An early winter

It’s been about 10 days since I had a decent practice session.  Over that time I have played a few rounds, three to be exact, but have not been able to really get in quality time working on any specific aspects of my game.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as there have been a lot of considerations to occupy my time, but the weather hit hard early this year and with 50-60mph winds over a few days and then temperatures in the upper 20s to low 30s keeping courses closed it’s been a surprisingly early winter weather pattern keeping distance between progress and myself.

Over the same period a reporter, Michael Kruse who wrote the first ever piece on The Dan Plan: this one, came out to shadow me for a SW Airlines magazine piece.  He walked along as I played two rounds and we caught up on all things life and golf this past weekend.  It’s always interesting to see people after long breaks as I get to peer into their lives to note all of their big transformations and they see how my game has changed as well as any potential perspective changes that come with time.  Years ago when Michael and I hung out it was in St. Pete, FL and I had just three golf clubs.  A lot has changed in my game.  With him, he got married and now has a 4-month-old baby.  Lots of changes.

Life comes at us every day and there are always things to consider and to account for.  For me, I have been thinking lately about how to realistically keep this journey moving forward.  There are a lot of options out there and I just need to figure out what makes the most sense.  Seeing as the weather has been inclement at best, this is the time for such pondering.  Even today Riverside has 18 temporary greens and the putting and chipping greens are closed as is the pitching area and the range is frozen balls off of mats, so not realistically worth putting much time in.  Portland thaws out starting tomorrow and will be back to normal, which is one of the great things about this city for golf; it really only shuts down for a few days a year, this time just happened to be freakishly early.

Today I started a process of looking for part time work.  For ages I’ve been thinking about how to gain sponsorship for the project so that I can solely focussing on practice, but the longer I get into the 10,000 hours the less likely that becomes, as Steven Levitt told me a couple of years ago.  From his point of view the longer I went unsponsored the less likely I would find a sponsor because the focus of the story transitions from the journey to outcomes.  At this point I need to win a tournament of some repute in order to gain credibility in the golfing world.  While that is definitely something that can and will happen, I do not currently have the funds to enter a series of these events which is a somewhat self-defeating cycle.

So, in order to continue my practice, a bit of side work will most likely be beneficial to the overall success.  Ideally I will find some marketing or research freelance work that will take 10-20 hours a week, we shall see and I am up for whatever it takes to keep the train rolling.  I write this to you not to lament something passing, but to remain open about my current situation.  When I began this journey I thought it would take 4-5 years.  Now that I am 4.5 years in and there are still about 3.5-4 remaining the only thing that hasn’t changed is my initial savings. With that in mind I do not think it harsh or negative to assess my current direction.  Over the past polar week I have had time for self-analysis and realizations.

I love what I do and will continue it however possible; it’s just time for some small changes to alleviate specific stresses and allow for a more wholehearted pursuit during the time where that is the focus.  Things don’t always work out exactly as planned, but if we are willing to be flexible along the way the potential for success exponentially increases.

With that all off my chest, next time I will write about the recent club fitting I did with Michael Neff last Friday and the specifics for what my next set may look like.  I’m super excited to try out the adjustments he recommends and to break in some new sticks while working on the game and getting ready for a more productive tourney season in 2015.

Sorry for the long delay between these last two blogs, there was just a lot to consider and I wasn’t sure what to write about for a week or so there.

Back at it and ready to return to the course now.  The thoughts have been processed and I know now what I need to do to be able to continue this journey.  Now I just need to figure out exactly how to pull that off and what it looks like.  Hopefully these things will thaw out in a day or two:

photo-2

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