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The Dan Plan - 10,000 Hours to Become a Pro Golfer (Dan McLaughlin)


Jonnydanger81
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January 10, 2015:,Played in the Saturday men’s day at Riverside .... 4,242 remain. Random Stat: shot an 87 Barefoot, many of us aren't jealous, I truly feel sorry for Dan. I was really hoping to see him qualifying for some mini tours by now.
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His latest blog is up. Looks like he's sinking deeper and deeper into suspicions about his equipment. Dan is all over place at the moment. One paragraph is about the driver, the next about how his new wedges just don't "fit his game". This will not end well...

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Seems to me like he's fiddling with a new club every time I check out his blog.

Dan

:tmade: R11s 10.5*, Adila RIP Phenom 60g Stiff
:ping: G20 3W
:callaway: Diablo 3H
:ping:
i20 4-U, KBS Tour Stiff
:vokey: Vokey SM4 54.14 
:vokey: Vokey :) 58.11

:scotty_cameron: Newport 2
:sunmountain: Four 5

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What the hell, chorus to the song on latest post:

Broken bones and pocket change
This heart is all she left me with
Broken bones and pocket change
This heart is all she left me with
This heart is all she left me with
This heart is all she left me with

[Outro]
Oh but I, Oh but I, Oh but Ive been broken
Can't take, Can't take it down
Im going down, I'm going down today

Steve

Kill slow play. Allow walking. Reduce ineffective golf instruction. Use environmentally friendly course maintenance.

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Here's a  better graph than the one I posted above of his last couple years of scoring progress. 1/1/2013 is on the left!  Present time on the right.  Again, this is raw scores only. It is based on his blog, his GHIN, and his GolfShot (http://golfshot.com/members/0974068490).

I figured out finally out to reorganize the data. Duh. But the x-axis is still funky as the dates are not to scale. It wants to plot each point equidistant, regardless of date of the round. I can't find how to tweak that in Mac Numbers. Probably something simple. But the overall meaning of the graph remains: Dan is falling behind his goal, although briefly in Summer 2014, he was getting close to where he wanted to be.

Interesting that he has for two years caught fire in March or April.  His average of 10 rounds can go down by over 4 strokes in a fairly short period of time. I would think that's unusual to see that much fluctuation over a 10 round average.

USGA says that one typically averages 3 strokes higher than their course handicap:

Quote: http://www.usga.org/handicapping/articles_resources/How-Well-Should-You-Play-/
The USGA's Handicap Research Team tells us that the average player is expected to play to his Course Handicap or better only about 25 percent of the time, average three strokes higher than his Course Handicap, and have a best score in 20, which is only two strokes better than his Course Handicap.

From this graph, is it fair to say that Dan's current average of 80 (approx 8 over par) would represent an approximate handicap of 5, if the courses he plays are somewhat average? Certainly, one cannot play off a "2" and still average 80, right?

My Swing


Driver: :ping: G30, Irons: :tmade: Burner 2.0, Putter: :cleveland:, Balls: :snell:

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From this graph, is it fair to say that Dan's current average of 80 (approx 8 over par) would represent an approximate handicap of 5, if the courses he plays are somewhat average? Certainly, one cannot play off a "2" and still average 80, right?

Sounds about right.  According to Game Golf, my average score is 80.5 (over the last or so rounds) and my handicap come Thursday will be 5.6

To say Dan has come a long way is absolutely laughable. Well, as a golfer he certainly hasn't.

Seriously?  He's come from never EVER having played golf in his life to being a single digit handicap of some kind in 4 years.  2?  Probably not.  5 or 6?  More likely.

It's perhaps not where a lot of people think he should be at this point given his original goal, but the overall goal should not take away from the current accomplishments.  If he started a plan 4 years ago to say that in 5 years he wants to become a 1 handicap, would you still say that he HASN'T come a long way?

With all due respect, THAT is laughable.

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I noticed a fairly large exclusion from the driver numbers he posted. Anyone else notice something missing?

(image from his blog)

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I noticed a fairly large exclusion from the driver numbers he posted. Anyone else notice something missing?

(image from his blog)

Yeah... the lack of video record column confused me too :-P

Currently focusing on: Key 4 - shorter backswing.

What's in the bag: Callaway X2 Hot Driver, Titleist 915F 3 wood, X2 Hot 3 Hybrid, 3, 5-AW Apex Pro irons, 54*, 58* Cleveland RTX, Odyssey Versa 1 Putter

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Rather than start a new thread for a small point, I thought I would post it here. Like Dan I resolved to play good golf starting at 70 years old, last spring. I fooled around with somebody else's club or two when I was a kid, but never had my own set or took learning anything seriously. So I essentially just started by buying a set of namesake clubs (Covert) and employing coaches. I would like to get an opinion or two of my strategy.

First I practice a lot, but nothing like 6 hours a day, instead four days a week for an hour or so, besides playing two or three times a week when the weather is nice here in the Northeast, and four times a week during the winter in Florida (we rent a condo on a golf course).

But I purposely don't read much about golf or watch the golf channel. Right away I found a lot of conflicting opinions so I took this approach instead: I go out and play and whatever I am doing worst I take to my coach to fix. Right now I am not doing anything wrong that I know of if I concentrate on what I know. That's the hard part, remembering everything. If the ball goes right, I didn't follow through pointing at the target, or I am not transitioning slowly enough from the back to the forward swing. If it goes left, I didn't finish up, but around too much, etcetera. If I start having a problem I can't fix myself, I will again take it to my coach.

Lastly I adopted a zero-sum, tautological strategy, i.e., if I can hit greens in regulation I can play good golf. The main supporting tactic is to practice 80%, or more, of the time with fairway irons. The drive can go a little right or left, but if I can hit the green in regulation on my second shot (on par fours) with a fairway iron, I don't need a short game besides putting; which is quite good due to the simple instruction my coach gave me, i.e., practicing with parallel sticks to make sure I am stroking straight, and lining the line on the ball properly with the line of the putt. Target practicing with pistols as a kid makes aiming the ball easy. And my coach made drives easy by teaching me to keep my wrists straight, or cocked slightly forward, never back. I never sliced again and only hook a little or pull left if I hit the ball with the heel of the club, which I just make sure I don't do - twice in a round, anyway. If I do miss a green with a fairway iron, having practiced a lot with middle irons makes wedge shots feel easy without practicing them much per se. And bumps and runs are essentially putting.

Like Dan I set a quixotic goal. I told my wife I wanted to play better than Tiger Woods by the end of my second year. (I didn't pick Rory because I have all artificial shoulders and hips and end stage degenerative disc disease, which I mentioned on another post.) She said that was delusional, but on my second-to-last day out last year, with my wife caddying and keeping score, Tiger played on the same day and I bested his score by one stroke. I pointed it out to my wife and she said he had a tougher course. That's tongue in cheek, of course, insinuating that I achieved my goal, because any pro can have a bad day and any duffer an in-the-zone day. But my great one-off score gave me hope and I am going to work very hard this winter to become a good golfer using my strategy, unless someone knows a better one. Oh, and I work out regularly in a gym, especially with the torso rotating machine, which added maybe 20 yards to my drive.

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I noticed a fairly large exclusion from the driver numbers he posted. Anyone else notice something missing?

(image from his blog)

Of course. :loco:

I was going to post something in his blog, but decided that anything I state could be taken as negative.

He stated that he drove a few 170 yards further down in the blog. With his swing and an Xstiff graphite shaft? Not surprising.

:ping:  :tmade:  :callaway:   :gamegolf:  :titleist:

TM White Smoke Big Fontana; Pro-V1
TM Rac 60 TT WS, MD2 56
Ping i20 irons U-4, CFS300
Callaway XR16 9 degree Fujikura Speeder 565 S
Callaway XR16 3W 15 degree Fujikura Speeder 565 S, X2Hot Pro 20 degrees S

"I'm hitting the woods just great, but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them." ~Harry Toscano

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Sounds about right.  According to Game Golf, my average score is 80.5 (over the last or so rounds) and my handicap come Thursday will be 5.6 Seriously?  He's come from never EVER having played golf in his life to being a single digit handicap of some kind in 4 years.  2?  Probably not.  5 or 6?  More likely. It's perhaps not where a lot of people think he should be at this point given his original goal, but the overall goal should not take away from the current accomplishments.  If he started a plan 4 years ago to say that in 5 years he wants to become a 1 handicap, would you still say that he HASN'T come a long way? With all due respect, THAT is laughable.

You do realize what it takes to go from 5 or 6 to 1? I'd say, having seen Dan's swing and "progress", it's highly unlikely that he ever makes it to 1 hcp. In the four years he's played, he has played more than the regular player in 20 years. A 5 or 6 handicap in four years of total dedication to the sport every day is not an achievement, sorry. I'd go on to say that if a person is even a little athletic, they can't do worse than what Dan has done. A truly gifted player is scratch in a couple of years, you can't even mention Dan in the same sentence. If this was the 100m sprint, I'd say Dan was a 12 second guy. Usain Bolt would be as far ahead as the tour golfers are now.

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And yes, a 1 hdc in 5 years would be an achievement. Maybe not a "wow that guy is crazy talented" but a respectable achievement nonetheless. However, since that is not the case, I'm not sure why you brought it up.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Sounds about right.  According to Game Golf, my average score is 80.5 (over the last or so rounds) and my handicap come Thursday will be 5.6

Seriously?  He's come from never EVER having played golf in his life to being a single digit handicap of some kind in 4 years.  2?  Probably not.  5 or 6?  More likely.

It's perhaps not where a lot of people think he should be at this point given his original goal, but the overall goal should not take away from the current accomplishments.  If he started a plan 4 years ago to say that in 5 years he wants to become a 1 handicap, would you still say that he HASN'T come a long way?

With all due respect, THAT is laughable.

You do realize what it takes to go from 5 or 6 to 1? I'd say, having seen Dan's swing and "progress", it's highly unlikely that he ever makes it to 1 hcp.

In the four years he's played, he has played more than the regular player in 20 years. A 5 or 6 handicap in four years of total dedication to the sport every day is not an achievement, sorry. I'd go on to say that if a person is even a little athletic, they can't do worse than what Dan has done. A truly gifted player is scratch in a couple of years, you can't even mention Dan in the same sentence. If this was the 100m sprint, I'd say Dan was a 12 second guy. Usain Bolt would be as far ahead as the tour golfers are now.

Imho, I think he was let down by his golf instructor, whomever told him to putt only, then chip. Maybe it was a combination of instructor and academic/ivory tower advisors. I think he lost a year there. I think there's a case to be made it's amazing he's gotten to where he is now despite some the not optimal information he was given. I don't read enough of his blog to say definitively, but from the based on what I've read, it feels like he doesn't get to the range enough.

Steve

Kill slow play. Allow walking. Reduce ineffective golf instruction. Use environmentally friendly course maintenance.

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Imho, I think he was let down by his golf instructor, whomever told him to putt only, then chip. Maybe it was a combination of instructor and academic/ivory tower advisors. I think he lost a year there. I think there's a case to be made it's amazing he's gotten to where he is now despite some the not optimal information he was given. I don't read enough of his blog to say definitively, but from the based on what I've read, it feels like he doesn't get to the range enough.

Agreed - that was terrible, terrible advice. Unless he decided that himself in a bad interpretation of 'start at the green and work backwards'?

Currently focusing on: Key 4 - shorter backswing.

What's in the bag: Callaway X2 Hot Driver, Titleist 915F 3 wood, X2 Hot 3 Hybrid, 3, 5-AW Apex Pro irons, 54*, 58* Cleveland RTX, Odyssey Versa 1 Putter

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Agreed - that was terrible, terrible advice. Unless he decided that himself in a bad interpretation of 'start at the green and work backwards'?

I agree. Waiting an entire year to even start a full swing is a little nutty.

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You do realize what it takes to go from 5 or 6 to 1?

Yeah, exponentially LESS than it takes to go from a 1 to a +5 (or whatever it takes to make the tour).  I brought it up because I think you are unfairly measuring his current accomplishments based on his stated goal, not on his actual accomplishments.  If his stated goal were considerably less than the original, I'd be willing to bet people would sing a different tune regarding his current progress.  Even though that makes little sense.

In the four years he's played, he has played more than the regular player in 20 years. A 5 or 6 handicap in four years of total dedication to the sport every day is not an achievement, sorry.

You're a 2 handicap.  What do you think the collective opinion of the 90-95% of all golfers in the world - some casual, some serious, some extremely dedicated - who have not, and many of whom never will, reach a 5 handicap?  Do you think that they'd consider what Dan's done an achievement?

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Note: This thread is 2376 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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