Good news. My Doc gave me a clean bill of health and authorized me to hop on a cross-continental cross-Atlantic flight to Amsterdam to play in the KLM Ladies Open.

Virus over

After the non-starter at the Deutsche Bank Ladies Open in Switzerland two weeks ago, and my withdrawal from the Vediorbis in France the following week due to my fierce stomach virus, I am now slated to play next week Friday June 2nd thru Sunday June 4th in the KLM Ladies Open in Eindhoven, Holland (The Netherlands).

Your perfect swing is within you

This is going to be a quick one week turnaround trip & tournament in Europe leaving Los Angeles this Sunday and returning the following Monday. In any case, I am antsy to get back into competition. Convalescing in the house for two weeks drove me nuts.

I didn't get much practice, but you just have to trust yourself and the years of play you've had. Trusting that your perfect swing is within you, and clearing your mind from any interference is the best way to conquer a tournament.

Soccer & Scores

I will be reporting later next week about my play in Eindhoven, a town known for its world famous soccer team, PSV Eindhoven.

Come back frequently next week to my homepage to check on the live scoring leaderboard there.

Bye,
Meg

On the personal news front, the antibiotics are starting to work their way around my system and the virus is getting beat. Since I am stuck at home bored out of my mind (as proven by my goofy look on this out-take picture from my photo shoot earlier this year - the final one can be seen in my image gallery ), I wanted to take this opportunity to thank a whole bunch of folks - golfers & bloggers alike - who have given me a HUGE welcome on the net since I launched my site on March 16th, 2006.

The Gang

The chief bloggers among them are Ed of The Golf Blog with whom I conducted one of my first interviews, and he featured it right under the one he did with Natalie Gulbis. Ed, you're an ace!

Two others also gave me the opportunity to post to their blogs - Mediaguru of HookedongolfBlog and Mike of TravellingGolfer...you guys are geniuses of the web.

Dougie of Golfdash - your directory is THE best! If Google was renamed Golfoogle, it still wouldn't have as much golf info and be as thorough as golfdash.com search tool.

My gang of media stars wouldn't be what it is without Bethan Cutler of the Ladies European Tour web portal - Bethan you're such a sport; JFB of MyDailySlice of Golf - JFB deleted LPGA rookie blogs and kept mine - wooweee! ; George Frost - Mr columnist who mentioned my site in his article about Tiger's site - I am honored sir; Golfchick - the ultimate chickitaaaaa in my neck of the woods; Mr. Bogeyman of BogeyLounge who dared ask who is Megan Heckeroth - I dunno?!? but you sure helped answer it for many; and last but not least Bob of Golf Babes - I don't think of myself as a babe but if you say so, I'll take the compliment. At least I was called a babe with my jeans on and didn't have to wear a bikini for it :)

You can see many of the above features and interviews in my press section...and see all the newspaper clippings my parents have been saving since I was a kid ;)

The Crew

Roger and Darrin of Great Golf Events - you guys were awesome at running those corporate events on schedule and on cue. I have never signed so many autographs in my life!

David Sifry of Technorati - thx for turning me on to your blog world. I can't believe I am the 5th ranked blog of all LPGA blogs, ahead of Natalie Gulbis and Cristie Kerr...Wow!

That's my e-world in a nutshell. I hope I didn't forget anyone.
Big Thanks to everyone and I hope you will continue to visit and comment on my posts.

Until next time,

Meg

Well, friends and fans, I am writing this blog post from my home in Los Angeles. What I was hoping not to happen happened. The stomach virus that I left L.A. with last Thursday, and had been battling all week while I was in Switzerland, came back with a vengeance on Wednesday. A Sharp, constant Pain as if a blade was going back and forth through my stomach. A local doctor in Switzerland gave me pain killers, and recommended I get home ASAP, get some antibiotics to fight the virus and rest for at least 2 weeks!

I spent my Wednesday afternoon - tearfully - calling all the airlines in tandem with the hotel concierge to find a seat to get back to L.A. on Thursday. Needless to say that I am not playing the Deutsche Bank, the Vediorbis in France or the KLM in the Netherlands... that was a huge disappointment, especially after making the long trip to Europe.

Looking forward

But to each downside there is an upside. This home stay will force me to get over this nasty virus, and to get over the aches and pains in my body that started to manifest themselves at the El Paso tournament.

Next big date for me will be the Monday June 12th qualifier for the 2006 US Women's Open. Because I played the finals last year, I am exempt from local qualifying, and got straight into the sectional. After the sectional, it's straight to the Final in Rhode Island on June 29th.

Since I am stuck at home, I will do a "linking" post next week with all the great sites I've been saving in my browser.

Take care...of your health first.
Megan

Yesterday was a long day of playing and practicing. It felt good to get a practice session in since I took a few days off to get over my jet lag, and to try to get rid of my stomach flu. Unfortunately, in the afternoon it came back. It is discouraging because I don't have much of an appetite and there are so many great ristorantes and pizzerias in Losone that I would love to try.

Switzerland greener than Oregon?

Yesterday after waking up at 5am, I came by my site, replied to a few comments made on my previous post, and still had plenty of time before the range was going to open. So I slipped into my workout gear, slid a fresh set of double-padded insoles into my Puma catchers to protect my joints and heels, and took off on what turned out to be an awesome hike. I was feeling better. I discovered the trail the day before when I was driving around, scoping out the town.

There was about a 1 and a half mile main trail that was graveled but several trails that veered off into the mountains. I just randomly picked a trail that had a sign that said Mount Verita. About an hour later, I found myself at the top of the hill. I could look down and see all of Lake Maggiore (click for pictures) and several towns that surrounded it in this beautiful valley. I had a 360 degree view and was surrounded by the largest and greenest mountains that I have ever seen. It was spectacular! I thought Oregon was green but this is something else!

So far Switzerland has been great. It is relaxing to be away from the commotion of Los Angeles. The people here are very nice and even though there is a language barrier, everyone tries their best to help each other out. By the way, it is very hard being a "driving" tourist around here with all the locals buzzing around these narrow streets and fast little cars.

A silky Smooth 3-wood from Cleveland Golf

Everyone here at the LET (Ladies European Tour, or European LPGA) is very helpful and professional. The golf course here at Golf Gerre Losone is beautiful and in great shape. Even though you need to be fairly straight off the tee box, I feel that there are several holes that I can take advantage of because of my length. And I know I will because Cleveland Golf delivered me a killer fairway wood that feels so silky smooth when you attack those par-5 greens.

I am excited and ready to start playing Thursday and to get off to a great start here at the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open. I found that during my practice rounds I was starting to get very mechanical and that's just not my game; so my goal this week is to just go out there, play golf, not worry about anything, or try to think too much, and just be target oriented.

Fairways and Greens, in peace.

Megan

So two days before my trip to Europe, I get a stomach virus that did not let up no matter what medicine I took. Finally Thursday rolls around, I get on my 11-hour Air France flight to Paris, to connect to my 2-hour Zurich flight, then my 2-hour Lugano flight, then my 1-hour train ride to Losone, then my 20 minute cab ride to the hotel.

Needless to say that whatever rest I got on the Paris flight got burnt up by these connections. The good thing about it is that my new tunes selection on my iPod helped me pass time and my stomach virus went away by the time I checked in and hit the sack at 11pm on Friday - who says the life of a Tour Pro is glamorous...

After a night of deep sleep in these Euro-style miniature-size beds at the Albergo Losone, the official Players Hotel of the Deutsche Ladies Swiss Open, the local Avis manager brought me my car for the duration of the Tournament. I had requested a Ford Mustang for that little home feeling, but they didn't have any. He tells me he brought me a Renault Megane... Wow! It's got my name on it! And the key chain also has my name on it. Kewl! Thank god I learned to drive a manual stick shift when I was a kid because that's all they have here.

Losone - a Quaint Town in Italian Switzerland

I decided to take a drive around to get a feeling of this quaint little city of Losone in this "Italian" part of Switzerland. I had printed the Mapquest directions from the hotel to the golf course when I was in L.A. but they were completely backwards - the hotel concierge was much better than the computerized Mapquest directions.

What a beautiful little European town with a town square, small shops and cafes. Despite the thunderstorms and rain, people were still out going about their business - unlike L.A. were rain stops everything. I stopped to check out a few fashion stores - wooooweeee hot prices!!! Compounded with the lousy dollar to Euro exchange rate. I get a better rate through my Amex, but still things are expensive in Switzerland. I also noticed that in athletic stores PUMA is much bigger than Nike over here. Now I understand why they wanted to get affiliated with me, since I play the U.S. and European Tours. If you decide to visit this region, brush up on your Italian or bring an English-to-Italian dictionary.

My jet lag was starting to get to me, so I headed back to the hotel, went for a nice 2-mile hike in Switzerland's biggest Palm Park behind the hotel called Mte Vierte, got a light salad for dinner and in a few minutes I am going to leave the hotel's business center to head to my room. I am exhausted.

Tomorrow, surveying the golf course.
No sticks.
Just a pen, a yardage book, a greens schematic, and my local caddie.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO MY MOM & ALL THE GREAT MOMS OUT THERE!

Ciao (Bye in Italian),
Megan

I flew into El Paso and stayed at the hotel for only one night. My travel partner, Kelly and I were introduced to a very gracious host family who welcomed us into a beautiful home for the entire week of the tournament. So I just want to send out another thanks to Bob and his family for their generous hospitality. It sure beats hotel life week after week.

cSwing video shoot

On Tuesday, I spent the afternoon at the range with the team from cSwing Golf Software. They video taped my swing from different angles and with different clubs for their upcoming release of the cSwing 2006 version. The cSwing CEO, Phil, was very nice and we played 5 holes together, while still being taped by the video crew. I truly enjoyed it, and I am glad to be associated with cSwing for all my instructional software alongside great PGA players' swings in their library like David Toms, Luke Donald, Fred Funk and Chad Campbell. Can't wait to get my own copy of the 2006 version.

Numbness in my left side

Thursday during my practice round, at about the 11th hole, I set up to a shot and felt a burning tingling pain shoot straight down into all five of my fingers and I couldn't even grip the club. That really freaked me out. I had been having some issues with my left side for about 5 days and ignored it for too long. Amanda, the local massage therapist was excellent. She stretched, iced and massaged my upper back. Most of my pain was gone the next day and actually stayed away throughout the weekend. That was a huge relief. I will keep up with my stretching from now on and hopefully stay pain free!

Three-footer hell

The weather was gorgeous all weekend, with a few wind gusts up to 20 mph. That was nothing compared to McAllen last week. I started off the weekend with a 75. I struck the ball very well all day but had issues with my putting - 3 footers to be specific. I missed 4 of them. It was difficult to give up 4 shots that way just because it makes such a big difference on the leader board. But because of how well I was striking the ball I felt that I could make up for it on Saturday.

No peeking! Thx Doc!

After having a conversation with "Doc" Parent, my mental coach (pictured above), and doing the drills that he suggested, I was a lot more confident about those 3-footers. I found out that part of the problem was mechanics but the main problem was that I was moving my head. So if I keep real still and feel my arms travel more down the target line, my percentage of making those short putts gets much higher. So no peeking!!!

Can't I birdie them all??

Saturday was the complete opposite of Friday. I actually started off with a birdie, and I thought back to what my friend Andy always says to me when he witnesses me with an immediate birdie. "You can't birdie them all if don't birdie the first one!" So I was excited after the first hole and was ready for more. Unfortunately, that was my only birdie of the day and had to put up with my awful ball striking for the rest of the round. But contrary to Friday, I putted great!!! So the conversation and drills from Doc definitely helped. This game is all about staying consistent. Physically and mentally. I bogeyed the last hole by going for a par 5 in 2 and hit it in the water. I missed the cut by 1 shot and definitely learned a little something about course management from that.

Post-tourney unwinding

I tried to get a flight home Sunday but nothing was available, so I kept myself busy by going to my favorite group exercise class, spinning early Sunday morning at a local gym. I went shopping at the mall and finished the day at a Barnes and Noble bookstore doing some research on Switzerland, France and The Netherlands since I will be traveling there for a Month to play 3 Ladies European Tour events.

Yeah I missed the cut, but this is only the beginning. I have a lot more opportunities. I am flying out to Switzerland on Thursday and have already set this weekend aside to visit and play tourist around Lugano before the Deutsche Bank Ladies Open next Thursday.

Bye,
Meg

If you keep the 100 degree weather and add about 90% humidity, that's what it was like walking out of the McAllen airport on Monday afternoon. So I decided to stay indoors for the rest of the afternoon and just relax. The next day I slept in and watched ER television which is one of my morning routines. Checked out the area a little bit and then headed for the golf course.

That's Texas golf for you!

Once I discovered that the Palm View Municipal golf course was one that you could take advantage of to score low, I was excited to start playing on Friday. I was 3 over through 6 holes and then the wind picked up and I actually started to play better. To give you a sense of playing in the wind, I shot a 7-iron with 110 yards in and still was 10 yards short. That's Texas golf for you! I finished the day with a 75 which I was very satisfied with because it seemed like most of the girls in the afternoon were struggling with the wind. I was very fortunate to have had one of the morning tee times to start the tournament with.

Stand back and take a deep breath

The next day I came in with another 75. I didn't make one single birdie on Saturday which was very frustrating because it seemed like the ball was lipping out of the hole or burning the edge every single time. I will have to admit that my round on Saturday was one of the most annoying rounds I think I have ever played as a professional. But you just have to stand back, take a deep breath and accept the fact the some days they go in and some days they don't.

I am hungry for birdies

I made the cut and finally a couple of birdies as well on Sunday to finish tied for 54th. Not my best finish but I am still learning and improving with every tournament. I am getting more consistent and I am hungry for birdies. So I am headed to El Paso for one more tournament in Texas. The only thing that I am going to do is to stay patient and wait for those birdie putts to fall.

Cheers,
Megan