I wrote this for the Creativity Post:  creativitypost.com where I am going to start writing a semi-regular column, but figured it was written so I might as share it here too.  This is a general overview of The Dan Plan to date, about as brief as I could make it:

In April, 2010, I quit my job in an attempt to become a professional golfer.  I was set in mind and determined it would be possible when walking away from a well-paying gig as a commercial photographer in Portland, Oregon.  The only caveat was that I had zero experience with golf and basically no experience with athletics in general.  I was, and am, pretty much average by most standards.  5’9″ and 150 Lbs, played a bit of tennis as a kid, ran cross country freshman year of high school then took to different interests for the remainder of high school and through university.  I wasn’t exactly a couch potato, but was much closer to that than to Usain Bolt.

Regardless of what I did with the first 30 years of my life, the goal was to make the PGA Tour through testing out Dr. K Anders Ericsson’s theory that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an over-achiever in any specific field.  For me, golf seemed like the perfect vehicle for this test.  It was something I had never done before, it was a mix of physical and mental, it was objective and easy to track one’s progress as there is a world-wide handicapping system already established, and it was outside.  Everything about it felt right, so after 9 months of planning and 5 years of saving up money I started off on the journey.  (On a side note, I originally saved money to put myself through graduate school, but after enrolling and going to one class I realized that path was not right for me.)

I spoke with Dr. Ericsson a handful of times in the beginning to figure out how to go about the daily routine.  Originally, I figured I could practice for 10 hours a day, 6 days a week and get to the 10,000 hour mark in about 3.5 years, but after speaking with him about concentration levels and learning absorption, I realized that this was quickly becoming a much longer project.  The important thing was not just to do it, but to do it right.  If I was going to go all in and dedicate 6-plus years of my life to this I didn’t want to have any regrets.  A typical day, then, would be between 4-6 hours of time literally standing over a ball engaged in practice along with a handful of extra curricular activities such as working out, watching film, reading about swing theory, meditation, etc.  The days would be long, yet the hours counted towards the 10,000 would be few.

Plan in place, I set out on a cold-as-hell April day in Portland, OR.  It was rainy, below 40 degrees with 20 mph winds and I had on jeans, running shoes and a bright yellow hooded rain jacket like you would see on a New England fishing pier.  I went to a municipal golf course and didn’t know what the policy was on using the putting green, so introduced myself to the man at the pro shop and told him about my goal as a golfer.  He asked if I was scratch player and I said I didn’t know what that means and that I hadn’t played golf before.  There were a few laughs and some jokes tossed around then he let me know that municipal courses are owned by the city and anyone could practice there.  This was good news as the first chapter of The Dan Plan was all about putting and if I could do that for free then that was a huge plus as it was going to be a stretch, to say the least, looking at my finances.

I went to work putting away.  From one foot away from the hole.  For four hours.  Every ten putts I wrote down a number in a small Rhodia notebook.  The plan was pretty simple, I would start from one foot away from the hole and stay there until I reached a specific proficiency, then move out to 3 feet and do the same, then 5, 10, 20, 40 and so on until I had reached a PGA Tour average from all of those distances.  I thought it would take a month or so to go through all of the putting distances, but it ended up being harder than I had imagined.  It only took one day to get to the 1-footers to a 100 percent level, but 3-footers were a different story.  On the first day I attempted 3-foot putts, my percentage made for the day was %63.73.  After a month of doing just this distance, the percentage went up to %84.8 and then after another few weeks I was finally consistently in the %90+ range where I needed to be.  It was the same for 5-footers, although it took more time and the percentage plateaued around %80, which is right at the level I wanted to be.

This pattern continued until I finally got a second club, which was a pitching wedge I started using on August 29, 2010.  I couldn’t get enough!  After rolling the ball for 4.5 months I finally could actually hit the thing off the ground.  It was a good day.  As it was for putting, so it would be for chipping.  I started on the fringe just a few feet off the putting green and learned how to knock the ball onto the green, got to my goal from this distance and then moved back some, slowly working away from the green.   By February 2011 I was starting to “play” some golf from about 30 yards off of putting greens and the goal was to make everything in 3 strokes: hit it on and then two-putt.  Worked at it daily and continued the push away from the hole.  In March I had my first full swing lesson and then started practicing/playing from about 100 yards out.  The entire time, I was still spending the majority of my days working on all of the distances I had already worked through.  The new skill, or distance, I was trying to learn would be what I worked on for the first hour of the day and the rest of the day was reinforcing previously learned parts of the game.

I added clubs slowly through the year and on November 14, 2011 I hit a driver for the first time in my life.  It was a great feeling to have made it to a driver and to celebrate I went down to Bandon Dunes, Oregon to play 36 holes with Freakonomic’s author Steven Levitt.  He’s a good player and we had a blast out there on the Oregon coast.  I shot a 94 on the first course and a 98 on the second, with the driver in the bag for the first time and actually still only having 8 clubs:  driver, 3-hybrid, 6-iron, 8-iron, pitching wedge, 52-degree wedge, 56-degree wedge and putter.  There were only eight clubs because I worked through these with the idea of filling in the rest of the clubs later on as there is not much difference between an 8-iron and a 9-iron or 7-iron.

On December 22, 2011 I finally got a full set of 14 clubs.  Since then, I have been learning what distances each club goes while focussing on my mechanics and always working hard on the short game as that’s the difference between a decent golfer and a great golfer, or so I’ve come to realize recently.  I’ve fallen for the sport completely and it has basically consumed my life.  If I’m not on the course, I’m thinking about the last round I had or whatever swing thought I am trying to build into my swing.

Right now I am approaching the 2,500 hour mark and it has been about 22 months since hitting that first 1-foot putt.  Doing that math, that means I have about 5 years remaining.  The project grows as it ages, and not everything goes as planned, but I’m in it for the long haul and will be writing about my experiences while trying to collect decent data along the way.

It’s always nice to end on a good note, especially when starting off on the wrong foot.

A couple of days ago, I felt like no matter what I did I couldn’t hit the ball on the range.  I spent hours rotating from range to putting green to chipping area and every time I got back to the range nothing seemed to work.  I thought about spending the rest of the day being a ranger Rick (just hitting balls), but then realized that it was more important for me to see how I played in a situation like this: one where I can’t find my groove on the range.  I was interested in how it might affect my game, so I took it to the course.

Long story short, it was a surprising round.  I started off by hitting 6 of the first 7 greens in regulation including a 130-yard approach shot on the first par five hole to within a couple of inches.  And, this one wasn’t just for a GIR but it was less than a foot away from being my first eagle..

Not exactly the most exciting image in the world, but I had to capture it.  I’ll get that illusive eagle one of these days.   For the time being, I’d be happy with a few more birdies per round (and on that note, a few more pars would be nice too).  I knocked this one in to go back to even after a bogey on a par 3 and kept the even score rolling until the 8th hole, which has been my nemesis out at Cartersville Country Club.  I honestly have no clue why, but I seem to always hit a wall on the 8th hole and it was no different this time.  After a pushed drive and a short approach shot, I skulled a chip over the green, chipped on and 2-putted for a double bogey.  Par on the 9th put me at 38 for the side.  Not bad at all and a good start for attempting that first sub-80s round.

The back started ok.  After five holes I was 3 over on the back and 5 over total, then hit a couple of off shots on the 430 yard par-4 15th hole for a double bogey to push it to 7 over by the time I hit 17.  I honestly had not been counting shots or keeping track of exactly where I was, but going into 17 I had a feeling that I was right on the number and I needed a par-par to keep the good round rolling.  Teeing off on 17 I hit it into a bunker, and not just anywhere in the bunker, but right against the front lip which made it really hard to do anything but just get out.  I knocked it out into the middle of the fairway and then got the ball onto the green and two-putted from 19 feet for a bogey.  At this point, I had to look at my score.  I was standing on the tee-box of 18 and tallied up the numbers to realize that I needed a birdie to break 80 for the first time.

The 18th hole is a par 5 that was playing at 525 yards.  I hit a solid drive that drew across the fairway and rolled out a bit.  My second shot was 235 yards to the pin which was on the back of the green and that’s right in my 3-wood range so I let loose with that club in hopes to stick the elevated green.  It was a solid shot, but came down just short of the green, about 5 yards off.  I made a decent chip which left the ball 6 feet from the hole.  All I had to do was knock in a 6-footer and I would have my first 79 registered.  Easy.  Right?  I saw the line and new the speed of the green; just needed to hit the back of the cup.  I let it roll and those 6-feet seemed to last forever..  The ball rolled up and looked like it was going to drop in, just to hit the side of the cup and roll around, completely around, and end up leaning half over the edge defying gravity and all things Newtonian.  I let the ball sit there for about a minute hoping a gust of wind would push it in, but alas, it was not meant to be.

I’ll take an 80 with a smile.  It’s my best round to date and without even thinking about it during the round I nearly broke 80.  It wasn’t one of those rounds where every putt just seems to fall, either.  I had 33 putts in all and most of my first putts were from about 30 feet, so I didn’t give myself many birdie chances, but did hit nine greens in regulation which makes par a lot easier.  Now, just keep grinding on consistency and aim with those approach irons and eventually turn this personal record round into an average round, and hopefully one day a round like this will be seen as an off day.

The lesson learned for me?  It’s one that I have known for a while.  Don’t assume how you perform on the range will translate to your game.  Often I feel like I’m striping the ball on the range just to lose my groove on the course.  Almost just as often, I can’t hit a ball to save my life on the range, but then the swing comes together out on the links.

I meant to write this at the end of 2011, but it rings true every day so a bit late might not be a problem.

Thank you to everyone who supported The Plan in 2011.  I cannot believe how many amazing people reached out to encourage and support The Dan Plan over the past 12 months.  It’s truly a wonderful world we live in where perfect strangers will lend a hand or take time to write a positive email.  Just knowing that there are such great people on this planet is enough for me to continuously push onward.

This is a team effort and everything that is learned through The Dan Plan is, and always will be, public knowledge.  The purpose is to try and figure out what it takes to reach the highest levels so that anyone and everyone who wants to improve in any aspect of life can have a clearer picture of the cycles and phases along the road to success.  It is a learning experience for me and I hope to share that as best as I can.

This is little consolation for the overwhelming kindness that has been put forth over the past year, but is what I have to offer.  I cannot thank you enough.  I just wish that there was more that I could do.  You all deserve the best.

Thank you for the blog comments.  Thank you for the emails.  Thank you for the social media comments.  Thank you for the donations.  Thank you for being such great people.  Thank you for inspiring me every single day.  Thank you for making me smile.

Thank you for making me a better person.

Cheers to a brilliant 2011 and to an unlimited 2012.

Your friend,

Dan

Today, I realized that I actually had no clue how to pitch the ball.

I understand chips, bump-and-runs, bunker shots, and pitches greater than 30 yards, but it dawned on me that I didn’t have a solid understanding of what I need to be feeling in the short pitch shots.  If you don’t know what you are supposed to feel in golf you can get pretty lost on the course, or at least that is my experience.  I’ve found that before I can really start to hit any specific shot well I have to have an internal model of what I need the swing to feel like and I have one for a large variety of shots, but I just haven’t found my short pitch shot yet.

While practicing, I try a number of different things and some have better results than others, but I don’t have my go-to swing feeling picked out yet.  So, in a way, I don’t yet know how to pitch that ball.  Don’t get me wrong, I can get the ball on the green and usually within a one-putt distance from the hole, but it’s more of a “winging it” kind of stroke and far from solidly repeatable.  There is a lot of creativity when it comes to the short game in golf and you can’t have one single robotic swing for any distance, but I think that you need to build on a solid fundamental shot that you comprehend on a muscular level before you can really branch out and let the creativity flow on the course.

I’ve worked on this distance for a long time (Roughly 5-30 yards from the green), so it was a bit frustrating today to realize that I still don’t quite understand the mechanics for the shot.  But, this is exactly why I’m practicing and putting in the hours, to have realizations like this and then go out there and figure it out.  It could be something simple that clicks tomorrow and then I have a pitch in my memory banks, or it could take a year to really sink in.  Regardless, without knowing (and admitting to yourself) what you don’t know you’ll never know how to get better.  I’ve pitched the ball for countless hours, but I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t fully understood exactly what I need to be doing quite yet.

This next week is dedicated to you, Mr. Pitch Shot.

All things considered, I would say I have an average memory.  Usually, I can remember what I was thinking earlier in the day if it was remotely important, but there have been plenty of occasions where an “aha” moment in the morning is completely lost by the evening.  Most of the time it’s not a big deal, but when it comes to thoughts on the golf course I cannot afford to forget what I’ve learned that day.  So, utilizing a bit of technology, I email myself whenever I have a good realization or something that I want to keep in the memory banks down the road.  Then, in the evenings, I write all of those tips down.  There are probably hundreds of ways to make sure you remember something, but this tends to work for me.

Here are some emails I’ve sent myself from practice over the past two weeks:

Keep the wrist flat in the swing.

On pitches, turn shoulders don’t dip them.  Turn shoulders. Turn shoulders.

Unhood the putter and let the face lead striking up on the ball.

Look at the damn ball.  Especially when chipping, but all the time.  Just look at the ball, it’s not hard.

In full swing maintain control in right hand, when that hand slips you push it.  Also, move back some, when you hit inside you push it.

Stay more connected with your left shoulder because that’s how you keep all power connected, when you separate you lose that.

Always get back to square. This should be your mantra.

It’s all ball position with the 3 hybrid.  More back in the stance is push or slice and more forward is draw.  Just slight differences, but it can make a huge shot shape difference.

Don’t break wrists at chips, this is a recurring theme.  A slight hinge is okay, especially when the ball is buried.

Don’t get lazy, hold your right hand grip solid through swing, don’t let the club slip.

If the tee shot or 3-hybrid or any club is going left or screwing up in general, check to make sure my right shoulder isn’t open, close the right shoulder.

In putting, separate hands slightly and control aim of the club with the left hand.

Putt with shoulders and feel the twist in the stomach.

Don’t forget to hit the ball…

Hold the club with consistent pressure in chips and in all swings.

A golf glove isn’t to protect your hand, it’s to allow for a lighter grip in that it acts almost like tape to the grip.  Wear one and you can hold the club with less pressure.

Feel like your hips are moving towards the target during the backswing of pitches.

Trust my eyes don’t line up club face, line up body in putting.

In putting a push is a loose left hand, hold tighter left hand.

Keep the pace with all clubs, it is all internal.

In putting, keep strong tree-like legs, firmly planted in greens so they don’t move.

The full swing is from long to in.  Stretch those arms out then pull them in through the swing.

Those are some examples of the type of thoughts I have during a practice session.  Nothing overly groundbreaking, but subtle aspects of the swing and putt that I want to make sure to internalize for the long run.

Thanks for reading!