guest blog 2
This one comes from Ross Ligget, Sales and Marketing Director for Heron Lakes (the course where I spend 90 percent of my time). Ross has seen the progress of The Dan Plan since around day one:
Failing for Success
Bobby Jones famously quoted “Golf is a game that is played on a five inch course…the distance between your ears”. Mr. Jones’ intent was to illustrate that a great golf game requires more than a mechanically perfect swing (in fact you don’t even need a perfect mechanical swing - ala Jim Furyk). To be great at golf you need mental toughness.
The Dan Plan is an experiment in physical potential. In 10,000 hours can you build a perfect swing? I believe the answer to that question is undoubtedly yes. But the game of Golf is not about the perfect swing.
There is no doubt in my mind that Dan and his team will construct a tour-quality golf swing. So my pertinent question for Dan and his team is this: In 10,000 hours can Dan compile the mental toughness required to shoot great rounds, and then apply that knowledge to shoot great tournament rounds? Can Dan become mentally tough enough to not only have a great swing, but a great game?
Believe me, Dan is mentally tough. Time after time this winter I watched from my office window at Heron Lakes Golf Club in Portland, Oregon – steaming coffee in my hand – as Dan knocked in three-footers for 6 hours in the driving Pacific Northwest rain. But does that toughness transfer into knocking in a 3 footer to break 80? To break 70? To win the match? To qualify for Q-School?
Ask any tour Pro and they will tell you, in order to gain mental toughness they needed to fail. With each failure they moved closer to their goal. With each failure they became tournament tested. Mentally tough.
So this means we all owe it to Dan to beat him. Beat him in a putting contest. Beat him from 100 yards. Beat him for 9 holes. Beat him for 18 holes. Eventually he will start to compete with us. Eventually he will get in position to win, and then will fail. With that failure he will gain the type of mental toughness needed to be a great golfer.
Eventually, Dan will learn how to win, and that will be a far more important milestone than knocking in the 25th straight 3-footer during that February rainstorm when I was too busy filling out Month-End reports to take him to school on the putting green at Heron Lakes. In the end, at hour 9,999, the proof will be in the pudding.