Orlando

Hi everyone, I just wanted to check in and touch base so you all knew I was still alive. I'm all settled in Orlando and have just been busy practicing and workout out. I'm making some significant swing changes as well as tweaking the putting stoke, giving me lots to fill my days with. Other than golf, fitness and some nice downtime with friends I've been keeping a pretty low profile. I did have the opportunity to go and see Rascall Flatts a few weekends ago with a friend in Tampa! It was a fantastic show-2 full hours of singing and crazy energy all night!! It was definately up there with Madonna and Kanye! A little variety is a must in everyone's life, keeps us all cultured- something that might be lacking these days!

Keep it real folks!

Shep

Off Season

In case anyone didn't follow the LPGA Q School results I'll fill you in- I failed to qualify for final stage and the opporunity to earn my 2008 LPGA card. So in short, my work and training for the 2008 Futures Tour will begin very soon! I regain my full 2008 Futures Tour card as a result of the season ending money list so I can now place my full attention on preparing to the best of my ability for next season. I will continue to work with Sean on both the physical and mental apects of my game and I begin working with Dr. Craig Davies in the gym next week!! The winter will be filled with lots of long cardio sessions, some intense and specific lifting and some serious hours on and around the green!! I am looking forward to this intense training and results I expect to see!

Stay tuned and I'll keep everyone up to date on my progress throughout the winter.

Shep

LPGA Q School

My first attempt did not go so well last week in Palm Springs so make sure you check out the LPGA's website this week for nightly results of the Venice, FL qualifier!!

LPGA Qualifying Process

For all of you that have asked me or are wondering how players qualify for the LPGA tour, the time has come. Besides the exempt cards that were awarded to the top 5 finishers on the Duramed Futures Tour money list for the 20067 season, there is an opportunity to compete at qualifying school. This process consists of 2 sectional qualifiers and a final stage, the first being in Palm Springs September 19th- September 22nd. The top 30 finishers in Palm Springs, CA combined with the top 30 finishers from Venice, FL in the beginning of October (2nd sectional qualifier) will join a larger group of players at final stage in Daytona Beach, FL at the beginning of December. These 60 players along with conditional card holding players, and those who have failed to remain in the top 90 on the LPGA year end money list will compete for a small number of exempt cards for the 2008 season. You can follow the daily results of all stages on www.lpga.com!!

Best of luck to everyone competing!!

The Ultimate Gift

A few weeks ago I was playing in a pro am in Gettysburg PA. Before I left, one of my playing partners handed me a book titled THE ULTIMATE GIFT by Jim Stovall and asked me to please take an hour out of my day and read it. Well unfortunately it got put on my to do list and I finally finished it a few minutes ago. I would like to ask everyone reading this blog to go out and purchase this short yet unbelievably valuable book. Once you've read it I ask that you pass it along to someone else you care about and give them the same instructions. I won't spoil any aspect of the book but I think everyone that opens the front cover and reads from start to finish will be very touched and inspired to re-evalute their life and how they are chosing to live it. Please feel free to tell me how great this easy read is and everyone else around you for that matter.

Good night!!

Violeta

I have another congradulations this week for my girl Violeta Retamoza who is officially the newest member of the LPGA tour as of this afternoon. Not only will V be competing with the best in women's golf next year but she left the Duramed Futures Tour with rookie of the year honors!! Way to go mama:)

Congrats

I want to wish Tai and Josh Clements a wonderful life together!! You both are beautiful people and I send you endless blessings and memories!!

Why Not?

That's the question I have been asking myself lately, why not? Heaven forbid a player can have a smooth innocent week out on tour, yes I think for most of us its near impossible. Sometimes its something small and petty like you leave you favorite jeans in last weeks dryer or sometimes your door breaks when you're in the hills of Morgantown WV and you have to wrap a bungy cord around the handle and drive with one hand while you hold your door shut for dear life. Yes, last week after a short coffee date with a friend my door decided that it was tired of latching onto my car. There is an easy solution to this problem you would think- just find a dealerdship right? Wrong, not at 9pm on a Friday night:) The good part of this fluke occuring was my chance to see how much better I have become at rolling with the punch. Normally I would have had a full on panic attack and accomplished nothing productive the entire next day but these days in my mature, relaxed state of being I just laughed and held on tight. Yes folks, as I have said before these stories are all 100% true!!

Better luck this week:)

BIg News

Last week we received great news before we began play on Friday. The LPGA has purchased the Duramed Futures Tour, effective immediately. As players many of us are excited to see the changes that are going to begin and the possibilities for the tour. This is definately a step in the right directions for women's professional golf!

Great Weekend

I would like to wish my very good friend Violeta Retamoza both a Happy 24th Birthday as well as a huge congratulations on her first professional victory this past weekend in Syracuse NY!!

Best Wishes

I want to wish Ryan and Justine Organ a wonderful and happy life together filled with beautiful memories and never ending laughs. I hope yesterday was the perfect beginning to your fairytale.

JessXOXO

Raising Money for Our Community

I am a huge believer in giving back when good fortune has come your way. It doesn't have to be in huge dollar amounts or countless hours of labour but enough of us out there are living very comfortably and helping those who are not as fortunate is very important. If you haven't already please take a look at the community service portion of my website and take a moment to read my project for the 2007 golf season. For each round of par or better I am donating $25 to the Halton Women's Shelter. It may not be a lot but its definately a start. I chose this chairty because I have seen women in my life experience both physical and emotional abuse and I have seen first hand the pain that has been endured. I thought I would write this blog and ask anyone who is interested in my cause to think about matching my year end contribution or any amount you feel you can part with. I hope to continually increase this fundrasing effort but for now every stroke counts!!

Thanks!

Fireworks!!!

Happy July 4th to all my Americans!! I hope everyone had a great time yesterday/last night and can remember everything or at least took enough pictures to help bring the memories back!!

My Support

I am very blessed to have such a wonderful support group behind me as I work towards my dream of playing on the LPGA Tour! I have a fantastic family, wonderful friends all over the world, great mentors, an extremely knowledgable and patient instructor and two unbeliebale parents. Its easy to get wrapped up in what you're doing out here in the day to day grind but its so important to stop every now and then and really enjoy the experience. Sandra always told me that the journey will be far more important than the final destination and those are the memories that will stay with you forever. There are so many people to thank and show my appreciation to but no two people deserve it more than my mother and father. They have sacrificed so much of themselves and their own dreams in order to give us the chance to find our passion and paths in life. They are two of the most compassionate, inspiring and giving people I could ever ask to learn from and both so knowledgable in different ways. I don't always take the time to thank them for their guidance, support and love but I hope they both know I think about them everyday and in everything I do! I love you both.

Mattress Testing Across the Country

One of the most commonly asked questions that I get is "do you really like staying in hotels for 7 months of the year"? What a lot of people don't know is that thanks to many wonderful families on each of our tour stops we don't have to always live out of hotels. Each week as players we have the option of staying in private housing in the area. Some of you might think that walking up to someone's front door with a couple suitcases and making yourself at home is odd but it becomes second nature after a couple weeks out here. I have been EXTREMLY fortunate in my housing adventures and have stayed with people that have become like family to me!! For instance, I always stay with the Watson's in Decatur, Illinois and consider myself a part time member of The Moose!!! This week I am staying with the Osterfelds and am enjoying some delicious homemade breakfast and coffee-No Denny's for me this week!! I'm sorry I can't name each family, partly for privacy reasons, but thank you to everyone who has opened their home to myself and all the other girls, you have no idea how much you are helping us!!

Vancouver

Hey hey, I'm just sitting in Vancouver right now getting ready for tomorrow's second and final round at The Vancouver Golf Club. I'm playing in the first CN Tour event of the year and am currently tied for 2nd at one under par, 3 shots off the lead! I played fine today, nothing to go crazy about. Actually my ball striking was pitiful on the front nine...too much thinking and not enough feeling. I made some very clutch par putts and stayed relatively patient. I birdied 12 and 13 and chipped in on the 16th hole to finish off a day that could have gone either way. I will be playing in the final group tomorrow with a good childhood friend of mine Christine Boucher, a day that I'm sure will be filled with lots of laughs and hopefully a couple new editions to my extensive french vocabulary. I'll let everyone know how it goes, lets hope the drives are straight and the putts are falling!!

Memorial Cup

WHALERS 2-1 in Overtime!!!!

I'd take 20 miles an hour at this point

Since I have been neglecting everyone in my writing I wanted to make sure that I clarified some weather situations for everyone. I'm not going to go into any real detail because frankly I really don't want to relive the last few weeks but I thought I would pose a question for everyone. What would you prefer, 35 miles an hour winds with 45 degree temperatures and the occasional rain drop, OR, winds upwards of 45/50 miles an hour in the middle of Texas that might have stirred up a little dust. This wind also caused the Futures Tour staff to post pone play in the middle of the day due to wind- the first time in tour history. Please send me an email, I would genuinely like to know if people can comprehend these situations or if I really have become a softy after leaving Canadian winters once and for all! I have to give another shout out to my little buddy, well call her Dorothy for this purpose. Folks at one point I had to actually grab hold of her golf bag and keep her grounded as her feet were VERY close to coming off the ground, not to mention her walk that was closely resembling a run as a rather forceful gust came up behind us! Now I don't feel extremely sorry for her because I'm pretty sure she can eat as much Mexican food as she likes but you still have to look out for your rookies!!

Does anyone have a nickel?

I'm sorry for all the blogs at once but I finally made it home to Toronto and had a chance to do a little reflecting! Last night while driving from Kansas City to Chicago I was trying to come up with some more lessons for everyone when an obvious one jumped up and slapped me in the face. It was about 10:45 pm, Sam and I only had 2 hours of driving left when I had a mini panic attack, forced on me by the sign that read Toll 3/4 of a mile. For crying out loud, we had made it ALMOST the entire way without any blonde moments when I realized I had NO change besides the baggies of dimes, nickles and pennies I had organized when moving out of the condo in April. Now this was not your ordinary toll road, the first two tolls were $1.90 each-come on people really, what happened to those nice little 25 cent tolls. Sam's quick brake lights and a swerve to the shoulder told me she had no money either- this is when debit cards have absolutely NO USE. In short, the toll both gentleman hated me when I payed $3.80 with nickles, dimes and a few quarters I managed to collect from my golf bag. The second part to this lesson is that if you are the one with the baggies filled with coins, make sure you go through the gate first so you don't have to park your car and get out in the freezing cold and run up to your travelling companions car to throw the last few nickles in the basket for her!! Yes folks, this stuff really does happen.......

Memorial Cup

I want to give a HUGE shoutout out to my baby bro Zack Shepley #28 and all his PLymouth Whaler teammates as they battle it out at the Memorial Cup this week in Vancouver, BC!!

Getcha a nice little trophy boys!!!

Another airport to check from my list

Hi guys, I hope everyone is doing well and staying out of trouble. I'm just sitting in the Houston airport waiting for my connection into McAllen Texas to arrive. After finishing in Lafayette Louisianna yesterday afternoon, we drove to New Orleans where we flew this moring back to Texas to finish up our windy leg of the tour. I had a good week in Lafayette and had my best finish on the Futures Tour, a tie for 8th. I shot 68 on Sunday and had one of my best putting rounds to date. Not only did I put 3 solid rounds of golf together but I got to play with one of my very good friends on Sunday, Ms. Cortney Reno herself. I have to give her a little shoutout for her deuce on the first hole after holing out a 90 yard wedge shot- very impressive. When I mentioned the windy leg of the tour earlier I didn't really elaborate but I most certainly will. There were times in college that we played in some miserable weather but I have to say that Frisco Texas a few weeks ago was pretty high up there on the painful list. After having Friday's round called early due to a storm with tornado warning in the area we had to finish up our first round at 7:30 Saturday morning. Now mind you 7:30 is usually a little cool but try 36 degrees with the windchill and winds upwards of 30 miles per hour. After finishing our first round, the entire field had the priviledge of playing the second round in this weather before it too was called early due to sunlight issues. Saturday's round was finished early Sunday morning and thankfully the weather gods were back on our side and we had a much more pleasant final day. I promise I am not making this up at all. If the tour was to be polled I would estimate that on average everyone had four layers of clothing on and bought the pro shop out of handwarmers twice. It was tough but I guess the good side is that it makes for one heck of a story. Will everyone please keep their fingers crossed that the typical McAllen winds go a little easy on us this week?

Cheers,

Shep

A Few Lessons

HI,

What better way to start off my blog experience than to share with everyone a few of the lessons I have learned while driving around the country. The first lesson is a recent experience, the first 200 miles of my journey to be exact. Here it is plain and simple, stop what you are doing, drive to your nearest automotive store and purchase a nice set of jumper cables. Next, take them out the package, find a safe place in the car and NEVER remove them. You know its going to be a long year when after 3 hours of driving, a nice little light illuminates on your dashboard and your car begins beeping at you. Yes, I went from a calm and relaxed state to pure panic in 2.3 seconds. Now mind you, it was Saturday evening at 6pm, the night before Easter Sunday and I still had 15 hours of driving left. The first thing I did was call my brother to ask him what the chances were of my battery dying as soon as I turned off the car? “There’s a pretty good chance sis, you do have jumper cables right?" Hence my first lesson, go out and buy jumper cables so you don't sound like a complete idiot when asked this question and you're forced to answer a quiet "um nope." After a quick lesson in jumping a car which included "Jess, make sure you ground the car first so you don't electrocute yourself" I was feeling a little better. I was still kicking myself for not addressing the battery situation when it had been pointed out to me a month earlier by my mechanic.----Lesson #2: Listen to your mechanic--- It turned out after a stop at Ace Automotive, that my battery was in good shape and I was now dealing with a clogged tube;) I guess I can go ahead and retract my second lesson though; you don't always have to listen to your mechanic! Don’t worry Grandma, I made it to Dallas in one piece.

Okay let’s see, a couple more lessons I can pass along...............if your car comes with a compass, always make sure it is on and you are aware of what it says. It would be a real shame if you say, got off while driving 38 hours cross country for a little Dairy Queen and were slightly distracted with the new blizzard favor to notice that the compass was reading W instead of E when you got back on the road. Trust me people it can happen to the best of us.

This is a big one, if you happen to travel in a caravan of many girls carefully observe the amount of fluids you are taking in. It’s a quick and unfortunate way to loose friends if your voice is the only one over the walkie talkie asking for a rest room break at each and every gas station

I could probably go on forever but I think I've done enough damage for one day. I’m sure I have made a few of you a little concerned but honestly don’t worry, I’ll be just fine.

Keep smiling,

Shep

Hey Everyone.

Testing testing.

Just testing