TST Interviews The Dan Plan (Dan McLaughlin) - You Get to Ask the Questions

If you are a regular on this forum you are by now well aware of the The Dan Plan. If not you should skip down to the bottom of this post and read up on the thread started on TST or head over to his website.

As luck would have it I am in the Portland area for work often (I am in the process of relocating to Portland). I offered Dan the opportunity for an interview where the questions would come from the forum members here at TST. He was excited about the idea and agreed to do the interview. The premise of the interview is that most of the questions will come from the members of the forum. The interview is likely to take place at the end of next week so get the questions you want to ask in this thread and I will ask them. I may not get to ask all of them, but I will ask many of them.

Put your questions below in the thread and you will get to see them in the Thrash Talk article I write with the interview.

For those of you not up to date on the Dan Plan you can read our epic thread here.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer-dan-mclaughlin/

Or you can you check into his website here

http://thedanplan.com/

My Question: Very longwinded.

I understand the concept of shooting for the stars and aiming high, but your STATED goal of PGA Tour was never achievable.

Do you not think that the project would have been more meaningful if you had made your goal something that was potentially achievable?

I have not read anything in your blogs about qualifying for a U.S. Amateur, for instance - or even winning (or participating in, or getting to the final 16 of) a club championship. Doing either of those things would have been impressive performances.

Surely your experiences at Pebble Beach made it clear to you that the end-point of the plan needs to be modified.

I don't understand why you didn't set yourself up for success. Had you done this, you may have gained some strong support from the serious golfing fraternity. I am not aware of a single golfer who believes that you can achieve what you set out to do. What would make you consider abandoning the belief that you will be good enough for the PGA Tour? I seriously believe that when you started, you didn't realise what the goal actually was - you just confused the word "expert" with the term "top tier", not realising that PGA Tour golfers are the best out of many, many millions of golfers.

If you were counseling someone who was just starting out in golf, would you recommend they start as you did, putting for hours and days?  Or with the benefit of hindsight, would you recommend moving into the full swing sooner?

Do you think your progress has been hindered significantly due to financial concerns?  You do not use professional instruction as much as one might expect and could that in part be a result of lack of funding?

Looking ahead, in which tournaments do you plan to participate?  Do you have a goal or goals for tournament play?

You have hinted that something big was coming as far as the Plan (e.g. a sponsorship).  Anything you can tell us?  If not, when do you anticipate there will be an announcement?

What's the best part of your game?  Worst? - okay, we all know about your driver troubles.

Do you regret spending too much time practicing short putts early on?

lol

Why the F*ck don't you play in more tournaments? Starting 2 years ago.

Lol this could get interesting. This may keep him away from future interviews.

My understanding of deliberate practice is that it involves things like intense focused drills and exersices, with immediate feedback.  Can you share a specific drill or two that you have found especially helpful in your development?

Please give an honest assessment of your progress to date towards your stated goal of playing on the PGA Tour, and an equally honest assessment of the likelihood that you'll ultimately get there?

What is your tournament schedule moving forward?

What do you see as the highest level tournament in which you will be genuinely competitive (top 10 or better) this year and what would be the progression for each year leading to the end of your "plan"?

If he won't answer......Does he think he has a chance to win his local club gross championship?

You've spoken a lot about the importance of setting goals. As I search through the site, it is surprisingly hard to pick out any specific goals you set for yourself along the way. The goal guru had worked with you on some goals, perhaps the one key goal was your average score. I actually took the time to plot your scores from your narrative against your handicap and the goal (in green) that your guru set for you:

It looks like January 2013 was a significant watershed for you.  Your average scores, your handicap, your goals- they were all converging at about 78 (or 6HCP) at that time- check out where the green, gold and red lines converge. At that point, your 10-day moving average had even dipped to the same spot.  Not bad at all for a guy starting to play rounds in late 2011.

Since then the goal has continued to move downward. Your scores have flatlined, if not risen.  So...

1. Do you see the start of 2013 as the time where it all started to slip?

2. If not, what goals are you measuring that make you feel you are on track?

3. Many said this exact thing would happen (rapid improvement, followed by plateau at your natural talent level). Do you see a possibility for drastic improvement ahead, or are you concerned that you are at or near your natural ceiling?

4. With that said, do you feel you have tracked and published your goals sufficiently?

What do you find more disturbing, those that criticize you for not having made more progress in the time you've dedicated to playing golf or those that question the integrity of your posted handicap given your performance in tournaments?

If you had a chance to start the plan all over again, what would you have done differently?

Why did you choose golf as the target of your experiment?

Do you think you can get your handicap down to scratch, if so, what components do you think you need to improve to get there?