#Hater Alert!

"Expect while reaching for the stars, people to whirl by with their dark clouds and storm upon you" ...

While @sshole #1 was hating on the climb, I was busy getting better at Royal Melbourne …

I wasn’t planning on being back with another post this quickly, but I wanted to share a quick story coming out of Q-School and remind my fellow climbers of something important about me …

After traveling halfway across the world, leaving my family behind, busting my @ss to get prepped for Q-School, giving 100% of my focus, attention, and energy to doing the best I possibly could during the event, and walking away disappointed with the result (but really happy with what I’ve learned and taken away from the experience) … I woke up to an email on Friday morning from one of my dear followers that read:

“He neglects to say that 30th is last place.”

Oh! …

First of all, this individual isn’t wrong. 30th WAS last place in this particular event. Of course, I had mentioned that the field size was small in the preview and even called out that there were only 32 guys (two people withdrew after the preview post went up) AND I sent around photos of the leaderboard with me in last place on Instagram where many of you also follow me. I’ve also been pretty transparent about how disappointed I was with my final results and at no point did I say I was killing it. I certainly wasn’t hiding the fact that I came in last, anyone with the scoring link I sent around could have seen that … but I guess I can appreciate the call for transparency.

Putting those facts aside, it’s hard to believe there are folks out there that would take the time to read about my journey … one of optimism and inspiration and chasing a dream … and try to throw freezing cold water on it.

I understand skepticism … and like I said in my very first post, nothing great happens without a bit of skepticism. But straight up @ssholery is surprising and disappointing.

With all that said, how cool is it that I have #haters now eh? If there is one thing that gets me motivated, it’s people telling me that I’m not good enough or can’t do something. It’s people like my new best friend, @sshole #1 (the original!), reminding me of how poorly I scored (I use the word “scored” very deliberately, because I didn’t play poorly) in the biggest moment of my golf career.

In football parlance, this is just bulletin board material for me. I’ve already screenshotted the email and saved it to my favorites … right next to photos of my wife, son, and favorite golf swings.

I knew when I chose to write about what I’m trying to do that there would be people out there like @sshole #1. I figured it might eventually come via social media and even then I assumed it wouldn’t come for quite a long time … at least not until I had some real success. I guess I haven’t totally prepared for it yet.

I’ve chosen to put myself and my life out there because I believe there are innumerable people in the world who are hesitant to chase a dream or follow their passions and maybe, just maybe my story will help them make the leap and doing something great as well.

99% of you have been absolutely f*ckin awesome … truly. The support has been unreal and I can’t tell you how much it means to me. To the 1% on the other side of the support equation, feel free to f*ck off (unsubscribing is really easy) because this is the last time someone like you is going to get my attention.

And as Dom said when I told him I got this note today:

“I’d love to see what that @sshole would have shot under those conditions.”

Well said Dom, well said.