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

[David in FL]

I stand by my comments. If someone chose to take them as rude, I'll simply say that it wasn't my intent.

[iacas]

I stand by my comments. If someone chose to take them as rude, I'll simply say that it wasn't my intent.

You stand by a post most everyone took as rude. Got it.

People are entitled to feel how they feel, and I don't agree with you that everyone took your comments out of context.

Back on topic now please.

[GHIN0011458]

It's all perspective. Scratch isn't shi*t in the grand scheme of things. I picked up golf at 13 and was scratch by 16. Go to an AJGA event, thousands of kids in all age groups are scratch or better, how many of them will make to to the PGA Tour, 1% maybe? Sounds like a lot of you in this thread picked up the game later in life and have a different view than myself of how good a 5 handicapper is. You most likely don't get to see too many players that are scratch or better, which makes sense if you're a recreational player. Once you start entering the arena of high level amateur events, college golf, state opens, qualifiers, etc all you see is + players and there are TONS of them, everywhere, on virtually every part of the globe.

I totally get it, I started playing the guitar at 27, now three years into it it's embarrassing telling people I've played for that long. I can watch 8 year old kids on YouTube shred and I feel like in my entire lifetime I won't be able to obtain half the skill that they already have.

I agree with this. Only I picked up the game later in life and I still realize that scratch isn't sh*t. At all. You will get nowhere being scratch. You might win some scrambles with a buddy who is a 5 handicapper. It is all perspective. If your goal is to beat your buddies on a recreational round of golf, then they could see you as "good" at a 10 handicap. Your buddies or yourself rarely see a scratch golfer play. If your goal is to compete with top amateurs or pros, get to a +2 or better and you will start finding yourself in the top 10 in big amateur tournaments. +4 you will find yourself in the top 10 in State Open's or decent pro tourneys. 5 hcp.. not much happening there. So for me, a 5 HCP isn't that good of a player because competitive golf would have you at the bottom of the scoreboard all day, if they let you into the tournament.

[Lihu]

You're a good example. A busy professional and family man. Both of which take a higher priority in your life than golf. Yet, in around 2 years you've put your mind to it and reached 5....and likely go lower, with a lot of tournament play too. Are you saying that what you did was so extraordinary and special that others with the same level of base talent and desire couldn't do the same? I like to think that most could......and that's not meant to minimize what you've accomplished, but to let others know that most of them could do the same with the same genuine desire and focus.

Oh yeah......I really wish I got to play 5 times a week!

This is how I read the original intent in your statement. I didn't read it as insulting to anyone on this site. The Dan Plan seems to be more of an ego thing for Dan, and I can see where your statement came from in regard to Dan.

I do play 5 or more times a week. Not full rounds, but I get out and play a few holes before work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pullfade

It's all perspective. Scratch isn't shi*t in the grand scheme of things. I picked up golf at 13 and was scratch by 16. Go to an AJGA event, thousands of kids in all age groups are scratch or better, how many of them will make to to the PGA Tour, 1% maybe? Sounds like a lot of you in this thread picked up the game later in life and have a different view than myself of how good a 5 handicapper is. You most likely don't get to see too many players that are scratch or better, which makes sense if you're a recreational player. Once you start entering the arena of high level amateur events, college golf, state opens, qualifiers, etc all you see is + players and there are TONS of them, everywhere, on virtually every part of the globe.

I totally get it, I started playing the guitar at 27, now three years into it it's embarrassing telling people I've played for that long. I can watch 8 year old kids on YouTube shred and I feel like in my entire lifetime I won't be able to obtain half the skill that they already have.

I agree with this. Only I picked up the game later in life and I still realize that scratch isn't sh*t. At all. You will get nowhere being scratch. You might win some scrambles with a buddy who is a 5 handicapper. It is all perspective. If your goal is to beat your buddies on a recreational round of golf, then they could see you as "good" at a 10 handicap. Your buddies or yourself rarely see a scratch golfer play. If your goal is to compete with top amateurs or pros, get to a +2 or better and you will start finding yourself in the top 10 in big amateur tournaments. +4 you will find yourself in the top 10 in State Open's or decent pro tourneys. 5 hcp.. not much happening there. So for me, a 5 HCP isn't that good of a player because competitive golf would have you at the bottom of the scoreboard all day, if they let you into the tournament.

Yup, my plan is just to beat all my buddies.

Seriously, though. I can see myself get to a 10HC without changing that much of what I am currently doing. Getting to a 5 or scratch is way too much work, and getting to scratch is going to take some amount of talent most of us just don't have.

Dan will be lucky to get to the 3HC he claims.

[sacm3bill]

Wow, the average index for men is actually better than I figured. Doesn't 14 handicap suggest you're regularly shooting in the high 80's? I find it hard to believe the average male golfer does this.

Note that the graphic only includes golfers who have a GHIN handicap. It doesn't include the millions of recreational golfers who don't, and that population as a whole is certainly shooting much higher scores than those golfers who are serious enough to have an official handicap.

So while the average handicap for golfers who carry a GHIN handicap is indeed 14, the average handicap for *all* golfers is much higher. It's hard to determine exactly how much higher, since the stats for recreational golfers are naturally hard to obtain.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crim

Wow, the average index for men is actually better than I figured. Doesn't 14 handicap suggest you're regularly shooting in the high 80's? I find it hard to believe the average male golfer does this.

Note that the graphic only includes golfers who have a GHIN handicap. It doesn't include the millions of recreational golfers who don't, and that population as a whole is certainly shooting much higher scores than those golfers who are serious enough to have an official handicap.

So while the average handicap for golfers who carry a GHIN handicap is indeed 14, the average handicap for *all* golfers is much higher. It's hard to determine exactly how much higher, since the stats for recreational golfers are naturally hard to obtain.

Mostly because many recreational golfers don't know how to score or don't care to write down the truth.

[DrvFrShow]

I would go so far as to say that most people who play the game don't carry a handicap.

My neighbor's foursome - none of them carry a handicap and I wouldn't want to play against any one of them. If they had a handicap they'd be around 5 to 7 now. They used to be a lot better but that was when they were in their late 40s. They play by the ROG and they're very strict. They just never bother to pay dues and sign up.

And there are people who play really bad who don't carry handicaps, like a couple of friends of mine who score around 120 for 18.

So there are people on both ends of the spectrum.

[sacm3bill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrvFrShow

I would go so far as to say that most people who play the game don't carry a handicap.

Sure, not a stretch to say that at all.

Quote:

...

So there are people on both ends of the spectrum.

Of course, but it certainly isn't anywhere close to balanced. Of the golfers who don't report their scores to GHIN, those that are worse than the GHIN average surely outnumber those that are better by a factor of hundreds, if not thousands.  Just saying the GHIN numbers are skewed towards the better end of the spectrum - if you look at the average scores of all golfers it's going to translate to a lot more than a 14 or 15 handicap.

[natureboy]

Wow, the average index for men is actually better than I figured. Doesn't 14 handicap suggest you're regularly shooting in the high 80's? I find it hard to believe the average male golfer does this.

Yes, on the high 80's. This chart was from the universe of golfers with official handicaps. The universe of all golfers is much larger and generally less skilled so the average skill level of all golfers including beginners would skew the chart right considerably.

@sacm3bill - I agree.

[DrvFrShow]

I would think that the "average" golfer, including everyone who doesn't report a HC, if they were to all play under the ROG would have HCs around 30.

[Lihu]

I would think that the "average" golfer, including everyone who doesn't report a HC, if they were to all play under the ROG would have HCs around 30.

This is also kind of off topic, but given people like you and many others on this site who are serious about golf and carry a 20HC to 28HC, I would further that to 40HC.

Dan is probably a 4-6 handicap as stated in his blogs and such, but his cocky demeanor turns off a lot of people.

[nevets88]

[QUOTE name="DrvFrShow" url="/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer-dan-mclaughlin/2736#post_1107955"]   I would think that the "average" golfer, including everyone who doesn't report a HC, if they were to all play under the ROG would have HCs around 30. [/QUOTE] This is also kind of off topic, but given people like you and many others on this site who are serious about golf and carry a 20HC to 28HC, I would further that to 40HC. Dan is probably a 4-6 handicap as stated in his blogs and such, but his cocky demeanor turns off a lot of people.

He doesn't come off as cocky to me. To me, it feels like he's trying too hard to fill his inspiration role.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrvFrShow

I would think that the "average" golfer, including everyone who doesn't report a HC, if they were to all play under the ROG would have HCs around 30.

This is also kind of off topic, but given people like you and many others on this site who are serious about golf and carry a 20HC to 28HC, I would further that to 40HC.

Dan is probably a 4-6 handicap as stated in his blogs and such, but his cocky demeanor turns off a lot of people.

He doesn't come off as cocky to me. To me, it feels like he's trying too hard to fill his inspiration role.

This could very well be the case, but doesn't it even remotely come off as a little bit conceited?

[DrvFrShow]

This could very well be the case, but doesn't it even remotely come off as a little bit conceited?

Some of that could be trying to pump up himself so he can keep going. I think it's denial at this point. 4000 hrs to go and it's not the arrow.

[Aguirre]

Thread is long.

Help me out and tell me how far in and where this Dan guy is at now.  I'm really curious.

[nevets88]

[QUOTE name="nevets88" url="/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer-dan-mclaughlin/2736#post_1108025"]   [QUOTE name="Lihu" url="/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer-dan-mclaughlin/2730#post_1107957"]   [QUOTE name="DrvFrShow" url="/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer-dan-mclaughlin/2736#post_1107955"] I would think that the "average" golfer, including everyone who doesn't report a HC, if they were to all play under the ROG would have HCs around 30.[/QUOTE] This is also kind of off topic, but given people like you and many others on this site who are serious about golf and carry a 20HC to 28HC, I would further that to 40HC. Dan is probably a 4-6 handicap as stated in his blogs and such, but his cocky demeanor turns off a lot of people.[/QUOTE] He doesn't come off as cocky to me. To me, it feels like he's trying too hard to fill his inspiration role. [/QUOTE] This could very well be the case, but doesn't it even remotely come off as a little bit conceited?

More rose colored glasses.

[Nosevi]

Thread is long.

Help me out and tell me how far in and where this Dan guy is at now.  I'm really curious.

He's almost 6,000 hours into his 10,000 hour 'experiment'. His official handicap is 3.1, his scoring average is about 80 overall and a tad more in official competitions. He needs to change something in the way he's going about it IMO as his scoring average is no different than it was about 18 months ago. That's the short version :)

He doesn't come off as cocky to me. To me, it feels like he's trying too hard to fill his inspiration role.

This could very well be the case, but doesn't it even remotely come off as a little bit conceited?

More rose colored glasses.

One thing I said to Dan when he told me he was trying to inspire people with the blog was perhaps a bit harsh but I was trying to give the guy a shake. I told him that the only way he would truly inspire people was to succeed to at least tour level. Trying but failing through lack of planning or an unwillingness to change the plan as required to achieve the goal was not inspirational. I was seeing some success in my programme and suggested we trade ideas, kind of help each other along. I actually went a bit further than that to try to get him back on track but won't go into it on an open forum - it did involve a small financial outlay on my part (can almost see Shorty shacking his head in dispair ) as well as 'sharing' some expertise I use in my programme. He just didn't want to know, all the advice/information flow was totally one sided and was ultimately ignored anyway.

[nevets88]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aguirre

Thread is long.

Help me out and tell me how far in and where this Dan guy is at now.  I'm really curious.

He's almost 6,000 hours into his 10,000 hour 'experiment'. His official handicap is 3.1, his scoring average is about 80 overall and a tad more in official competitions. He needs to change something in the way he's going about it IMO as his scoring average is no different than it was about 18 months ago. That's the short version :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nevets88

He doesn't come off as cocky to me. To me, it feels like he's trying too hard to fill his inspiration role.

This could very well be the case, but doesn't it even remotely come off as a little bit conceited?

More rose colored glasses.

One thing I said to Dan when he told me he was trying to inspire people with the blog was perhaps a bit harsh but I was trying to give the guy a shake. I told him that the only way he would truly inspire people was to succeed to at least tour level. Trying but failing through lack of planning or an unwillingness to change the plan as required to achieve the goal was not inspirational. I was seeing some success in my programme and suggested we trade ideas, kind of help each other along. I actually went a bit further than that to try to get him back on track but won't go into it on an open forum - it did involve a small financial outlay on my part (can almost see Shorty shacking his head in dispair  ) as well as 'sharing' some expertise I use in my programme. He just didn't want to know, all the advice/information flow was totally one sided and was ultimately ignored anyway.

Being closed minded - not very inspiring.