Question for teachers: Why are Dan McLaughlin's (www.thedanplan.com) numbers so low

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

2.  As I understand it, Dan doesn't even have aspirations.

False.  And this is why it's hilarious.

This is taken directly from here:

http://thedanplan.com/about/

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

False.  And this is why it's hilarious.

This is taken directly from here:

http://thedanplan.com/about/

Not false.

plan

/ plæn / Show Spelled [ plan ] Show IPA noun, verb, planned, plan·ning.

noun

3. a specific project or definite purpose: plans for the future.

as·pire

/ əˈspaɪər / Show Spelled [ uh - spahy uh r ] Show IPA

verb (used without object), as·pired, as·pir·ing.

1. to long, aim, or seek ambitiously; be eagerly desirous, especially for something great or of high value (usually followed by to, after, or an infinitive): to aspire after literary immortality; to aspire to be a doctor.

Just because the website says that he "plans" on becoming a professional golfer does not mean that he "aspires" or "dreams" or "expects" to become one.

Also taken directly from his webpage (the "Why Golf" section on his blog archive) ... " So those are a few of the reasons that I chose golf, but it’s important for me to reiterate that The Plan is not really about golf. There are also a few advantages to the sport that help demonstrate the point of human potential that I would like to explore in the documentary."

How could he be compared to the other goofballs on here who have ridiculous false dreams of being a pro golfer when he says himself that this experiment isn't even about golf?

[TJBam]

The reason it's so funny is because he notes on the front page of the blog that his goal is winning amateur events and eventually obtaining his Tour Card.

[Beachcomber]

He has a plan.  And aspiration...

His plan is to try and become a professional golfer.  But I don't know how you, or anyone could claim that the plan was truly successful unless you executed the plan to an end goal.  Which as far as they have communicated on his site/blog, is to become a golf professional.

Ultimately his aspiration is to do a documentary on his 10,000 hour experiment.  Which I'm assuming is going to help recoup the investments that he has made over the 10k hours many times over.

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Not false.

Just because the website says that he "plans" on becoming a professional golfer does not mean that he "aspires" or "dreams" or "expects" to become one.

Also taken directly from his webpage (the "Why Golf" section on his blog archive) ... "So those are a few of the reasons that I chose golf, but it’s important for me to reiterate that The Plan is not really about golf. There are also a few advantages to the sport that help demonstrate the point of human potential that I would like to explore in the documentary."

How could he be compared to the other goofballs on here who have ridiculous false dreams of being a pro golfer when he says himself that this experiment isn't even about golf?

[turtleback]

Originally Posted by David in FL

Just looked him up.  5.6 as of 1 August.  Only .3 better than 1 August 2012.....

Just as a point of reference, he and I play off of about the same index.  I'm down .9 from last August.  Not all that impressive either.  But then, I'm not doing anything except playing golf whenever I can.....hopefully twice a week when things work out.

Of course, I've got the added advantage of the combined support and genius of the members of this site, so I guess I do have a big leg up over him!

I'm confused.  Isn't it harder and harder to improve the closer you get to scratch?  At his pace of improvement it should take another 18 years to get to scratch.  But if we factor in the decreasing rate of improvement it would more like it will be 25 years.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

But I don't know how you, or anyone could claim that the plan was truly successful unless you executed the plan to an end goal.

Did I do that?  Did anybody?  There are a lot of people on here who will argue to the end of times about the existence or non-existence of "natural talent" but I think you'll be hard pressed to find anybody willing to claim that he was successful if he's not a tour pro by the end of the experiment.

So I don't understand your point here???

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

Ultimately his aspiration is to do a documentary on his 10,000 hour experiment.  Which I'm assuming is going to help recoup the investments that he has made over the 10k hours many times over.

This is sort of the point I was making.  All I was saying (and it's not even on topic really) was that Dan differs from the other "I'm going to be a tour pro" guys on here.  I'm not saying he's any more (or less) likely to become a tour pro than any of them, but just that he's different.  He picked golf relatively at random for his goofy experiment.  He never dreamt of being a professional golfer.

That's it.

Now, get off your butt and go out there and try and earn yourself a stupid monkey badge!!!

[mchepp]

He should have chosen an activity not requiring as much athletic ability such as darts. I think the 10000 hour theory would have been very interesting if he chose darts.

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Now, get off your butt and go out there and try and earn yourself a stupid monkey badge!!!

LOL.  Cheese, you remind me of this guy with all your flair .

[RandallT]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Now, get off your butt and go out there and try and earn yourself a stupid monkey badge!!!

Monkey badge? I don't need a stinkin' monkey badge, do I? How do I get one? Will this stupid post earn me one? I want one.

[David in FL]

Originally Posted by TJBam

His last two mentioned scores this week are an 85 and 89.  That's awful, just terrible for a 5 handicap.

And notice that his poor tournament performance failed to make its way to his GHIN.  LOL.  Vanity capping at its finest.

Looks like he's now entered his tournament scores.  They'll be included in this upcoming revision on the 15th.  His last 6 rounds entered have all resulted in differentials over 10.....including a 15.4 and a 16.1.

It's not gonna be a good update for him....maybe a 5.9 or so.  And without something heroic, the next one's gonna be downright ugly because some of his best scores will be dropping off.

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by David in FL

Looks like he's now entered his tournament scores.  They'll be included in this upcoming revision on the 15th.  His last 6 rounds entered have all resulted in differentials over 10.....including a 15.4 and a 16.1.

It's not gonna be a good update for him....maybe a 5.9 or so.  And without something heroic, the next one's gonna be downright ugly because some of his best scores will be dropping off.

Ha.  Golf is a helluva drug.

[TJBam]

Originally Posted by David in FL

Looks like he's now entered his tournament scores.  They'll be included in this upcoming revision on the 15th.  His last 6 rounds entered have all resulted in differentials over 10.....including a 15.4 and a 16.1.

It's not gonna be a good update for him....maybe a 5.9 or so.  And without something heroic, the next one's gonna be downright ugly because some of his best scores will be dropping off.

I have no doubt that he'll score a couple 74's while playing by himself before then, and be back down to a 4.5. Dad will be proud, donors will keep donating, and duffers all over the world will sing his praises.

He will then blog about his progress and praise the Titleist fitting camp, his chiropractor, his personal trainer, his strength coach, his swing coach, and his mental game coach.

He will then play a tournament and score 264 over 3 days and write a blog post about how he can't drive the ball (even though his Trackman stats show his driver to be straight and out of the ballpark).

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by TJBam

his personal trainer, his strength coach

Dan is small... But does he really need both?

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

LOL.  Cheese, you remind me of this guy with all your flair.

Shawn, you understand that 15 pieces of flair is the bare minimum, right?  We want you to express yourself. ;)

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Shawn, you understand that 15 pieces of flair is the bare minimum, right?  We want you to express yourself. ;)

Have you seen my stapler?

[JetFan1983]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

But I don't know how you, or anyone could claim that the plan was truly successful unless you executed the plan to an end goal.

Did I do that?  Did anybody?  There are a lot of people on here who will argue to the end of times about the existence or non-existence of "natural talent" but I think you'll be hard pressed to find anybody willing to claim that he was successful if he's not a tour pro by the end of the experiment.

So I don't understand your point here???

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

Ultimately his aspiration is to do a documentary on his 10,000 hour experiment.  Which I'm assuming is going to help recoup the investments that he has made over the 10k hours many times over.

This is sort of the point I was making.  All I was saying (and it's not even on topic really) was that Dan differs from the other "I'm going to be a tour pro" guys on here.  I'm not saying he's any more (or less) likely to become a tour pro than any of them, but just that he's different.  He picked golf relatively at random for his goofy experiment.  He never dreamt of being a professional golfer.

That's it.

Now, get off your butt and go out there and try and earn yourself a stupid monkey badge!!!

Maybe I'm misinterpreting your discussion or Dan's intention with this quotation I'm quoting, but Dan wrote this on his blog on July 17th:

This journey that I am on is a personal one.  I appreciate that people are following along and interested, but at the end of the day it’s me versus me out there.  I’m on a quest to prove to myself that human potential is what we make it and we are what we say we are.  I’m going to hit my goal of making it on the PGA Tour and play in an event on that stage and when it’s all said and done I’ll be right where I started: living in my head, understanding the world through my reality.

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

Maybe I'm misinterpreting your discussion or Dan's intention with this quotation I'm quoting, but Dan wrote this on his blog on July 17th:

Jet, there is a saying.... 'Never wrestle with a pig, you'll just get dirty.'  Sometimes you just have to know when to back away.

3... 2... 1... Before Big Cheese comes back in here and uses Websters, Wikipedia, Youtube, et al to show us why we're totally off base!

[Williamevanl]

Originally Posted by RandallT

Looks like Dan is figuring out a little more how to swing. As he writes today, his swing is now about 50/50 where he can really connect by using his body and not mainly his arms and hands. I can't wait to see his next TrackMan update to see if his numbers improve significantly.

Heck, I'd take a handicap update too.  He is nearing the halfway point of 5000 hours left, and it's obvious to me he's not going to get anywhere near close to his goal. But he still seems confident that he can jack up his club speed 10% (from 265yd carry to 290yd carry, he says). He plays with a +handicap regularly, so he knows that there are lots of people who already at that skill level. I wonder how he thinks he will distinguish himself from the many, many thousands of scratch golfers out there who can already pound it that far.

Anyway, here's the latest, in case you're interested. Finally an upbeat note after some poor outings, but he doesn't mention any specific scores or good rounds.

http://thedanplan.com/finally-a-sign-of-the-positive-nature/

I interpret this whole thing as the beginning of the end. Dan realized what we have all been telling him this entire time. We said he would plateu and he has (obvioulsy). He got his handicap as low as he possibly could (for the time being) and it's basically not changed in about a year now. His tournament scores suggest that his handicap is closer to what his first handicap was (several years ago).

He has basically stopped posting scores, his facebook updates and blogs have slowed down etc... Using his arms less is not going to save this thing. It's wrapping up fast.

Also he posted something similar a while back. I'd track it down but it was basically "I've got it figured out, now I'm hitting my clubs the same distance as the pros, 3wd 280, 5 iron 200 yards etc..

Come on, Dan said he was confident he would be a 3 after 3000 hours and  recently shot 56 over par over a 3 day stretch in a tournament. My groups mens leagues scores are much better than that!

** edit I stand corrected, looks like he decided to update some scores after all:

AI	8/13	84	71.9/137	10.0
AI	8/13	86	71.9/137	11.6
AI	7/13	89	71.6/128	15.4
AI	7/13	86	73.0/133	11.0
TI	7/13	85	73.0/133	10.2
TI	7/13	92	73.0/133	16.1
TI	7/13	84	73.0/133	9.3

Yowsers!