We discussed some financial stuff - more about how he works with his instructor, but he is getting more & more publicity & I would imagine that will increase as the project continues. He never mentioned to me that he wanted to play for a living - he said it would be awesome if it eventually led to that, but he just wants to see how good he can become. He has some interest from the Golf Channel about a semi-reality show, a video crew that films him weekly, and some other leads for television which will probably lead to income. My thought was that after it's all said & done, he'll probably write a book or do some speaking about how the project can work with business/success. Dan is an incredibly smart guy, and his personality is very genuine, not arrogant or cocky in any way. I expected a totally different individual, and he's really just a regular guy who wanted to do something completely different.

It will say, that my friend pointed out that I didn't say a word about his game during the round (or after) until he asked me over drinks. I never offer unsolicited advice, but we did discuss how he & Chris approached his learning. I might have done it a little differently (maybe not putted for 8 months), but Dan said he was so excited to finally hit a chip shot - he described it like a kid on Christmas Eve - he kept wanting to move off the green, but he bought into the program and stuck with it. He said he started with a $1 putter he picked up in bargain barrel, and that was what he used for a long time - he now has an equipment deal with Nike.

This story makes me smile I dare to say that I can relate a bit to Dan; I went from a 20+ to single handicap in about a year. My swing wasn't so pretty, and neither were the blood blisters but it's hell of a game and the feeling one gains from seeing hard work pay off is priceless. I've watched the past dan plan webisodes and I wouldn't be surprised if Dan was shooting par in 2012 with all the great support around him. Best of luck to him! Thank you for the trip report, doctor.

OK I only read the OP, but I played D1 college golf and I would estimate I would be way worse than 1,000 to 1 to make any money at pro golf. Seems silly.

Just out of curiosity, I know NtnBO says everyone has a ceiling and I believe him. Is it possible for me to post my swing and have him or others tell me what my ceiling would be so I know what to shoot for? Or would it be very hard to tell without watching me play a ton? I am also going to assume that I can at least get to a 15 handicap now, given a guy with no arms got to a 15 handicap lol, so I think literally anyone can do it with enough effort. Currently at 30.

Maybe. A vid would be better than nothing, but without short game moves we'd be missing a lot of info. A vid would give us an idea of what kind of overall athlete you are, at least with a golf club in your hand.

No reason not to post one, I'll chime in with a thought or two.

BO

Going to try to see if I can get Coach Smith to visit the forum. Fingers crossed.

btw swing quality as defined by swing gurus means nothing, or very close to nothing. as long as you have balance and repeatability it doesn't matter how ugly your swing is.

As maybe the only person here who has seen you swing (at the range) I would say in the nicest way possible that you are a total head case (takes one to know one). Your pre-shot routine culminates in 5-10 seconds completely frozen over the ball.

this is true lol, its even worse with putting lol

Interesting thoughts...

Yeah, but isn't the swing that the gurus teach one that is easier to maximize balance and repeatability?

i don't want to get too far off topic. but as "ugly" as you might consider a swing, most good players have similar elements in their swings; simply due to the fact that the human body is generally designed similarly. ie sergio/furyk have identical impact positions, etc etc. yeah, people have different "planes", pivot action, lateral shift, release, etc but every player on tour swings arms/club around their body (or up and around, etc) with a certain scientific basis that "swing gurus" base their teachings on. whether it's a homemade swing or not, players will come to find their own repeatable pattern with no real outliers outside the understanding of the modern golf fundamentals. you might be mislead by the poor "analysis" done by less than "swing guru" tv commentators, but my 2 cent is having a swing and refining it with a coach is extremely important.

Well said.

Doc would you say he putts as well as a pro?

I honestly find this whole thing inspiring. IT makes me want to put my heart into something, but I don't know what..

I think the fact he spent all of that time putting is a bad idea.. I think with anything, you need breaks. There's such a thing as diminishing returns, after spending 3 hours putting I can't imagine his game improves more by spending hours 4-6 putting instead of chipping or doing something else.. I can understand if he only had him put for the first month, but I think the amount of time he spent is overkill. That said, he made it through, and his dedication and discipline is obviously there.

Also, I don't think he should be focused on 10k hours, rather than say 5 years.. I think he might feel like he has to budget his hours each day if he thinks he has to keep it under 10k hours.. I mean, i would have been sneaking in other hours away from my coach if he said I could only putt.

I think at the end of 10k hours his skill level will be far above what most people think it will be.

Beermoney - great post! I would say his putting stroke is about that of a 0-5 hdcp, but his distance control still needs a little work. He rolls the ball on line but had a little trouble with the speed.

I agree that it is a pretty cool thing to do. There's times that I would love to get on my Harley and drive for 3-6 months & just escape the reality of life, bills, responsibilities, etc. I see a guy like Dan doing this & most people's knee-jerk reaction is "what an a&&hole, he's going to fail." but in the back of their minds they are really thinking - it would be really cool to have the opportunity to do that. Unfortunately, most of us have lives, kids, careers, too many things that we can't give up to pursue something.

I also agree that when the project is complete that he might be further along that most people think - I'd guess he might finish at a 0-3 hdcp based on progress so far.

Regardless, it's interesting and it will be fun to see how it plays out in the end.

Doc, I also meant to add, I think a practice plan like you outlined in a thread a while back would be perfect for him.. The one wear the person has to hit 24/25 lag putts inside of a circle, etc etc.. You must have been itching to give him some advice..

Anyway, tx for coming back to the forum and telling us about all of this..

One of the best quotes or ideas I have heard around the golf swing goes something like this:

"A good golf swing gives itself the maximum time to make minimum compensations, a bad swing gives itself minimum time to make maximum compensations."

Hearing an objective 3rd party comment on this (and for it to be doc of all people) is great! I often wonder about how projects like this pan out and we never get the real story. We always get the story from the guy making money.

Thanks for sharing this doc!

Part of me is really irritated by this thread. It is a joke to think an adult can become good enough to even play any professional golf that is shooting in the 90s and tops a ball.

The other part of me is fascinated and is curious to see how good someone like this can get.

My overall skeptical side of me is that this is a publicity stunt and he will shoot mid 70s at best which is light years away from professional golf but still impressive.

The only thing I'm sure about is that its not a publicity stunt, I mean the guy is working his ass off everyday and spending his own money (well he was until he is getting a bit more notoriety - good for him). It's not like he is the first one to have such an idea, I just read Paper Tiger and Fine Green Line, both of which chronicle their authors doing nearly an identical thing over just one year (but both were decent players to start). Plenty of people are infatuated with the idea that they can get great at golf with enough time and effort, they are most likely wrong but so what?

I think Dan's going to get stuck at a 3 handicap and then ill point him to Slicefixer. I think if he worked with Geoff he could get +2 or better. He better like far NE Texas though

I think Slicefixer's swing might be so good that you can be unathletic klutz with zero hand-eye coordination and still pure ball after ball perfectly high and straight. I think thats the definition of a great swing; one that gives you a huge margin of error (something I sorely need) and basically forgives your clumsiness. On the other hand I know if I had the same swing as most guys I see in the range, I couldnt break 130 (yet they can break 90)

The other HUGE aspect I'm not sure has been considered is whether or not his mind is even capable of competing. There are plenty of guys who act big on the range or whatever and they will absolutely crumble with anything significant on the line. I wish the guy all the luck, you gotta respect him for at least trying, but I can't help but wonder what effect this journey will take on him mentally.

I just went to his site for the first time and it says he never played any sports competitively. This is the most mentally exhaustive sport on the planet.

Great point - I did discuss this with Dan. He's working with a mental coach (not sure who) on a weekly basis. He also includes a sort of meditation into his daily practice routine. I will say, from a mental/emotional standpoint, he's pretty solid on the course - in the sense that he doesn't get angry over shots, definitely no slamming/throwing clubs, more he tries to understand why a certain shot happened. He was a little frustrated with some putts and drives that went off-line, but it didn't affect his next shot. Granted, this is not competition, but I think he's working on how to stay in the present and he definitely understands the importance of the mental game.

From my observation, Dan seems to be a pretty free-spirited, bohemian person - no negative connotation meant at all. He moved to Portland from Atlanta because it seemed like a neat place to live, he takes in the scenery on the course, and notices lots of "little things" that many golfers never notice. Personally, I think his quest is more about the journey than the result.

I thought this was interesting and echos many of the posters thoughts about Dan's training thus far. I know many (myself included) didn't agree with putting for several months and then learning to chip before actually learning to swing the club. I was reading Dan's blog and here are some quotes from November 15, right after his round at Bandon Dunes:

I think that is what most of us on here were thinking and it's interesting to read Dan felt the same. Chris (his instructor) did post a very good post after, explaining why he chose that approach and explained many of the problems Dan experienced and followed with his thoughts on how those would improve. I know Dan has committed to a plan with Chris and they will continue working together on a regular basis. Chris is a great instructor, and, in fairness, I don't know if any instructor has ever faced this type of challenge. How we would each approach it would be different.

I met up with NXTWrldChamp at the Falcons game Sunday, and we discussed how we would have approached Dan's training and it was different - would it have been better? Worse? Who knows?

Just thought I'd share the quotes from the blog for many who have questioned his initial training methods.

If my instructor said 'ok, you're gonna spend 5 months putting to me'.. I'd say, "I'm completely committed... To finding another instructor.." That's gotta be a big thorn in his side that he regrets it. At least he's willing to admit it. It sucks though, the guy's trying to do something really cool, and he is being hindered unnecessarily.. The experiment is not :what the training should be? The experiment is : where can he get with 10k hours of focused practice. His coach would have made the same point that putting is important by sticking him on a putting green for 1 month. But, there's a point I'm not sure about.. Was he strictly JUST putting for that first month? Or was he chipping as well? If so, I think there's a big difference, and it's not THAT bad..