Join us as we take a tour on the PGA Tour with Parker McLachlin, a former Punahou athlete. McLachlin earned his PGA Tour card for this season. He joins Castle alum Dean Wilson as the only Hawai'i golfers on the PGA Tour. McLachlin, Waikoloa's touring pro, will write his impressions on events that he's just completed and tournaments that are upcoming on his calendar.

Time is winding down and it's time to step up my game.

As I was saying last week, it was really nice to sleep in my own bed, and it was nice to be in a familiar place. The course that we are playing here in Florida for the Ginn sur Mer Classic at Tesoror is a very typical Florida course. It's very target-oriented golf and it's similar to desert golf, but instead there are swamp lands around the fairways instead of cactus.

Last week, my poor start (4-over) on the first day was a bit too much to overcome.

I was surprised by how tough of a challenge the course was, considering so many PGA players live in Arizona and knew the course well. It seemed to be that there was only one low score per day.

The golf course, in tournament conditions, got firmer and faster and the fairways start running out. That's what happens with tournament golf on a weekly basis. At a PGA event, the course that members will see is not close to what is seen during the week of a tournament. The Tour likes to cut the water off, dry it out, get the greens rolling fast, etc.

When you think you have a home course advantage you find that it's really a brand new golf course. The course plays completely different. Phil Mickelson, and Aaron Baddeley, who were both members of the club, missed the cut. That said a lot.

Now I'm back to playing a golf course that I haven't ever seen before, which is good. I'm just out there trying to figure out the best spot to put myself. I played a practice round Tuesday to lay out the golf course. I'll play a round with Matt Kuchar off-site.

We go off-site Wednesday because we aren't allowed to play the tournament golf course that day due to the Pro-Am. So we get the competitive fire started a day early by playing a little match against each other. I'm ready to just get after it this week.

I've been rooting for Hawai'i and UCLA football all fall and rooting for both. The win over Cal was huge for UCLA. I'm telling you, UCLA is a pretty good football team if we don't have our third or fourth string quarterback in there!

Parker McLachlin can be reached at www.parkermclachlin.com.