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.

Aloha!

As many of you saw, last week was a great week for me out on the PGA Tour. It was my first time having the lead at any point on the PGA Tour. Being in serious contention to get my first win on Sunday was thrilling. On Sunday, I didn't strike the ball as well as I would have liked to off the tee, and wasn't really as precise with my irons, but kept finding a way to make some magic happen out there early.

After I hit two great iron shots in a row on holes 6 and 7 (after bad tee shots), I thought to myself, "Wow, I'm not really hitting the ball that great, but I'm scoring great. If I can just find something here on the last 10-11 holes I have a chance to win the AT&T Classic."

Golf is a funny game. Sometimes you feel great and you shoot even par, and other times you aren't sure where the ball is going to go and you find yourself shooting 65 or 66. Last Sunday was one of those days where I didn't really feel like I had my best stuff, but I was just scoring. I think I had four holes early on where I could have walked up there and kicked the ball into the hole.

FINISH LINE IN SIGHT

Everything was just coming together at the right time for me. With my birdie-birdie-eagle run on 11, 12 and 13, I moved to 15-under with five holes to go. At the time, I didn't know that I had a three-shot lead, but after I holed out on the 13th I figured that maybe I was leading by one shot. Once the CBS cameras started showing up, I figured I must really be doing something good!

Making a bogey on the 14th hole on Sunday was tough, because that wasn't a very difficult hole. When you get in the lead of a golf tournament like I did, you start to see the finish line a little bit more than you would if you were playing a normal round. When you see the finish line you sometimes forget to pay attention to each shot. I started to peek at the finish line a bit too early. But that's OK, because it was one great learning experience.

I'm sure you are all interested in my 18th hole so I'd love to talk about it. When I got to the tee, I figured I was one shot back, so I hit a great drive and had 221 yards to the front edge of the green (water was in front) and it was 238 yards to the hole. My ball was basically within a yard of where I played from the two previous days and on both Friday and Saturday I hit my Titleist hybrid club onto the green and made a birdie on Saturday and an eagle on Friday. Immediately I pulled out my hybrid, knowing that it was the right club as the wind was blowing softly from right-to-left. After watching the two guys in my group hit the green, the wind switched completely into my face and it was at least 10-15 mph stronger.

I couldn't believe my golfing gods. Now, I take a step back and figure it was just a gust of wind and that I should let it pass through. I waited and waited for the wind to die and it never switched back to its original soft right-to-left movement. So, I put the hybrid back in the bag and reached for my 3-wood. After pulling out the club it just didn't feel right. It felt to me like my shot was either going to balloon up on me and go into the water, or if I pierced one through the wind I'd be in the back bunker facing a downhill shot with the green sloping to the water.

Since the wind was still blowing into my face, I went to my next best option, which was to try to lay up and make birdie with my sand wedge. I knew birdie would allow me to be the first player on Sunday to post a 14-under par and that would give me a shot at winning. After hitting a good lay-up shot I approached the green from 88 yards. Immediately I pulled out my 60-degree wedge and had a nice visual on the shot. I thought it was the perfect club. My caddie pulled me off and told me that the shot may come back into the water with the way the wind was. So then I pulled out my 56-degree wedge. I hit the shot about 30 feet past the hole, and realized the minute I hit it that I never had fully committed to that third shot with my 56-degree club. I was still thinking about whether or not my 60-degree wedge shot was the right club. A lesson to us all: Make sure you are fully committed to your shot before you hit it.

TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS

Overall, given the exact situation, I'm still 100 percent comfortable with laying up on 18. I learned, however, that if I trusted my gut feeling for my third shot I would have taken the 60-degree wedge and played that.

On a side note, I have received a ton of great responses about those pants that I wore on Sunday! All I can say about my thought process Sunday morning was: Parker, if you wear these you better play really well! Thankfully, I did.

I really want to thank everyone in Hawai'i for the text messages, phone calls and e-mails. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, from my friends and fans across the Islands, as well as my fellow Tour pros. All the players, even Kenny Perry, who finished in second, told me that I made the right decision on 18. Being in contention doesn't always work the first time out, but I always strive to keep moving forward and this is another big step for me in the big picture. This is a weekend that I will learn from.

And the messages just keep coming. Just now as I write this I received a text from Michelle Wie: "A belated congratulations," she said. "You were so close." She couldn't have said it any better.

Parker McLachlin can be reached at www.parkermclachlin.com