Rob Rashell just completed his first season on the PGA Tour. Throughout his rookie year, Rashell provided a frequent glimpse of what it's like to break into the Tour.

I always enjoy heading home. Well, almost always. 

The Tour stop last week was in Vancouver, B.C. at Shaughnessy G & CC about an hour and a half north of where I grew up in Everett, Wash. Unfortunately the Tour doesn’t get any closer than Vancouver this year, although I’m thankful the Canadian Open chose Vancouver this year because year in and year out the Tour has no regular tournaments in the greater Pacific Northwest Area. I was very thankful a handful of family and friends decided to make the trek up to Vancouver and take in a day or two of golf.

I played some solid golf for two days and unfortunately came up a shot short of making the cut. A couple of double bogeys during the second round were my major undoing although I took a lot of positives away from the week in the Northwest. Being close to home I was able to get a quick checkup from my swing coach Jeff Coston and spent a much larger portion of my time with my mental coach Bill Meyer. Bill was able to come up for two days and watch me play and we both got a lot out of him being able to watch me in competition. I touched on the value of being able to see my coaches in person a bit in my last column. Working a majority of the year with them over the phone, it was good to catch up with both of them and make strides towards improving both in the short and long term.

Bill and I both came to the conclusion that the pure definition of insanity was doing something the same way over and over again and expecting different results. Not that what I’ve been doing this year has been entirely bad or good. We just worked on getting a clearer picture of what needs to happen to improve and get into contention on a weekly basis on the PGA Tour.  I’ve been pretty hard on myself this year, wanting very badly to play well, not unlike a lot of other players have done in my position both this year and in years past. Going forward I’ll be spending a lot less time worrying about the results, using that energy to do the things that will make me a better player each day. If I can get better every day, the long-term results will without a doubt follow.

On the spectator side last week, I enjoyed sharing the week with a handful of family and friends. Some of this group experienced their very first PGA Tour event and enjoyed the atmosphere that surrounds a week on Tour. Not having had a stellar year on Tour to this point, I really appreciated the familiar faces and the support through the first two days. I’m glad that they had the opportunity to watch in person what they usually see week in and week out on the Internet. I know now that they all have a better idea of what I do week in and week out and how much fun life on the PGA Tour can be. A big thanks to all of you who made the trip!

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With the time spent with my coaches and family I got a nice little recharge and look forward to the remaining events this year. Things can happen very quickly in the world of professional golf and one week is all it takes to turn the year around.  I’ll be doing my best not to worry about anything but the shot at hand at the 84 Lumber Classic in Pennsylvania and know that if I can accomplish that task, the results will surely follow.

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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