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

[Pretzel]

Ouch, that always hurts to score high in a tournament. Especially after feeling very good about your chances. Blowup holes in a tournament will kill your confidence and cause you to rush a bit, so you have to make sure that the worst you do on any hole is a bogey or better.

[flopster]

Lets see, four of the par 4's were less than 350 and not a single par 5 over 500 in fact closer to 450, call me a hater but that is embarrassing for anyone to shoot that score with a sub 5 index or supposedly sub 5 index. The course only rated 71.0 at 124 slope and this is from the tips, if they played the forward tees then this has to be the biggest set back to date,

[nevets88]

I nominate Dan for MacArthur fellow. There, funding solved.

[Shorty]

Blowup holes in a tournament will kill your confidence and cause you to rush a bit, so you have to make sure that the worst you do on any hole is a bogey or better.

That's a good tip for tournament play!! Easy!

The pros should be aware of this important (and surprisingly simple) piece of advice on hard courses.

I'm going to try it!

[Pretzel]

That's a good tip for tournament play!! Easy!

The pros should be aware of this important (and surprisingly simple) piece of advice on hard courses.

I'm going to try it!

Easier said then done, as I can attest to (and anyone else who's played golf). That said, it is still good advice when you get in trouble just because it helps you remember not to be stupid and try to make a hero shot if you have a .01% probability of pulling it off.

[RandallT]

Anyone see these articles recently? They showed up this week in my various news feeds:

Business Insider: New Study Destroys Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 Hour Rule
http://www.businessinsider.com/new-study-destroys-malcolm-gladwells-10000-rule-2014-7?utm_source=hootsuite

Quote:

In a meta-analysis of 88 studies on deliberate practice, the researchers found that practice accounted for just a 12% difference in performance in various domains.

What's really surprising is how much it depends on the domain:

• In games, practice made for a 26% difference

• In music, it was a 21% difference

• In sports, an 18% difference

• In education, a 4% difference

• In professions, just a 1% difference

The best explanation of the domain dependency is probably found in Frans Johansson 's book " The Click Moment ."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-study-destroys-malcolm-gladwells-10000-rule-2014-7#ixzz36tER60Hj

LifeHacker: Study Shows that 10,000 Hours Isn't the Magic Number

http://lifehacker.com/study-shows-that-10-000-hours-of-practice-isnt-the-magi-1601141560

Quote:

So, as is most often the case with these types of things, the 10,000 hour rule isn't really a rule. It's nice to think that we can all learn to do anything if we practice enough, but as The New York Times points out , it's nice to know that it's okay to quit too:

But letting go of the idea that enough practice turns anyone into a star can have its upsides, too. It may free us from self-blame if we're just not getting the hang of something. And if we've tried and tried and still don't succeed, it may give us permission to quit and try something else. Which, when I graduated from high school as a still-pretty-bad French horn player, is exactly what I did.

[David in FL]

That's a good tip for tournament play!! Easy!

The pros should be aware of this important (and surprisingly simple) piece of advice on hard courses.

I'm going to try it!

Heck.....I'm gonna go one better.  I'm gonna make sure the worst I do on any given hole is par or better!

[BerkeleyRehab]

Lets see, four of the par 4's were less than 350 and not a single par 5 over 500 in fact closer to 450, call me a hater but that is embarrassing for anyone to shoot that score with a sub 5 index or supposedly sub 5 index. The course only rated 71.0 at 124 slope and this is from the tips, if they played the forward tees then this has to be the biggest set back to date,

My guess is the average tour pro would shoot 65 there.

He is really only 1 shot a hole away from being a pro.

[Lihu]

My guess is the average tour pro would shoot 65 there.

He is really only 1 shot a hole away from being a pro.

I had to read this a couple times. lol

A pro might shoot even less than 65, if she's played there before.

[BerkeleyRehab]

I had to read this a couple times. lol

A pro might shoot even less than 65, if she's played there before.

I had to reread that too :)

[David in FL]

[U][/U][quote name="flopster" url="/t/45853/the-dan-plan-10-000-hours-to-become-a-pro-golfer/1458#post_1016633"]Lets see, four of the par 4's were less than 350 and not a single par 5 over 500 in fact closer to 450, call me a hater but that is embarrassing for anyone to shoot that score with a sub 5 index or supposedly sub 5 index. The course only rated 71.0 at 124 slope and this is from the tips, if they played the forward tees then this has to be the biggest set back to date, [/quote] Wow....I hadn't looked at the course before. He shot a freaking 88 there ?! :-O I'd leave the country too! :scared:

[flopster]

Wow....I hadn't looked at the course before. He shot a freaking 88 there?!

I'd leave the country too!

He claimed a breakthrough on putting and chipping? I guess a 94 would have been a possibility if he didn't make up and downs from generous flat areas around the greens, the photos show a flat course, google map shows a course with no bunkers in front of any greens and some without any or only 1 flat one, he obviously has no control on his full swing and was probably punching out from behind trees all day, I think the guy is stalled right now by his lack of athletic ability, he has had numerous club fittings, workouts with a personal trainer, professional golf instruction and consultation throughout, and this is what he has to show for it all? My buddy who plays 5 times a year could shoot an 88 there.

[Big C]

Ouch, that always hurts to score high in a tournament. Especially after feeling very good about your chances. Blowup holes in a tournament will kill your confidence and cause you to rush a bit, so you have to make sure that the worst you do on any hole is a bogey or better.

No offense intended, because you are a much better golf than I am, but I think this is terrible advice for tournament play. Playing  for "bogey or better" (or any score for that matter) is a surefire way to put up a lot of bogeys, and it won't ever eliminate the blowups. I will grant you that on a tough hole with lots of trouble, I don't mind making a more conservative approach and being happy with a bogey result. But I don't ever think taking the mindset of "don't make worse than bogey" to a course will lead to favorable results.

[MS256]

No offense intended, because you are a much better golf than I am, but I think this is terrible advice for tournament play. Playing  for "bogey or better" (or any score for that matter) is a surefire way to put up a lot of bogeys, and it won't ever eliminate the blowups. I will grant you that on a tough hole with lots of trouble, I don't mind making a more conservative approach and being happy with a bogey result. But I don't ever think taking the mindset of "don't make worse than bogey" to a course will lead to favorable results.

I think ya'll may be taking @Pretzel rong way. I'm sure at his level he wants to make as many birdies and eagles as he can, but if "bogey" is his bad hole it doesn't kill his round.

If you read about the rounds people on this site post the one thing that stands out like a sore thumb is that the higher handicap players can play along halfway decently and then start throwing up 8s about every other hole.

Limit your bad holes to bogey and forget about it and move on to the next. You will probably make up for it down the line.

Start that snowman snowball rolling and the round is shot. The more you try to make up for it the worse you fall apart.

[Lihu]

I think ya'll may be taking @Pretzel's comment the wrong way. I'm sure at his level he wants to make as many birdies and eagles as he can, but if "bogey" is his bad hole it doesn't kill his round.

If you read about the rounds people on this site post the one thing that stands out like a sore thumb is that the higher handicap players can play along halfway decently and then start throwing up 8s about every other hole.

Limit your bad holes to bogey and forget about it and move on to the next. You will probably make up for it down the line.

Start that snowman snowball rolling and the round is shot. The more you try to make up for it the worse you fall apart.

Sigh. . .

[Strandly]

I think ya'll may be taking @Pretzel's comment the wrong way. I'm sure at his level he wants to make as many birdies and eagles as he can, but if "bogey" is his bad hole it doesn't kill his round.

If you read about the rounds people on this site post the one thing that stands out like a sore thumb is that the higher handicap players can play along halfway decently and then start throwing up 8s about every other hole.

Limit your bad holes to bogey and forget about it and move on to the next. You will probably make up for it down the line.

Start that snowman snowball rolling and the round is shot. The more you try to make up for it the worse you fall apart.

Yeah that's how I tend to look at it also.  Like I've said before, I feel like I can recover from a bogey (or several ) but doubles and triples can get really demoralizing really fast.  If someone tried to tell me to shoot for triple or better I might disagree with that but bogey isn't that bad imo.

[Pretzel]

MS256 hit the nail on the head. I'm not talking about playing for bogey or better from the middle of the fairway, I'm talking about when your tee shot hooks into the weeds or you leave yourself with a precarious chip shot to get up and down. In those situations you need to make sure that you don't make worse than a bogey or your score will suffer. I at least try to give myself a chance to make par with a putter in my hands when I have a bad hole, because the odds are greater that way than if I leave a delicate chip too short and have to chip again, or if I try to hit a GIR from 200 out in the native grass and hit it poorly.

[Big C]

MS256 hit the nail on the head. I'm not talking about playing for bogey or better from the middle of the fairway, I'm talking about when your tee shot hooks into the weeds or you leave yourself with a precarious chip shot to get up and down. In those situations you need to make sure that you don't make worse than a bogey or your score will suffer. I at least try to give myself a chance to make par with a putter in my hands when I have a bad hole, because the odds are greater that way than if I leave a delicate chip too short and have to chip again, or if I try to hit a GIR from 200 out in the native grass and hit it poorly.

Thanks for the clarification, and that makes sense to me. Perhaps it's just semantics, but I try my hardest to avoid thinking about ANY score when I'm in a competitive situation and that philosophy goes both ways. If I rip a drive inside of 200 yards on par 5, I don't want to be thinking "lets make birdie/eagle here." And likewise, if I pull my drive into an impossible tree lined area, I don't ever want to say "let's just get out of here with bogey." Rather, I just want to focus on making the best shot(s) that I can in either situation. When I get results oriented, my swing tends to get tentative and my scores tend to be worse than the score I was envisioning. Conversely, I have made pars from some really tough spots when I stop thinking about the number, and just focus on making a good swing.

Back on topic, I'm sorry to say that my support for Dan is waning. He doesn't seem to be honest with himself. He's always one tweak away, one swing thought away from "figuring it out." Unfortunately, as everyone here knows, that's not how golf works. What he needs to be doing is admitting honestly that his game isn't anywhere close to tournament ready, and the only way to correct that is to hunker down, play more tournaments and continue to be relentless in his practice efforts. Instead, he's flying all over the country for visualization seminars and free Australia trips. Maybe I would do the same if I were in his shoes - who knows? But while I'm not actively hoping that Dan will fail, I can say that I'm no longer rooting for his success either.