To get everyone even more excited about Mark’s Charity Classic, we are going to release the Top 10 Reasons to play in the 2015 Mark Wilson Charity Classic over the next 10 weeks.

#10 - Fulfill your dream of hitting balls on the practice range with PGA Tour Players.

#9 - Have your chance to win $1 Million by competing in the Million Dollar Shot Contest.

#8 - Support one of my favorite charities, Blessings in a Backpack, and provide food to hungry kids in the suburbs of Chicago.

#7 - All sponsorships and donations are tax deductible!

#6 - Every foursome will be partnered with a PGA TOUR player or celebrity. Early commitments include Jim Furyk, Peter Jacobsen, Martin Laird, Brendon Todd, Brian Urlacher, Chris Collins, and (of course) myself. Mark Rolfing will be our MC. Pairing selection will be determined based on the order of completed registrations.

#5 – The order in which you register is the order in which you pick your PGA TOUR/Celebrity Partner. First come, first pick!

#4 – Golfers will receive a personalized signed pin flag from me and a photo with their PGA TOUR Pro/Celebrity partner. Great addition to your office.

#3 – You will pick up an exclusive player gift bag and have the chance to play for hole prizes, especially that $1 Million shot challenge on #18.

#2 – All participants are going to be heading to the FedEx Cup playoffs so you will be playing with guys in the hunt for the 2015 title.

#1 – The feeling you get for helping out those in need! Value = Priceless!

Click here for more information and to register!

The season is well under way and there’s lots going on in the golf world to keep all the fans interested. How about that hole in one at the Waste Management by Francesco Molinari? Or what about Bart Bryant’s double eagle last week on the Champions Tour? How about Jimmy Walker running away from the field at the Sony Open?

I personally just got done playing a fun game of golf with my wife and in laws at Ironwood CC in Palm Desert where I am enjoying some time off before the Northern Trust Open at famed Riviera CC next week. My wife admittedly is a “nine hole golfer.” She likes it for nine but gets tired on the second nine. So we decided to play a fun game where we both hit our tee shots from our respective tees and then we switch balls and play in from there. I got a few “Honey, you put me in the rough.” But overall it was a fun challenge for me. On one hole, I knocked my tee shot on a 300 yard par 4 on the front fringe. Then after Amy managed one of her worst shots of the day, I had a 5 iron left for my second shot to the same green. We both made 4s. I highly recommend this game. We had so much fun with it.

As for my PGA TOUR game, I am very excited with my start to the year. Three made cuts gave me plenty of rounds to work into form. Riviera is next, followed by the Honda, an off week, then Tampa, Bay Hill and San Antonio. It is hard to believe the TOUR is almost in Florida.

What else has been going on? Well, the PGA TOUR Wives Association held their big charity golf classic where the guys caddy for the girls. Amy played alongside Angie Watson (Bubba), Heather Crane (Ben) and Julie Leach (Mike plays for the AZ Cardinals) at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on the TPC Desert Course in Scottsdale. The girls ham and egged it beautifully for a 7 under par scramble score, worth a tie for 3rd. The PTWA raised over $100,000 for Blessings in a Backpack in the area.

I have to mention the Packers run for the Super Bowl. I got to watch both playoff games from the pool at the Kahala in Hawaii. I feel for the Pack as I know what it is like to feel like you let one slide through your fingers. I bet August can’t come soon enough for those boys to make another run. In the meantime, I am sporting my Green Bay Packers head cover on my Driver. I am always in your corner and thanks for the memories of a great season.

Finally, Amy and I are working on the First Annual Mark Wilson Charity Golf Classic to benefit our two Chicago area school’s Blessings in a Backpack programs. We are having it Monday, September 21st at Royal Melbourne CC in Long Grove, IL. If anyone is interested in playing, contact me with the contact button on this website or email [email protected] and I’d be happy to send you the information.

All the best,
Mark Wilson

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We have already seen some snow and frigid temperatures in Elmhurst so the golf clubs are accumulating dust as I write. We are gearing up for a busy and fun month of December as we close up the year.

It sure was promising to be in contention this Fall a couple of times. As I mentioned in my last blog, I never went low in a tournament with 5 under par being my best four round total in the 2013-14 season. Well at McGladrey and Sanderson Farms, I managed 11 under par and 10 under par scores, finishing inside the top 10 both weeks. Here’s looking for more of that in 2015. With the fairly new wrap around season, it sure is nice to get off to a solid start, already bettering my last season’s total of FedExCup points.

The short off-season gives me a few weeks to set aside golf to focus on family life. Deuteronomy 6: 5-7 and Ephesians 5:25-26 are at core of my thoughts as I go through each day, well, at least I sure try to have them there. December means some work indoors, workouts with Cory Puyear, a PGA TOUR Board meeting in Ponte Vedra, a few balls into my Full Swing Golf Simulator and some basement putting contests with my sons. They are always negotiating for more strokes. All matches are won on the first tee, right!

Have a great Christmas and watch for me January 15th when I tee it up at the SONY Open in Hawaii. God bless your holidays.

- Mark

November 19, 2014

Golfweek.com - Jim McCabe

At the end of 2013, Mark Wilson had played 11 years on the PGA Tour, won five times and piled up nearly $14 million in prize money. But there were some things he wondered about.

For an example, this routine so many of his colleagues go through, tediously placing their golf ball back on the green until a line on the ball is in sync with the line of the putt. “I had never done that,” Wilson said. “I had to try that.”

He wondered, too, about AimPoint Express and took the time to be taught by certified instructor John Graham. And would another teacher offer swing alterations to strengthen his game?

Secure with a PGA Tour exemption through 2014-15, Wilson made some moves. “I devoted (2013-14) to try a lot of things, knowing that that’s probably not going to produce good golf in the short term, but maybe I’ll find some things. I might also cross off the list things that don’t help.”

Wilson might have been the only PGA Tour guy who didn’t take great care to line up the line on his golf ball before putting, but he gave it a shot. Cross it off the list, though.

“I just didn’t putt that well,” he said. “I wasn’t very athletic. It (also) affected my pace of play.”

AimPoint? Like Adam Scott and Hunter Mahan, Wilson embraced it. “I went all in,” he said.

With mixed results, it seems.

“I realized I liked some of it, and I still use bits and pieces, but not the whole product.”

He spent time with Sean Foley, who showed him “how to flight the ball and I liked that,” Wilson said. “But overall, it probably wasn’t the best way for me to play.”

Wilson went through his least productive PGA Tour season in 2013-14 ($155,313 earned and just nine cuts made in 25 starts), but never jumped ship. “I stuck with the changes I had committed to,” he said. Wilson concedes he was happy to see the season end, at which time he felt he had the answers to those wonderments about making changes.

“I’m glad I did all that stuff (because) I realized through this whole process to embrace my quirks. I was going to strengthen my strengths, not try and improve my weaknesses. I’m 40 years old. I’m going to go (with what works).”

Wilson said he had always kept a diary to chronicle his PGA Tour road, but before the 2014-15 season began he took it a step further.

“I compiled a highlight film of myself, all my wins, the good shots and the good putts. It’s about 5-6 minutes and I watch it,” Wilson said.

“You keep watching yourself do these good things, lo and behold your brain is going to dwell on those.”

Wilson smiled. For the second year in a row he has set off on “a new path.” The only thing is, unlike last season, this path is similar to the one he traveled successfully for so many years. With two top 10s in five starts, it would appear that he’s back on the path that’s best for him.

Hello everybody! I hope everyone has had a great summer and if you are like my family, it is back to school time. My oldest is now in first grade and learning what it is like to be at school for seven straight hours.

As for my golf, nothing like going out on your best round of the year. Well, it was my best score anyway, a 66 at the Wyndham Championship. Sadly I missed the Fedex Cup Playoffs this year, but it brought to close a season that taught me many things. First of all, the time put into working on your game isn’t directly reflected in your scores. I spent more hours practicing, played more tournaments and tried some new things, but I never was able to put four solid rounds together and that is really the key. Secondly, looking at my numbers, my stroke average was only 1.3 strokes higher in relation to par than in 2011, my best season on the PGA TOUR. That is such a fine line but makes a big difference when you multiply it by four rounds. Thirdly, I didn’t have any great weeks overall this year. The best four round total I posted all year was 5 under par at the John Deere Classic. Here’s to going low and doing it four days in a row next season! Finally, as always I am comforted by the fact that in my career, I can always point to the valley that produced the following mountain of good play. Whether it was figuring things out in 2010 where I finished 123 on the money list and then came out to win two of my first three starts. Or way back when I lost a big lead on the final day at the Wisconsin State Junior when I was just 14 years old. That motivated me in the years to follow to get better and propelled me to better things in my junior golf career than I could have ever imagined. All the hard work ultimately pays off. It is the patience that can be tested.

One thing of note is that I still am playing out the “Tournament Winners in the past two seasons” category. It is a bit confusing so let me attempt to explain. My first win in 2011 gave me exempt status through 2013 and when I won again in 2011, I gained an additional year of exempt status so I was exempt until 2014. The PGA TOUR Policy Board about 15 years ago felt that winning should always be rewarded by extending your exemption at least a full season, hence why that second 2011 win got me that extra year. Therefore when I won the Humana in 2012, my exempt status was bumped one more year, through the 2014-15 season. The word “exempt” is a bit confusing but really I am in most PGA TOUR events, excluding the invitationals like the Memorial for example and the Players Championship. I hope that doesn’t confuse you all too much but might clear up to some why I am not playing in the Web.Com Finals events these upcoming weeks. As always, shooting a bunch of 68s in a row will get me into all the events I’d like to play, including the Players and the Major Championships.

Business wise, I am soon to close out my first year of a three term on the PGA TOUR Policy Board. It has been educational learning the inner workings of the TOUR, hearing from very successful men of influence in the business world and being the voice of my peers on TOUR.

As for home, I am enjoying the rewards and difficulties of being a father, which are multiplied since I am able to be present in their lives right now during this break. I really see that as my most important job right now, to bring them up to know the Lord. I take Proverbs 22:6 very seriously when it says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from him.” So I am doing my best to show my boys what a compassionate heart looks like, what kindness looks like, what humility entails and ultimately what love does. Some days I do a better job than others; sounds a bit like golf. I wish all of you the best in your life journey, wherever you might be right now.

Have a great rest of the year and watch for me again at the Frys.Com Open October 9th.