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Stevinson Ranch's PGA Tour Player Matt Hansen

Stevinson Ranch is proud to team up with local golfer Matt Hansen through his journey on the PGA Tour. As our course record holder (59 - no typo), Matt takes advantage of our phenomenal practice facility and championship golf course to hone his skills that he'll take to challenge the world's best golfers. Periodically, Matt will share his experiences and insight into what life is really like on "Tour". Be sure to check in frequently to this journal - you won't want to miss anything!

MattHansen on 01.26.06 @ 06:34 AM PST [link]


Sunday, July 20th

West Virginia & Missouri

I don't really have much to say about these two weeks because they weren't my best. The good thing about the two weeks was the weather. It wasn't nearly as hot as it was last year. As for my golf game, I am just staying patient because I know that I can jump up and play great at any point and time. I have been working hard on my game during my past two weekends off and I feel good about next week in Columbus. It is a good golf course that requires precision off the tee and a smart game plan. It won't be 20 under winning like in Springfield. I will keep you updated after next week!
By the way if some of you haven't heard, I asked Megan to marry me and she said YES! I am a lucky man!

MattHansen on 07.20.08 @ 02:24 PM PST


Thursday, July 10th

Wayne Gretzky Classic

This week we were in a beautiful area about an hour and a half north west of Toronto. We were at the base of the Blue Mountains. This area is well known for skiing in the winter and a fun summer vacation spot for the people who live in Toronto. It was awesome to see all of the beautiful green scenery! This tournament was just like the BMW pro-am that I played earlier this year in North & South Carolina. My amatuer partner was a cool guy who seemed to have a really good time.
The two golf courses we played were very well manicured, but pretty forgiving. If you hit 80 percent of your fairways for the week then you were probably ranked 70th in driving accuracy! You could land a 747 on some of these fairways! I finished 18th this week and that was definately the worst it could have been. I played great, but unfortunately didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked. I made 19 birdies and 2 eagles during the four rounds. Too many bogies were made! My game is definately taking great shape as the year goes on and I expect to play great from here on out. I will keep you updated after the first million dollar event in West Virginia.

MattHansen on 07.10.08 @ 06:51 PM PST


Chicago

This was a crazy week for weather! Monday, it was your typical warm day in the mid 80's with a bit of humidity. Tuesday was like winter though! The temp never got above 40 degrees and the wind was blowing about 30 mph. Then on Wednesday, fall arrived with temps in the mid 50's. Thursday spring was on the way with a beautiful day in the 70's and then on Friday summer was here. We had extreme humidity with warm temps and extreme thunderstorms that produced a tornado warning! Needless to say, we got to see all four seasons in a week. Aside from all of that I played some pretty good golf. The only day that was a little bit of a struggle was Saturday. But the great round on Sunday, that moved me into my second top ten finish of the year, made the week a productive one.

MattHansen on 07.10.08 @ 06:21 PM PST


Saturday, May 24th

Melwood Prince Georges County Open

We moved up the east coast about 500 miles this week to Prince Georges County which is about 25 miles outside of Baltimore, MD. When we got here, they said that it had rained 12 inches in the past ten days! This golf course was a great course that required imagination and precision off the tee. It is an old style course that is tree-lined with long rough and in great shape. Unfortunately all the rain made the greens a little bumpy. The first round I didn't putt very well at all and hit the ball decent. But the second round I gave myself a great shot at making the cut with a 4 under 32 on my first nine but then caught a flyer out of the rough on my 12th hole that went into a harzard over the green and I made double. I made a couple more birdies coming in but it wasn't enough for the cut.
I am looking forward to next week in Chicago. This will be the third time that I have played this tournament and I am going to conquer it this time!!

MattHansen on 05.24.08 @ 04:03 PM PST


BMW Charity Pro-Am

This week in Greenville, SC is a special week for us because every pro in the tournament has an amatuer partner. I had a really fun partner this year. He was the 14 year old son of the guy who runs the tourament. His handicap was an 8 but he played great and shot 77 a couple of the days. We ended up finishing 6th as a team and it was a great highlight for him to play on the weekend. This year we played three new golf courses that were pretty nice. It was interesting because two out of the three couses were only about 6,800 yards long, which is pretty short for today's standards. The third course was 7,200 yards long and was fairly new, so it was nice and firm. I hit the ball really well during the week and just stuggled on the greens quite a bit. The good news is that I have changed my putting routine a little bit and I am rolling it well again so I am looking forward to the upcoming tournaments.

MattHansen on 05.24.08 @ 03:43 PM PST


Monday, April 28th

Richmond Virginia

Well, I guess that I will start from the beginning. The week started off with a fun experience for Dan and I. We got to play a game on the golf channel called "Who's your caddie?". Jerry Foltz from the golf channel asked Dan ten questions about me and then asked me the same questions on camera to see how many Dan got right. Unfortunately, Dan only got two of them correct. But of course afterwards Dan thought that I was the person who was wrong! HAHA! I had to remind him that the questions were asked about me and I was the one with the ANSWERS! Dan is a great guy but I guess he doesn't know as much about me as he thought he did. No big deal because we had a great week without the caddie knowing everything about his player. HAHA
To give Dan some credit, on Tuesday he noticed that my club face wasn't aimed where it was supposed to be. As we started to check it out, I was aiming about 10 to 15 yards right of my target. I had been reading too much into the fact that I had been hitting a fade for the past week. I kept thinking that I was doing something wrong in my swing, but come to find out, I needed to go back to the basics. As soon as I got the club face squared up, I started hitting the ball just where I wanted to.

In the first two rounds, I hit the ball very well and didn't get all that much out of it. I understand that I was 8 under par, but one of the guys that I played with told me that he thought I should have been 15 under par.
Saturday, everything really started coming together. I played great and got the job done under the pressure of "moving day".
Now onto the final round. This was the most fun that I have ever had in a golf tournament. Being in the final group on Sunday is the position that I want to be in every week. I felt a little nervous at first but fell into a comfortable state quickly. I kept telling myself that this is where I belong, this is where I belong. Making a couple of birdies early on set a really good tone for me. After I made double on number 8, I had to dig deep and tell myself that I could come back from it. I have been in situations similar to that before and I was able to draw from those situations to help me move forward. On the back nine, after I made birdie on number 12, I hit a lot of quality shots and a bunch of great putts that I felt should have gone in. As I walked off of the 17th green, the leaderboard wasn't working, so I didn't know where I stood in the tournament. But on the way to 18, a camera man told me that Greg Chalmers had missed a biride putt on 18 and we were tied. As soon as I heard that, I felt surge of adrenaline rush through my body and I was ready to go and win the tournament. I hit the best tee shot of the day on 18. When we got down there to the ball, I walked off the yardage and we had 198 to the front of the green and 21 more to the pin. 219 yards into a little bit of a breeze from the left and the only club that entered my mind was the 3 iron. Dan felt exactly the same and we were both completely comitted to the club. When the ball left my club I didn't have a doubt in my mind that I had enough to cover the water. So to see the ball hit the wood short of the green was as big of a shock for me as it was for everyone else.
If I was put in that same position again, I wouldn't change the club I hit because I did everything in my power. I hit the shot flush and just got a gust of wind that turned into a little bad luck. I have so many good things to take from this week and I am ready to move on and get it done!
Thank you so much to everyone that was watching and rooting me on. I really appreciate all of the support and wouldn't be able to do this without it. See you all in a week!

MattHansen on 04.28.08 @ 04:18 PM PST


Wednesday, April 23rd

Athens Georgia

What a week! This is definately a performance that I have already forgotten about. Some times this game can drive a person crazy. I left California hitting the ball very well and showed up in Athens, Ga hitting it sideways. But I will not let that keep me from working hard and moving forward.
Athens is a neat small southern town. The University of Georgia is located there. The people in Athens were extemely kind and welcomed the tour with open arms. It is great when we get to a town that looks forward to our tournament every year. From talking to the volunteers, I found out that many of them take a week of vacation from their jobs to be a volunteer at the event. That is pretty special if you ask me. Southern hospitality lived up to its expectations and beyond.
Well I am headed to Richmond, Va next week and I will keep you updated on my progress.

MattHansen on 04.23.08 @ 02:36 PM PST


Wednesday, April 16th

Louisiana & Livermore

Louisiana was a little rusty for me after having about a month off between tournaments. I missed the cut as most of you know but I was able to take some positive things away from the two days. I am driving the ball very well and putting well also. Even though I didn't make too many putts, I hit my lines and caught parts of the hole often. I wish that I had something exciting to tell you about Lafayette but there wasn't really anything that stands out.
In Livermore it was great to be playing back in my home state. I really like that golf course because of its great condition and its difficulty. I am not sure how many of you have been over to Wente but if you ever get the chance, go play it. The setting is very beautiful and the wine isn't too bad either! HaHaHa.
If you looked at my score after four rounds you might not think that I played worth beans. But the fact is that only four people finished under par, so that should tell you how difficult it played. I really like the way I played for the majority of the tournament. I drove the ball well and finished tied for 10th in putts per green in regulation. (which I think is a first for me!) Going into the final round I felt like I was a in good position to finish in the top ten or even the top five. The conditions were very windy and unfortunately I got off to a rough start. But the positive thing is that I played the last 5 holes one under par. So I can take that and build on it.
I want to thank all the people who came out to support me during the week and I look forward to playing well the next tournament in Athens, Ga

MattHansen on 04.16.08 @ 10:50 PM PST


Monday, February 11th

Mexico Open

The 50th playing of the Mexico Open was played in Morela, MX. Tres Marias Golf Club was the host of the tournament. This was the first time that the Nationwide Tour was a part of the Mexico Open. The setting of the tournament was in a beautiful valley between the mountains at an elevation of about 6000 feet. "Intersting" is probably the nicest way to describe the design of this golf course. I say this because of the way the greens were designed. As a professional golfer, I believe that when you have a lot of elevation changes from fairways to greens, you cannot desinge greens that all have atleast three levels to them. One example that stands out in my mind is the 11th hole that had a 100 foot elevation change from the fairway up to the green and if you hit the shot off line by 10 yards your ball could roll back down the fairway 60 yards!
I was excited to get back into the swing of things and play some tournament golf again. This year is going to be a great year due to a few things. I am finally going to get to play tournaments on golf courses that I have played before. Another reason is that I have an added year of experience under my belt. Finally, I really have a great feeling about this being the year that I am going to get back to the PGA Tour! Look for a better updated blog this year and I look forward to sharing my experiences.

MattHansen on 02.11.08 @ 09:14 PM PST