The verdict is in

The GM of CECC, Bryan, emailed me this morning and asked me to come in for a meeting this afternoon. The board had convened on June 27 and one of the items of discussion was whether or not to continue a courtesy membership they had offered me over the past two years.

After reading the GM’s email I was excited, as I thought that the vote had been positive and that they wanted to discuss some details of our new arrangement moving forward. I had provided the board a list of ways in which the project could potentially benefit the club and figured we were going to go over that list and discuss the details of when and how I could utilize the facilities for practice purposes and what concrete items they would like to see in return. At worse, I figured, I would be able to use the range and short course area a few days a week.

I arrived a little early and the GM and I waited around for a couple of people who were going to attend the meeting to discuss the news. It was the first time that I had been back to the club since the end of May and returning felt stranger than I expected. I wandered around the halls for a bit and it wasn’t unlike returning to a campus that you had graduated from the previous year; everything was still there in it’s right place and the general tenor remained, but the intimate familiarity of the place had quickly changed from a second home to a guest in a foreign land. I didn’t see any of the people I used to run around the course with nor did I even recognize the employees I ran into during this 30 minute visit. Surely the place couldn’t have changed at all in just 30 days, but perhaps the lack of familiarity was a self-defense mechanism preparing me for the worst of news. No matter, what was so recently my daily routine now felt like the waking memory of an early night’s dream.

After a few minutes we couldn’t get in touch with anyone else so I just asked him to tell me the news. “Lay it on me Bryan,” says I. He looked at me with disappointed eyes. I could tell that he cared and was sorry to be the one that had to relay the message. “The board has decided to not continue our relationship,” he tells me. I ask him why he had me come in to tell me that, why he didn’t just call me this morning and he replies that because of the relationship that CECC and The Dan Plan have had over the past two years he wanted me to find out in person. I told him that I appreciated the gesture and that I was sorry we couldn’t make it continue to work for the next year.

I understand why CECC made the decision and have nothing but appreciation for them letting me utilize the golf facilities for the past two years. It was an amazing run and I learned a ton during my tenure there and hope that I was able to return to the members what they provided for me. There are some wonderful people who are members of the club and I wish them all continued success and hope that membership makes it to capacity and stays there for years to come. I recommend CECC to any serious golfers who want a challenging course, wonderful practice facilities and good competitive play.

I will miss it out there. Thank you to the staff for being so supportive and just plain awesome. It has been a pleasure to get to know all of you and I hope that we cross paths countless times down the road. Even you Chris Meyer (inside joke, he’s a great guy). The vast majority of members were kind, intelligent and good golfers. There were only a handful of bad apples at the club which is pretty impressive considering how many members there are.

Anyone interested in checking out CECC should go to the Safeway Classic coming up in August. I’ll be out there watching the LPGA play and would love to give some walking tours on the grounds during the weekend.

Over the past month I have come to realize how important it is to have a consistent practice home. It has been hard in June to figure out, on a daily basis, where to work on specific aspects of the game and when looking at the number of hours practiced, this month has been much less than many of the previous months due to not having that consistency. Now that I have a concrete answer from CECC I must figure out what the next steps are and what the future of The Dan Plan looks like. It simply can’t be running around to different courses every day as I can neither afford that nor does it translate into the type of stable practice that is needed for success.

It’s time for me to start exploring the golfing options around town. I’m going to begin this asap as I have a lot to work on and would like to find a new golfing home to get that work started.

CECC, thank you again. You were wonderful to me. Please know that it wasn’t you, it was me that changed. You’re going to find a new Dan Plan and thrive with that person. Things change and people grow apart, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t always going to be in my heart. I wish you the best of luck; and who knows, maybe one day we’ll be together again. In the meantime, don’t be afraid to venture out and explore this big world of ours, you’ll find the perfect Dan Plan for you.

All joking aside, it does feel a bit like I got dumped today, but these things happen and we’ve all been on both sides of the stick. The past two years were amazing as will the next two and the two after that. Keep doing what you do CECC and stay true to golf. You are a wonderful place and I will always remember you as my first; the one that taught me what it meant to be a golfer.

PS. The Oregonian is running a story in the Sunday issue tomorrow. Here is a link to some photos the awesome photog shot: http://photos.oregonlive.com/photo-essay/2013/06/dan_mclaughlin_hopes_to_show_p.html#incart_river

and to the story: http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2013/06/the_drive_to_succeed.html#/0

16 Responses to "The verdict is in"

Chris Villasenor says:

June 29, 2013 at 10:51 pm

Just a small bump in the long road of “the plan.” I know you’ll find a way to continue forward. Still rooting for you!
Jimmy says:

June 29, 2013 at 11:34 pm

We all know the Dan plan is dead right? Dan don’t delete this let people including yourself say why its alive and well?!
Brett says:

June 30, 2013 at 2:04 am

So what was the reason they decided not to renew your membership?
Nick Chertock says:

June 30, 2013 at 7:12 am

You’ll get to know every public facility in the area now, particularly their short game areas, since that’s going to be your opportunity to practice for free. I would also recommend high school football fields for wedge and short iron practice. The goalposts make great targets!
Half Life of Swing Thoughts says:

June 30, 2013 at 9:32 am

Nick, this is hell on mowers and/or kid’s ankles. You always leave a couple out there with long wedge practicing. Not sure this is a good idea.
SeattleGolfer says:

June 30, 2013 at 9:54 am

What fools CEEC is. I would never, ever play there let alone want to be a member at a place that is so selfish and short-sighted.
Half Life of Swing Thoughts says:

June 30, 2013 at 10:06 am

Actually Columbia Edgewater comped Dan a free membership for what 2 years? They didnt have to do that. I dont know how that could be considered selfish. In fact i think they should be commended for giving this a chance. That it didn’t work out long term is not the fault of CEEC. They are not a charity. They have to make money. As far as i know the Dan Plan was not contractually bound to only have his membership through CEEC and is welcome to be a member anywhere else. Likewise the CEEC could renew or not renew any membership, no obligation. I think they were more than generous.
TruthHurts says:

June 30, 2013 at 10:58 am

fools why? they let dan play there for free for two years… hes not getting better, hes becoming a joke to the club, he hasn’t broken 80 in a tournament yet… come on they were more than fair, the DP is over… sadly I might add but the truth hurts
Charlie says:

June 30, 2013 at 1:41 pm

That’s rough break, Dan. I’d be curious to know what changed their thinking, but I don’t expect they’ll tell you. Here’s hoping the decision reveals an opportunity, and it motivates you to come back someday and win a member-guest tournament. You probably know the course better than anyone who ever lived.
Josh from Australia says:

June 30, 2013 at 5:40 pm

Rough break dan, as a member of a club myself it seems pretty cruel for them to have voted to not provide a membership. But thinking about it could cause you to waste more time – it really must feel like a breakup. Tough break. From “Every Shot Must have a Purpose” the best tip was to only worry or be unhappy about things you can control. This was not one of those things

I read the article in the Oregonian, and i think you are right about the vocal knockers trying to tell you that you cant do it. I hope and want you to succeed with every scrap in my body.Hit em straight (espeically off the tee – has your driver problem sorted itself out yet?)
Simon Schmid says:

July 1, 2013 at 4:32 am

Aww, man, i’m sorry, Dan. Here’s a hug!
Seriously, it seems short-sighted to not support and promote you, which might get them a lot of public attention. With you getting one news article after the other, maybe someday everyone would know they supported you. Oh well, look ahead, there are more beauties out there!
Rusty Huntingknife says:

July 1, 2013 at 12:01 pm

Hi Dan, I don’t know if ur gunna get this, and it might be a bit long winded and uninteresting to the rest of the crowd but i spent many years in pursuit of a career in golf as a head pro. and after some years of practice all day (like real danplan kinda practice) and re-hashing all night i got burned out and quit. I took 4 years off from golf, although i wasn’t playing there was still a small burning love inside and I never really quit thinking about it, what i did right and what i totally sucked at from a playing stand point. Now 4 years later i’m back at it and better than ever because of that time i had to reflect on my own game. Im a thousand times more calm after a miss and my sing is even more fundamentally sound because i had so much time to reflect. This 10.000 hour business is fascinating and extremely worth while research, but this whole time iv been almost a bit worried for your sake that with all the robotic like practice there would be little time for serious philosophical thought as to your golf swing and how it really works in general and how it really works for you. I think that part of swing coaching/practice is well overlooked. I guess I’m trying to encourage you to stay with this, you’ve got 10′s of thousands of ppl cheering for you and everyone who isn’t cheering for you just wishes they had the stones to do this themselves. I just know something even better is going to come along and I just know this is all going to work out. What your doing is far more relevant research than some billion dollar a year manufacturer sticking a 350 dollar shaft in a robot and then feeding us all some number to 3 decimal places. we can actually relate to you. so you hang in there! we all love and support you and what you are doing here bud. So you taker easy, maybe have a couple a’ cold ones today and just let your swing thoughts marinate in the ol’ slow cooker between the ears. don’t give up bud!!!!! much love from Canada on this Canada day!!! don’t give up, don’t you ever give up.
Richard Chen says:

July 1, 2013 at 2:36 pm

There may be a silver lining of freeing up more time to work on better visualizing power than just beating balls on the practice range. Training the brain to be able to completely visualized the positions and orientations of the clubface, clubhead, club shaft, leading hand, leading arm, trailing hand, hips, leading leg, leading foot, trailing leg, and trailing foot throughout the back and down swings will elevate the mental powers up to the level of the well developed golfing muscles, giving both high muscle power, and high mental visualization power to control the well developed muscles to provide consistently powerful and accurate swings.

For example, when doing the Hogan slow motion swinging back and forth drill, the slow motion back or down swings can be stopped at random points, and the brain has to answer questions like which way is the clubface pointing, where is the clubhead, how is the club shaft leaning, direction the back of the leading hand, etc.? Then, the eyes actually look at the clubface, clubhead, club shaft, hands, arms, etc. to verify if the brain has gotten the visualization right.

Overtime, a kind of image forming simulator is built in the brain, that images and tracks the movements and positions of the clubface, clubhead, club shaft, hands, arms, shoulders, body, hips, legs, and feet precisely, automatically, instinctively, and semi-consciously during the backswing, downswing, and even the followthrough.. This will enable the brain to instinctively control the swing with a great deal of precision and effectiveness.
Curt O'Brien says:

July 1, 2013 at 2:43 pm

It’s just a small bump in the road on a list of a lot of challenging obstacles to overcome. It will make you stronger. You’ll be better off and probably find a new, better place to practice. Onward!
Mike says:

July 1, 2013 at 6:04 pm

Keep your head up Dan-
Martin says:

July 2, 2013 at 2:01 am

There once was a lad who wanted to play golf but all he had was the head of a 3 iron, no shaft, no balls and no course to practice on. He made a shaft from a stick and used pebbles as balls. He practiced on the beach.

His name was Seve!

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