Sweden and Switzerland part 2

The reason that I came on this trip is that a Norwegian TV show wanted to do a story on me so flew me over there instead of flying a producer and camera crew to the states. But, because of the time of year we decided to meet in Gothenburg instead of Oslo as the courses in Oslo are closed for the season already and the weather in late October can be a bit suspect at latitude 60 North. So, Gothenburg it was. And, while going trans-Atlantic it just made sense to route the stops through Zurich so I could see my brother and family. It worked out well, as it usually does when things are planned out. The visit was perfect and the shoot went smoothly.

The shoot was quick, too. I basically just taught the TV host how to hit a golf ball as he had zero experience in the sport (a la Dan 2010) and then told a quick summary of my story to date while we played a couple holes of the St Jörgen Golf Club. I love when these things go well as my journalism background likes to get things correct the first time and be efficient.

Afterwords I had 48 hours to explore and reflect on the trip as well as the past few weeks.

Walking around Gothenburg I was reminded how important it is to have an extremely strong sense of self belief in your vision. I’m not exactly sure why that thought came to mind while exploring the 17th century neighborhood of Haga Nygata, but I suppose when exposed to the countless options of this world it can be easy to have a wandering mind. It’s important to have a bit of that old fashioned tunnel vision to keep the train moving along.

For me it is also important to step back and appreciate everything that my work has accomplished both on and off the course to date. Never would I have imagined that I would get flown to both Australia and Europe in a single year to make an appearance. It’s important for me to relish these experiences as there are a lot of things that have been foregone over the past 4 years in order to get to where I currently am. Short term (or even longer term) sacrifices lead to the long term payout. This is true with just about everything in life, not just one man’s chosen path or his golf game.

So relish I did and I had a great time during the trip. In a way it felt like an end-of-the-summer vacation and seeing as I only golfed a few times and didn’t get much practice in it might as well have been my annual time off. When I returned I felt refreshed and ready to get back at it, too. It took about an hour to warm up the body as 15 hours on a plane does no wonders for your golf game, but once I get the swing back on line I hit some good shots, including birdying my first hole back in the states, which is a great sign of things to come. Of the 9 holes I played I birdied 3 of them and felt good rolling the ball.

Now that I am back and refreshed I am ready to make the next push of the Plan. The first step is to meet with Michael Neff again and get my clubs better fit for my current swing. He texted me while away and said he had it figured out and would tell me in person when we were on a range. We shall meet early this week and I am excited to hear what he has “discovered.” I have no clue, but trust that he knows what he is doing and will set the sticks accordingly.

The next step is to decide which clubs to play with that new configuration. I have been hitting my Titleist set for 20 months and still like them, but have a call with Titleist and two other club manufacturers in the near future (i.e. this week). I have been offered similar deals to what a typical club pro might get (14 clubs, hats, gloves and balls) from three manufactures right now and need to decide whether it makes any sense to try out something new or to stick with what I have. It’s a good problem to have.

On a side note, here is a story from a Swiss newspaper about my time over there:

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The link: http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sport/weitere/Spielt-er-2018-gegen-Tiger-Woods/story/22975901

As you can see, I’m decked out in my Titleist, Vokey and FJ gear. Like the world’s cheapest billboard. I truly appreciate the gear that I have gotten to date and think I have repaid everyone who has sent it in media and social media outreach. Seems to be a fair trade in my opinion.

Perhaps it’s time to start adjusting the tone and approach of the blog in order to expand the reach and truly inspire instead of just telling my own story. The original idea of telling my story seems to be getting stale and I think the more useful information would be to tell the story of what research and findings people across the globe are currently discovering that can help us all improve. I have met a number of these people and think that focussing more on their work, albeit through my training eyes, is a better approach for both myself and every potential blog reader out there. It is time to seriously step back and scrutinize the path this blog has travelled down and figure out where it needs to go for my own sanity and the readers’ sake. I’m not saying that my training or practice will be different, just that I will focus more of this site on human performance in general while entangling it with one person’s expeditions.

At any rate, this wasn’t supposed to be a blog about shifting directions; rather my aim was to talk about the Europe trip and about what comes next, although I suppose the jet lagged mind wanders when wide awake at 4am and what I worry about during those middle-night times is often how to continue funding this expedition. Mountaineers and explorers have similar issues, although once they finally raise funds and set off their concerns shift from funding to survival. I suppose I have a leg up in that respect as it is very unlikely that getting lost or an avalanche will be my demise. Everything has it’s plusses and minuses.

Perhaps that is the point. You can travel the world and see all of the amazing people doing their amazing work stuffs and fantasize about what their lives may be like but at the end of the day you have to trust your heart compass is pointing you in the right direction. Without that faith all is quickly lost.

There are countless ways to get from here to there, just pick one and stick to it. That, in a nutshell, is talent.

And now I shall force upon you a photo slideshow of my 11 days in Europe. You knew it was coming and like the good relatives you are you will do me a kind and take a look. Perhaps pretend you just found this in a thrift store laptop 100 years from now and are trying to create a novel around it about the lives of those involved. Or feel free to skip it.

In a couple more hours the sun will come up, at which point practice is in the equation. For now I will continue the mental process of organizing my goals for the rest of 2014 and then begin to think about the year to come.

7 Responses to "Sweden and Switzerland part 2"

Tommy says:

November 3, 2014 at 11:55 pm

According to USGA Rule 6-2, if you are compensated for promoting or selling anything, you lose your amateur status and would be ineligible to compete in the Oregon Mid-Ams and such. So I guess you need to think about whether you are an amateur or a professional golfer. Sounds like you are headed down the path of being a professional, and maybe that changes the conversations with sponsors. Hopefully somebody more knowledgeable on this topic can comment further.

As for the marketing, how much reach are you really getting with your publicity that would make a company’s marketing department take notice? And what audience is that reach being exposed to? These companies get massive exposure from amateurs who pay out of their own pockets to use and wear the gear, so you really need to make a compelling, quantitative case as to why you can offer more of a return on their dollars.

Your best bet is probably to approach a company like Srixon, Bridgestone, or Lynx that is trying to re-enter or make a bigger splash in the US equipment (not golf ball) market as they may be more open to seeding their branding through a niche presence like yours.

At the very least you could have a series of blog posts reviewing the gear you’ve been using and why you like it. I mean, you’re in Oregon and play virtually every day all year round. You should have been able to do all kinds of all-weather gear reviews with plenty of data on how that gear holds up day in and day out. Zero Restriction? Galvin Green? Sunice? Cross? What gloves work best in the rain and cold? What bags hold up best? What shoes?

This is all just off the top of my head. There should be plenty of opportunities out there for somebody who’s devoted themselves to it, and the fact that you are already 5,000+ hours into it should at least give you some credibility with possible sponsors that you won’t quit at the first bump in the road.
Brian Kuehn says:

November 4, 2014 at 5:19 pm

@Tommy is correct that you need some informed advice about where the lie is drawn between professional and amateur. If you were deemed a professional, that would severely limit your tournament participation.

I understand you did not intend to get on a soap box about the lack of interest by golf organizations in helping you out. Still it came across as whining. At this point there have not been any significant achievements that would earn you the financial support from the golfing community. There are a lot of 3-5 handicappers out there. Until you work your way on to the national stage with your golf skill, you won’t garner much attention except as a human interest story.

Having a game that allows you to compete in the US Amateur and other high profile amateur events will get the attention of potential sponsors for your move into the pro ranks.
Phil Watson says:

November 7, 2014 at 11:54 am

Dan’s comments in no way came off as whining to me. He seems appreciative for the support from manufacturers, but simply noted that he feels that for the small investment they have made in him they are getting good value. In his words, “seems to be a fair trade”.

Keep up the great work Dan.
rick newton says:

November 9, 2014 at 5:05 pm

You Go Dan! you are in uncharted waters, a true Pioneer. No one else has had the idea or commitment to do what you’re doing. You are, indeed, an living advertisement and if manufactures want to supply you with their wares, and they should, all the better for your budget. The challenges (most will never know) you face and the incredible job you’re doing to apply a theory is ‘ground breaking’. Your goal of playing in the PGA is the heart of a professional.when you get paid for making that first Cut then you’re a “Professional” Keep up the good work!
I hope to see you on the golf series “The Big Break” someday. I think that would be Cool.

Hang in there Dan, Perhaps you will be proven in the last hours of you journey when you are rewarded for all of your work and dedication when “it all comes together” . That’s how true winners are made! Keep going and never look back!
rick newton says:

November 9, 2014 at 5:10 pm

Oh, and thanks for the slide show and sharing you efforts with us each time you blog.
Richard Chen says:

November 10, 2014 at 10:02 am

Maybe crowd-funding, although will that forfeit the amateur-status.

Raising funding will probably be easier if scores are usually par or better. A few months ago, you shot a round better than par. There have not been any posting of any repeats of scoring better than par since. Would expect to see beating par a couple of times a week by now, although you did post a few better than par scores for 9-hole rounds recently.

Any numbers from the new radar based golf swing analyzer machine to be posted here? From past blogs of using these radar-based golf swing analyzers, they produce amazing numbers of swing measurements like clubface angle, swing path, clubhead speed, accuracy patterns of shots, etc. Of which, the two key parameters of concern at present are probably clubhead swing path, and clubface angle at impact. It appears clubhead speed is adequate to produce better than par scores, so it should not be a primary factor for now. Irons appear to be good to very good, although there have not been many blogs of rounds. The woods, specially the driver, and also the 3-wood, are probably a road-block to the tour at present.

From the past blogs on using the radar-based golf swing analyzers, these machines give a lot of detail measurements of swing parameters, which can be very useful in pinpointing the areas, which are not up to tour player averages. The book “In Search of the Perfect Swing” wrote that the driver clubface angle of tour players deviate less than two degrees from square at impact on average.

Although the radar-based golf swing analyzers measure deviations of swing parameters that are very useful, the machines do not provide solutions on how to improve on the measurements. This means that besides having the machine measurements, good golf instructors may be needed to help in improving the measured deviations.

Over the weekend, while searching in the storage area for some old security lock hardware, I came across, and found a remaining small stash of my Accu-Golf Swing Analyzers. This analyzer is very good at improving driver clubface angle at impact, as it uses the golf ball itself to display the driver clubface angle, which the ball experiences at the moment of impact from the driver clubface. The clubface angles of the 3-wood, or any other woods and irons can be displayed and measured.

Because the golf ball itself is displaying the impact measurements in this system, the analyzer system provides a visual feedback on how to get the clubface squared at impact. The visual feedback gives an intuitive and instinctive feedback on how the hand-eye coordination should work to get the clubface angle square at impact for the driver, and all other clubs. Good and squared clubface angle at impact is at least half the battle in producing accurate and straight driver shots. For the shorter clubs with more clubface loft, squared clubface angle at impact is almost the deciding factor in producing accurate shots, as clubhead swing path is less and less of a factor for the short clubs, specially as the clubhead swing path is improved.

While the radar based machines are in the tens of thousand dollars, this analyzer cost around ten bucks. It has advantages in measuring and displaying clubface angle at impact, but it cannot directly measure clubhead head swing path, which has to be inferred from observing a full flight of the shot.

If you are interested, a free unit of the analyzer can be mailed to you after you have completed using the current analyzer, and if you still need improvements in controlling the driver clubface angle after giving the current analyzer a period of use. The current analyzer should be given a period of use without having a different analyzer to complicate the matters.
Constantine says:

November 14, 2023 at 9:17 am

It’s been so enlightening rereading this blog from the beginning, and like I’ve said in countless comments in my reread: you did so many things right. Working with Michael Neff is just one example.

However, this post in particular highlights some of the blog’s fatal flaws: forcing an end result and not being aware of the dangers of what you are undertaking. In regards to the latter, you compared the journey to mountaineering, saying it was highly unlikely you were hit by an avalanche, but your back injury — or any serious injury from golf — is golf’s version of that avalanche. You did not properly respect the dangers of this undertaking, how hitting as many balls as you did meant you needed to seriously respect the repetitive stress you were putting on your body. Hell, getting the swing mechanics right and learning how to practice properly are critical for playing golf well, as you well knew, but they’re also critical for not getting injured! Swinging correctly is easier on the body than swinging incorrectly is. Learning to practice properly was just as important to staying healthy as it was to hitting the ball better. The back injury IMO was a sign that the practice routine you used and developed was fatally flawed. This was the very core of the Plan itself.

Secondly, you keep trying to force a result of this project, namely inspiring people over what’s possible. That’s like a scientist trying to influence the result of his experiment. It should’ve been more about acknowledging how borderline impossible this entire thing was, but you were going to work as optimally as possible to see what could be accomplished. You know full well most individuals cannot make the PGA Tour after a certain age. They’re too old, weak, tight, etc. Your window at age 30 was just barely still cracked open, but anyone older and weaker than you had zero shot. Forcing some narrative that anything is possible was flawed from the beginning, and that needed to be changed as you became more and more knowledgeable about the game of golf itself*. At some point, you should’ve taken what you had learned and told people, hey, this isn’t possible for everybody, but you CAN improve if you work hard and smart.

And hey, there probably is someone out there who can pick the game up at 30 and make a single tour start. Money, luck**, plus health/fitness play a huge role here in getting there once you cross into adulthood, but it’s probably possible there are people out there who could do it.

* An example of spending some time rerouting your plan could’ve been writing in great detail about how you think starting the game of golf should work. You know you should’ve been getting driver lessons much earlier in the journey and that the time you spent one foot putting was a waste.

I love the idea of making a beginner learn putting and short game first though because golf is so overwhelming. Putting and short game practice is also relatively easy on the body and can be practiced safely.

** Luck in this regard would be finding the right golf instructors early and often in the journey. It’s massively critical to get the fix to a swing flaw as soon as possible, and I’m sure if you had a million people do their own Dan Plan, a few would be lucky and find the right instruction early on. Luck could also be something like just staying healthy as well.

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