Rob Rashell is playing his first season on the PGA Tour. Throughout his rookie year, Rashell will provide a frequent glimpse of what it's like to break into the Tour.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — One of the difficult parts about being a rookie on the PGA Tour revolves around the ability to get into tournaments. A ranking system has been in place for many years and when comprising a field for a tournament the PGA Tour moves through the different ranking categories until the field has been filled. Without going through every category, tournaments are filled in the following order: major winners, tournament winners, top 125 of the previous years’ money list, Tour School and Nationwide Tour, 126-150 from last years’ money list, etc.  Players will enter each tournament following the previously mentioned ranking system until the tournament field has been completed. Typically, the last player in the field will be from the Tour School/Nationwide Tour category.

Last week was my first experience as an alternate.

Rookie on Tour Return to Q-School Family, friends, fun Learning from Tiger Taking time off Practicing patience   Major highs, lows Open a thrill It's the driver Alligator ... yum! Clubs, car ready Raindelay by a nose Alternate anxiety Rain, rain go away Pebble amazing Home, sweet home Pro-Am popular Club changes Happy in Hawaii

As I left for south Florida on Sunday afternoon I was the seventh alternate for the Honda Classic. Between Monday and Wednesday I needed seven players to withdraw from the tournament to make the field at the beginning of play on Thursday morning. Without any guarantees to get in, I still have to treat this as a typical tournament week, spending the money on flights and hotels and preparing for the event just as I would for any other. Through the week my number slowly got better and on Wednesday afternoon around noon I got a phone call from the PGA Tour telling me a player had withdrawn and I was now in the field.

A standard week on the PGA Tour will have four to eight players withdrawing in the last few days before the tournament starts, and again, no guarantees. I know this won’t be the last time I’m an alternate this year and in most cases I will travel hoping to catch a break and make the field. I would be pretty upset if I was at home in  Scottsdale on Wednesday afternoon and got a call from the PGA Tour only to tell them I can’t make it to the tournament.

After making my way into the field at the last minute I ended the week in a tie for 58^th. I was happy to have made the effort to travel and prepare even though I was unsure about my chances of getting into the tournament.

I’m not very happy about my continued poor play. I’ve always been very realistic about my ability and my performance throughout my career. I guess you could say I’m my toughest critic and I feel like that trait has had a lot to do with getting me to this point in my career. 

I would expect that most of the rookies would agree that the newness and excitement has subsided a bit and that we are all working hard to get into contention and win golf tournaments. None of us want to go through Tour School again or play anywhere else. We want to be lifetime members of the PGA Tour and win multiple tournaments. Between now and winning multiple tournaments will be a continued quest to grow and get better, to always look at yourself with a tough eye and be willing to make the changes to get better.

Over the last eight tournaments my golf has not been good enough to play out here fulltime or win tournaments. I know this because my best finish of the year is a tie for 56^th. Golf will always be very cruel and honest in that you are what you shoot at the end of the day and nothing else. 

My poor play doesn’t worry me a great deal. It just acts as a great motivator. I spent the last couple of days with my instructors Jeff Coston and Mike Bender in Orlando. We played some golf and put down some swings on videotape to see what was happening at the basic level.  The difficult part of getting any lesson is making the unknown or uncomfortable comfortable and having the trust that this new bizarre feeling is really the future of my golf swing and will produce the results I am looking for. Fortunately, I’ll have four of the next five weeks off to work on my golf swing and get some well-needed rest. I’m excited to get to work and look forward to my next event at the BellSouth Classic.

2005 results     How Rob Rashell stacked up on the PGA Tour this year. He made six of 25 cuts and earned $84,391. — 11/3-11/6: Southern Farm Bureau Classic (70-70-69-69—278, -10, 44th-tie, $9,070) — 9/22-9/25: Texas Open (67-73—140, Even, cut) — 9/15-9/18: 84 Lumber Classic (71-76—147, +3, cut) — 9/8-9/11: Canadian Open (72-73—145, +5, cut) — 9/2-9/5: Deutsche Bank Championship (75-73—148, +6, cut) — 8/25-8/28: Buick Championship (73-69—142, +2, cut) — 8/18-8/21: Reno-Tahoe Open (77-77—154, +10, cut) — 7/21-7/24: U.S. Bank Championship (71-72—143, +3, cut) — 7/14-7/17: B.C. Open (74-70—144, Even, cut) — 7/7-7/10: John Deere Classic (72-72—144, +2, cut) — 6/30-7/3: Western Open (72-72—144, +2, cut) — 6/23-6/26: Barclays Classic (75-73—148, +6, cut) — 6/16-6/19: U.S. Open (74-72-73-74—293, +13, 42th-tie, $26,223) — 5/26-5/29: St. Jude Classic (73-68-69-71—281, +1, 39th-tie, $20,090) — 4/28-5/1: Zurich Classic (74-73—147, +3, cut) — 4/21-24: Houston Open (78-73—151, +7, cut) — 3/31-4/3: BellSouth Classic (79-73—152, +8, cut) — 3/10-3/13: Honda Classic (73-68-76-70—287, -1, 58th-tie, $12,100) — 2/24-2/27: Chrysler Classic (71-68-71-75—285, -3, 64th-tie, $6,300) — 2/17-2/20: Nissan Open (73-72—145, +3, cut) — 2/10-2/13: Pebble Beach Pro-Am (72-75-73—220, +4, cut) — 2/3-2/6: FBR Open (77-74—151, +9, cut) — 1/26-1/30: Bob Hope Classic (66-76-73-72—287, -1, cut) — 1/20-1/23: Buick Invitational (73-72—145, +1, cut) — 1/13-1/16: Sony Open (73-67-74-69—283, +3, 56th-tie, $10,608)

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