Blog: Aloha from Houston

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Aloha from Houston and the Shell Houston Open,

Last week in New Orleans was a successful week with a tie for 12th finish.

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Parker McLachlin had a long day Sunday in New Orleans.

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It was a bit crazy with all of the weather delays and as many of you may have seen I ended up playing 28 holes on Sunday. For the last 28 holes I had a chance to really be in contention there and it was a great experience from me.

Thursday and Saturday nights I was glued to the television hoping that UCLA would pull off a couple victories and get to the Final Four. As many of you know, I love everything about Hawaii, but since I went to UCLA and I loved my time there, I will always have a special place for the Bruins. In a bit of fate, I played the final two rounds with John Merrick, who is also a UCLA grad, and we spent most of Saturday and Sunday talking about how our Bruins are going all the way. When you play with someone you are comfortable with, you don't feel that obligation to spend time early in a round talking to the guy and getting to know him. You just feel good talking about anything. That's what makes playing with John great.

Another reason I like playing with John is that he has such a smooth swing.

It's easy for me to stand there and watch him play. It just helps my tempo watching another player with a similar style. I don't think many amateurs realize this, but there are times when I don't even watch a player who I am playing with because I think it will inadvertently mess up my own game. I played with another player who didn't have the same tempo that I had, and I couldn't watch him swing once because I thought it would actually throw my game off. If I know a guy doesn't have similar tempo that I do, I'll make a conscience effort not to pay too much attention to his swing because it may cause me to either swing too fast, too long or too slow. With John, I don't have to worry about that because we have such similar swings in terms of speed and rhythm.

It was unfortunate to end with a couple bogeys in the last five holes, but another top-15 finish is great. One thing I love about the New Orleans TOUR stop is the culture. Everyone there takes such pride in their cuisine, and it was important for my wife and I to make sure to try out all of the local spots. Another great thing about the New Orleans event is that I really feel like the tournament has such a positive impact on the community. Last year we saw the impact that Katrina had, and this year we were able to see tremendous improvement all the way around, whether it was people coming back to the city or people showing up at the tournament. I heard a rumor that the crowds were actually at a record high this year. That says a lot about the way not only the way the tournament was run, but it also says that the people are coming back to New Orleans.

I'm fired up for this week. It's one of the best-maintained golf tournaments on TOUR. They set it up as a "Masters tune-up" and the greens are firm and fast and there are some similarities to Augusta National.

Last year I met President Bush at this tournament. Hopefully, I'll get to see him again this year. Maybe I'll even get to see him in the afternoon on Sunday. If so, I know it will be another good week.

Mahalo,
Parker