Dear Family and Friends,

As 2012 nears an end I am excited to say that this year has been the most successful year of my golf career. During the winter months, I played at a high level of consistency, which resulted in a streak of top-20 finishes on the Gateway Pro Tour. In the summer, that consistency continued and I played my way into contention week after week and that culminated with a fantastic win at the biggest event on the Dakotas Tour. In the fall, I travelled to Canada and finished 2nd at the Canadian Tour Q-School, which earned me a Canadian Tour card and guarantees me entry into every Canadian Tour event in 2013. All of my successes are a result of my hard work on and off the golf course. Off the course I found a personal trainer, worked out with him twice a week, and seriously altered my nutrition. On the course I have learned how to efficiently prepare for a tournament, with more time spent getting accustomed to the greens and the grass surfaces around the greens.

Next year will be my eighth year as a professional golfer and I see it as my time to make a big step towards the PGA Tour. The past four years, I have played an identical schedule and I have been balancing a part-time job during the winter months. Despite this balancing act, I have improved each year, but next year I am striving for a whole new schedule with much different challenges. I am extremely excited about these new challenges, but I am in the need of some financial support. With your help I will be able to spend all of my time focusing on improving my golf game and preparing for all of my new tournaments. In January, I'm traveling to Thailand with the goal of qualifying for the Asian Tour. The Asian Tour has much higher purses and it has co-sanctioned events with the European PGA Tour. In the summer months, I will be in Canada playing Canadian Tour events. Those events also have higher purses and a path directly onto the Web.com Tour.

I understand how busy everybody is this time of year, but I am truly grateful that you came tonight. Throughout my golf career I have received wonderful support from my family and friends. In case you're not sure where to look, the best way to follow my results is on this website. You can also follow me at facebook.com/neiljohnsongolf or @neilpjohnson. Thank you for those who donated tonight, but I will post a link on my website for PayPal donations or you can mail checks to:

Neil Johnson
558 River Hills Dr
River Falls, WI 54022

Every little bit will help and I'm grateful for you consideration. Have a happy new year.

Neil Johnson

Thanksgiving Post

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I've many things to be thankful for:

1. My health - no major injuries, despite being in a serious car accident this past March. Physically my body continues to get stronger and more flexible, thanks to Greg at Premier Fitness Systems.

2. My family - both of my parents have supported me everyday of my golf career, but they've also taught me to work hard and earn every success I've had.

3. My support system - Coach/Teacher Paul Meyer has been with me since high school. He is able to diagnose swing problems over the phone. He understands what rhythm and tempo means to my preshot routine and swing (based on my musical tendencies). When I'm in Arizona I'm thankful for Jonathan Mielke being my extra set of eyes. It helps that Jonathan has access to a state of the art performance center.

4. My followers/readers of this blog - I neglect you far too often with long layoffs between posts, but I know you're out there following me and cheering for me.

This past week I reached a new milestone - I had a chance to break 60.

Shot a career low 61 today...11-under.

— Neil Johnson (@neilpjohnson) November 20, 2012

I 3-putted the 9th hole for par and made a bogey on the 15th hole so those two shots would've made quite a difference. Besides those 2 holes, I had a couple other very makeable putts that I wasn't able to convert. But not a complaining from me, it was a wonderful day, start to finish.

Back in action next week.

** 2012 Schedule & Results has been UPDATED **

Neil

2 round Q-School - Dayton, NV

I survived a bad double bogey late in my 2nd round and shot an even par 72. I also battled through a bad putting stretch where I really struggled reading the greens and that affected my stroke. I made a lot of weak, decelerating strokes that came up short.

Third round is Thursday morning at 9:50.

Leaderboard

Neil

Q-School - Dayton, NV

One round is completed and three remain. It's a long week, with today's round clocking in at 6 hours. The first round was very windy and some of the pins were in tricky positions - down wind holes had front pins.

Leaderboard

The second round is Wednesday morning at 9:28. Hopefully I'll be done by 3:30.

Neil

Q-School Next Week

I leave on Saturday for 1st Stage of PGA Q-School. I'm headed to Dayton, NV and the first round is Tuesday, Oct. 16th.

Until then, I've updated my schedule. This past week I played in a Gateway event, just to stay fresh before Q-School. I finished T-6th in a very small field.

** 2012 Schedule & Results has been UPDATED **

Neil

Canadian Tour Q-School Final Results

Canadian Tour Q-School is done and I finished in 2nd place, which is plenty good enough to fully exempt status on the 2013 Tour. I had to finish top-15 to earn my card, and that fell at +3, 291 - I was -10, 278.

What I'm most proud of for the tournament was only making 6 bogies. I had 3 the first day when the wind was blowing 20 mph and gusting up to 30. During the 3rd round, I was stuck in a funky mood early in the day and the extremely slow play didn't help my attitude. I fought through that front nine and started playing much better on the back nine - I just wasn't able to make any putts

Today's final round got off to a great start, birdies on 1, 2, and 4. I birdied the 7th and 8th to pull into a tie with the leader, but he quickly regained his lead with a great birdie on #9. I tried to stay focused on the back nine, but an awful 3-putt on #11 shook my determination. The rest of the round I was on cruise control.

Canadian Tour events won't start until June of 2013, but at least I've got options for next year. Now I have to start raising money so I can play the tour. Travel expenses are much higher than Dakotas Tour or anything else I've played before.

Neil

Canadian Tour Q-School Halfway Done

I'm through 2 rounds and I'm in a good spot, thanks to a great 2nd round. The 8th hole was key in both the first and second round, but for different reasons.

In round 1, I was 2-under standing on the 8th tee. I hit a 9-iron to 4 feet, but missed the putt. I didn't make another birdie the rest of the day and struggled to even give myself birdie chances. I finished with a frustrating 73.

During round 2, I was 3-under, and we had a long wait on #8. While we waited the weather changed. A cold north wind started blowing into our face as the group in front of us finished putting. That made the 233 yard par 3 play even longer. I came up well short with my tee shot and my chip rolled up to 12 feet. My putt did a complete 360 around the hole and fell in. Saving that par kept the momentum going - especially since I had birdied the 7th hole. The rest of round 2 was smooth sailing, with a lot of good birdie chances. I hit my tee shot on the par 3 thirteenth to 8 inches and tapped in.

Thursday in the 3rd round and I hope the worst of the weather is behind us. The forecast for the next 2 days is pretty good. Yesterday we had a bunch of wind and today we narrowly escaped getting rained on.

The leaderboard is updated after 9 holes, so expect to see my scores around 2pm EST.

Neil

Canadian Tour Leaderboard

Today is the 2nd round of Canadian Tour Q-School. Here's a link to the leaderboard.

Neil

Canadian Tour Q-School

Two weeks ago, I made a big change to my fall schedule. Instead of heading back down to Arizona to start working and playing in the desert I added Canadian Tour Q-School. It's a 4 round qualifier, and the top 15 players get their tour cards for 2013. I'm trying to move away from Gateway Tour and Dakotas Tour. My main goal is PGA Q-School, which begins in the middle of October, but Canadian Tour Q-School is a great warm-up for everything else this fall - and it sets me up for something much better next year.

This past spring I wanted to try Canadian Q-School, but I didn't have enough money to play the tournaments. It's more expensive than Dakotas and Gateway because the travel is so much greater. Everybody I know, that has played Canadian Tour, has praised how professional the tour is. I want to compete on those levels.

I've added a link to the tournament website and when the tournament starts, which is Tuesday, I'll add the leaderboard.

Tournament Info

Neil

Wrapping up Dakotas Tour

Today begins the final event on the Dakotas Tour. On Sunday, at the last minute, I decided to play a one day event on Monday. I finished 5th.

The leaderboard for this weeks event can be found here. It won't be live scoring, but each day the scores will be updated.

Neil