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

[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.

[BerkeleyRehab]

It is more he isn't being honest with us.

I also think he is incredibly short-funded and needs to keep this charade up to keep the media and investor money flowing in.

The Catch-22 of the more tournaments he plays, the more it will expose that he is just another amateur golfer.  And that PGA Tour talk that generated interested becomes more of a joke.

[Lihu]

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.

This is one of the benefits of being on this site.

[nevets88]

I don't begrudge him going to Australia. If it were me, I wouldn't even think twice about going. Consider it a semi-working vacation.

[jlt73]

Just thinking out loud here... If Dan were truly going for the 10000 hour mark, wouldn't that mean: 1. 10000 hours driver 2. 10000 hours with ever other club 3. 10000 hours Chipping, pitching, putting etc The 10000 hours in golf seem to be way too broad and nowhere near specific enough in the scope of the 10000 hour ordeal

[flopster]

Just thinking out loud here...

If Dan were truly going for the 10000 hour mark, wouldn't that mean:

1. 10000 hours driver

2. 10000 hours with ever other club

3. 10000 hours Chipping, pitching, putting etc

The 10000 hours in golf seem to be way too broad and nowhere near specific enough in the scope of the 10000 hour ordeal

So that would mean 140,000 total hours if he would devote 10,000 to each club, in real terms if he treated it like a full time job then it would take 70 years to put in that many hours, the reality to this whole experiment was he wasn't a good test subject from the start, from the little I know about Dan is that he was never much of an athlete prior to this, his wiki page says he played tennis and ran cross country most likely in high school. IMO I think a real subject should have been a young golfer no older than 18 who has learned the game to some degree but has not really put in the intense hours of practice. I have seen many young players who probably have less than 1000 hours already in and are breaking 80 and some hovering around par, Dan can't break 80 in a tournament but his index was as low as 2.8 prior to those tournament beat downs and he has put in over 5000 hours already which is an extreme amount of practice regardless of where he started at.

[nevets88]

I thought he was going on the dime of some golf company but it's for a TV talk show I think - the title of the episode is "Born or made?" Anyone from Australia here? Can you record or give us a summary of his comments? The show is "Insight", episode to air on the 23rd on SBS ONE. http://ourguide.com.au/searcher.php?region=Perth&date;=23072014&channel;=SBS&show;=&u;=%2Ftv_guide.php%3Fr%3DPerth%26d%3D23072014%26t%3D6

[Pretzel]

I played today for a couple hole with someone who plans on turning pro and playing the mini-tours this fall. It was pretty fun to do, especially since I saw how much differently he played his game. I beat him by two strokes, but he only brought out a 4-iron, a 56* wedge, and a putter and we played from the tips. Watching him hit the long iron (a Titleist 714 CB) was fun since he could hit it from any lie. He hit it buried in the rough and, while it only rose about 10 feet, still was able to move it down 170 yards back into the fairway on a par 5. His short game was what most impressed me though, as he got up and down twice from some difficult spots. We only had time for about 6 holes, but I'm looking forward to the next time we play since he's a co-worker (at least for now) at the golf course.

[Shorty]

PROMO FOR THE SHOW

Dan : "At the age of 30 I quit my career and practised for 10,000 hours to reach PGA Tour level"

Host " How much of your talent is born, and how much is made?"

Other person " I don't think if he did 100,000 hours he'd be an elite golfer"

Hopefully he'll be on the receiving end of some tough love, judging from that.

[nevets88]

PROMO FOR THE SHOW Dan : "At the age of 30 I quit my career and practised for 10,000 hours to reach PGA Tour level" Host " How much of your talent is born, and how much is made?" Other person " I don't think if he did 100,000 hours he'd be an elite golfer" Hopefully he'll be on the receiving end of some tough love, judging from that.

I think he's used to the comment above I'm sure he's heard way worse. He's in too deep and/or his alternatives aren't appealing to him, so he goes on if I had to guess. He could rationalize, hey, I'm in Australia all expenses paid, and I'm on the telly, I must be doing something right. S U P E R F I C I A L. Sorry Dan Plan, that's how I see this whole thing, sort of a long a$$ episode of Portlandia without the self aware funny.

[RandallT]

http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/299701827561/Insight-Born-Or-Made

The episode took a while to load, but I'm watching it right now. My sense is that the whole episode is devoted to just Dan, which I didn't expect. I thought he was one of several people to be profiled.  Prof. Anders Ericsson is also available on a screen (not in person) to explain his theories. When asked if he thinks Dan will make it, Anders sidesteps the quite nicely .

[Lihu]

http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/299701827561/Insight-Born-Or-Made

The episode took a while to load, but I'm watching it right now. My sense is that the whole episode is devoted to just Dan, which I didn't expect. I thought he was one of several people to be profiled.  Prof. Anders Ericsson is also available on a screen (not in person) to explain his theories. When asked if he thinks Dan will make it, Anders sidesteps the quite nicely.

Watched it while running some simulations for work. My only conclusion is "Born."

If Dan happened to have the genetic material to play well, then the 10,000 hours would have made sense. If only he were part of the 1 in 1,000 people with natural golf potential.

Imagine if Bubba Watson decided to practice 10,000 hours?

[RandallT]

I spoke too soon. Dan seemed to be the glue that the show would occasionally return to, but it was most definitely  not about him. The show was not particularly "insightful" but maybe others differ.

Near the end (46minutes or so), they talked about "harmonious passion" vs. "obsessive passion," and they asked Dan if he had the passion for golf that he needed. Harmonious passion is the kind where you feel you are born to do something and it gives you peace and satisfaction when you get in that zone. Obsessive passion is the kind where you are passionate because of external forces, not your own true desires. I thought Dan would have a moment where he realized his passion was more external, worrying about his project and what others think of him. Does he truly have the "harmonious passion," which is what they said is needed.  Dan said he had the passion he needed, but he didn't distinguish which kind. (EDIT: added this last sentence, because I forgot it!)

Overall, the show was a disappointment, and I found it disjointed with a few interesting tidbits.

[Lihu]

I was only disappointed that @Shorty was not invited to talk. I would love to have seen him ask Dan more pertinent questions to golf.

Of course, I just extrapolated golf from the rest of the things.