all the golf and we had some fun. I probably liked Western Gailes the best of all. It's a really good course, but I enjoyed Turnberry as well. Prestwick was a unique course, much different than any other I've played. There are a lot of blind shots, and on many of the holes you hit to a spot on a hill and, wherever the ball ends up, you play it from there. When you're done with the hole you ring the bell so the group behind knows you've finished.

Just before we came over to Carnoustie my wife and I went to the final round of the British Open at St. Andrews and sat at No. 15 and watched some of the play for almost two hours. Then we toured the town a bit and had something to eat at the Dunvegan Hotel and then visited the Kingsbarns Golf Links. It's really an awesome course on the ocean up the coast from St. Andrews. It's really a beautiful setting and you can see the ocean from every hole. It was pretty cool.

Later that evening we celebrated my 50th birthday with dinner at the Fairmont St. Andrews (site of the G20 Summit in 2009). I had a chance to play Carnoustie for the first time on Monday and it was wet. I played by myself and just tried to get a feel for the golf course. It is a challenging course and you better hit the ball straight on some of the holes. The greens here are in good shape -- they roll well and hold well. I'm using a caddie from here, Rodney Soutar, who has worked at the course for 30 years and has caddied for all level of players. My son usually caddies for me but he was in a car accident recently and injured his kneecap.

There is a pro-am going on this morning and I may go out and practice a bit later today. Normally I wouldn't play too many practice rounds but on this course there are so many tee shots where you don't know what club to hit, and that could change daily or even hourly. I might go out and play nine holes later today and ask my caddy what tee shots we need to work on. In my early days, I found that if I played too many practice rounds I was pretty much done by Friday night. My plan is to work on my putting tomorrow.