This guy is attempting to do what most people dream of. Quit your job to try and become pro. Only problem is he's never played before, so he has a 6 year plan.

I give him about a .001% of success and even that may be generous. Will be fun to follow though.

http://www.businessinsider.com/dan-m...an-golf-2011-4

He's also blogging about it

http://thedanplan.com/

seems like if anyone can do it this guy could when you commit that much time to practicing... i'm not sure exactly what it means to be a 'pro', but assuming he could play the low level mini-tours then i guess he would be considered a 'pro.'

Please lock this thread before the ignorance drives me even more insane.

BO

I've read both "Outliers" and "Talent Is Overrated" so I'll be interested to follow his progress. That said I doubt very seriously he'll be too competitive at any level above the lowest professional ranks.

We should invite him to this forum for a solid dose of reality.

So his stated goal is to make it through Q-school. That has exactly a 0% chance of happening.

I could see getting good enough to come beat it around semi seriously on the Gateway Tour here in Florida, where anyone with $150 and a 50/50 shot of breaking 80 calls themselves a pro.

Imagine if you had the ability not to click on this thread.

I'd have more hair!

I know, I should just ignore it and/or let it go. But complete ignorance just gets under my skin. Hopefully one day I'll be able to just laugh and go on.

BO

Just read some of his blog. It sounds like he's a year into it.

His teacher started him out only putting for five months. Now it looks like he learning to hit a wedge and shot 91 from the ladies tees. His bag looks funny with just 3 clubs in it (2 wedges and a putter).

The only interesting part of this story would be how he is paying for lessons and other bills. Of course none of that is in the article. If I wanted to hear about someone quitting their job to play golf I would go to ANY golf course in the world and find a person person over the age of 60. There are millions of people that have done this and they are often called retired.

"McLaughlin said, "If I could become a professional golfer the world is literally open to any options for anybody...what I'm trying to do with this project is demonstrate how far you're able to go if you're willing to put in the time...I'm testing human potential."

Wow, that's deep. You can go far if you put in time and effort. Groundbreaking. Malcolm Gladwell may have posited that it takes 10,000 hours of work/practice to become great at something but that doesn't mean "if you do something for 10,000 hours you will be great at it".

Additionally, the term "great [golfer]" probably doesn't even get you to "professional golfer". There are probably thousands of great golfers who aren't pros.

BO you should ask dagolfdoc about how an overweight, nonathletic, middle aged man came to him and wanted to get really good at golf. He had never played more than a handful of rounds in his life. The guy worked incredibly hard and shot even par within 9 months. People can achieve great things if they work very hard at it.

As for the guy in OP, if that is as far as he has gotten in 1,400 hours then he is not working hard enough. If I am looking at the site correctly it would appear that he is just now beginning to hit full shots with his PW? And he spent the first 5 months on the putting green??? What he really needs is a new coach probably, because if you have that much time to devote to this game you should be making leaps and bounds not baby steps after 1 year of non-stop practicing.

i started a thread once asking what anyone who is somewhat athletic, dedicated and has access to top coaching can get to.

the answer from a few people who've worked with tons of golfers was 3 to 4 handicap (with 100% free time, dedication and tons of coaching).

i figure a 3 or 4 handicap wouldn't break 90 at the US open??

i live in a canadian province just over a milliion people. the newspaper went through all the local touring pro's (men and women). i don't think one even had status on the developmental canadian tour. and most of these guys had played NCAA golf. soooooooo many very good players these days. and not that many decent paying touring spots (500 at most?)

I read this in the Tampa paper 3 weeks ago. The guy is delusional and will get burnt out in no time.

I understand the skepticism and it is obviously warranted but wasn't every single actual professional golfer basically in the exact same situation as this guy is now (albeit younger)?

I'm just saying, how do we know this guy doesn't have hidden natural talent that has just never been unleashed?

And that's an awesome achievement for you. But what these idiots don't understand is that an incredibly small percentage of the population has the ability to shoot par regardless of how hard they work.

To be able to shoot par two things have to happen. 1, you have to be born with the ability. 2, you have to work your butt off. If you don't have 1, you can work at golf 24/7 for the rest of your life and never break 80.

Larry Nelson didn't pick up a club until the age of 21. Less than a year later he was a scratch handicap. Conversely, we've all seen guys at the golf course every day week in and week out year after year who can't break an egg.

We don't. But that doesn't matter in this case because what he's trying to show is that anybody can do it if they work hard enough. But after what's been said above, we know that's not the case.


BO

Hi Pokeromglol

Actually, I don't think every single pro golfer was in this position. They were very, very good and decided to commit. This guy has unknown potential and has decided to commit.

I think some of the conventional thinking about hard work and being reasonably athletic is very wrong on a sport-by-sport basis, or even in sports in general.

If you look at every PGA player i'd challenge you to find more that a half dozen or so who were not "exceptional" at 13 , 14, 15 etc. By that I mean, the type of kid that clearly has game and that everyone in their club, shcool, small towm is convinced they are headed for the pros. Most of this kids don't make it, but you can be sure that majority of current PGA pros were labled early as awesome.

What set them apart? I mean there are lots of kids who are athletic in their teens, and lots of them are into multi sports. What set them apart, IMO, is probably their swing, rythym, feel and commitmnet to practice. Notice that commitment to pactice is only one part, and the other three may not be teachable. You can work on the mechanics of the swing until the cows come home, but in the end if it looks "mechanical" and it doesn't look natural and smooth and fluid, then you probbaly don't have it. I mean you can check back in 10 years when the guy is 24 and his swing will still be mechanical if the rythm, timing, feel are just not part of his make-up.

You can practice all you want, and you will reach whatever you plateau is for you, but your are not likely to change your body type and rythm.

I think that if you take the 30 year-old in the story and he worked with NTnbo or ship..this for a couple of weeks, they could probaly say with conviction what the player's ceiling is with respect to handicap.

It is just not going to happen that Ntnbo and Ship..this say the guy might be a 5 or 6 handicap with lots of work, and then the guys is -3 hdcp in 5 years. The reason is that ntnbo and ship.this (I am using them for examples) will have identifed a lack of pyshical attributes (like feel and rythm, flexibility, coordination, for example) that are just not going to be overcome with practice.

I agree with you, I just don't see the point of hating on the guy. I mean, he isn't THAT delusional as to what it takes... as he's quit his job and is devoting 10,000 hours to improving. Whatever happened to Butcho22, wasn't he going pro?

I see the point though... my grandfather played golf with me every sunday for a good 5 years and he was somewhat athletic in college and runs ~20 miles a week at the age of 80, and he never did figure out to "stop hitting putts so hard" (you know, like a beginner who hammers a 15 foot putt 25 feet past the hole....) He was never going to be scratch.

As a side note, I wonder what the average outcome of this is for a 30 year old whose physically healthy and somewhat athletic. I think he'll be scratch if he really and truly does stick with it. Hell, I got down to a 2.1 and I never practiced and had a severe case of the chipping yips.

Did you check out his blog or the website at all? I actually think he is going about things in a fairly good way, if we accept the premise that he isn't crazy for taking on the project, the strategy so far looks really smart to me. He's been at it for just over a year and he hasn't touched a club besides putter, 56*, and pitching wedge. It seems like he is taking dagolfdoc's ultimate practice routine to the extreme. He has plenty of videos and stuff up there and his swing with his pitching wedge looks pretty solid, I doubt he is going to have a very hard time moving on to mid irons at all and he will have a great short game.

Anyway there are a bunch of useful practice tips and stuff in his blog that I noted for myself, plenty of great putting drills and stuff.

I actually thought his swing looked pretty awful for someone putting in the amount of time he was. Maybe I'm not looking at the right things.

Shrug I'd take your opinion over mine on that, I just thought based on his training methods and his prior history of not golfing, that he looked comfortable and natural swinging.

I think if he really puts in the work there is no reason he can't succeed in professional golf.

I've heard KJ Choi started at a very late age. I'm sure he worked really hard because he is Korean.

Maybe this guy isnt as talented as KJ but he could at least make it on the Nike tour I would think...

speaking of choi, YE yang has a similar story... he didnt pick up a club until about 20.

Well the moral of the story is clear: if you work real hard (like Asiany hard), anyone can make it as a pro golfer.

I would say you might not win a major like Yang, but a Nike Tour victory is definitely a modestly attainable goal.

I watched his swings, and what ARcticknight said is on the mark. This guy just doens't have the coordination. if this was an NHL player trying it, it'd be different. I give him 0% chance, but commend him for trying.

Only putting for the first 5 months seems pretty dumb. I think the gain in practicing putting 8 hours as opposed to 2 hours is minimal.. 6 hours hitting wedges and 8 irons seems reasonable to me..