Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder is blogging from the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He is playing in the tournament with friend and former Champions Tour standout Larry Ziegler.

***

Now that the PGA Merchandise Show is over, one of the nice things that the PGA does is to offer a series of winter tournaments for us to play. They are called the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas. The tournaments are held at the PGA Village complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

I am fortunate enough that the Brickyard allows me to stay down and play in one of these events this week. The event I am playing in is the Senior Junior Team Championship. I am playing this year with my good friend Larry Ziegler. Larry is a past Champions Tour member and a huge racing fan. Larry played all the Senior Tour events at Brickyard Crossing and now only plays in a few events during the year.

Larry came down Monday, Jan. 21 to play a practice round with me after attending a NASCAR testing session in Daytona on Sunday. Over the years, he has become good friends with some of the guys in both Nationwide and Sprint Cup racing.

The tournament is 72 holes of best ball, with a cut after 36 holes. The competition is played on two different courses. There are about 20 professionals from Indiana playing in the event, and we all got together for a practice round on Monday.

We played the Wanamaker course, and it was very windy. The wind blew steady at about 30 mph, with gusts up to 40. So the conditions were less than ideal. I know that I want some cheese with that whine after seeing the temperatures back in Indiana and the rest of the Midwest!

It is very tough coming down and playing in a tournament after sitting idle for the last few months, so there was a lot rust on my game. The thing to remember about playing in Florida is that you are so close to sea level that the ball will not travel as far. It is always almost one more club than you would hit at home. Overall, though, the golf courses are in good shape, and I am looking forward to getting the competitive juices flowing.

We tee off at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, and the wind is still blowing, but not as bad as the last two days. The temperature will be around 75. I will report back Wednesday on the first round and hope we make a lot of birdies.

Jeff Schroeder
PGA Professional
Brickyard Crossing