Updating

There’s a great video on the landing page right now that helps sum up the experiences of The Dan Plan over the first 2,500 hours of the project.  I am honestly shocked that it has been one quarter of the 10,000 hours already, but at the same time I feel like I’m in the right place for the number of hours that have passed.  I’m not in the business of making predictions, but I will say that if I’m not a scratch golfer by 5,000 hours I will be disappointed.  That said, anything is possible and the only thing I can do is put in the work and play shot by shot.

In next week’s episodes we’re getting back to work and will be back on the range/course.

Sometimes no news is good news.  Over the past week I have been working hard on getting the swing on plane, keeping my head behind the ball at impact, having a strong, solid pivot and letting it fly.  I have come out of a slump that lasted about two weeks, where I was making large changes in my swing, and have started to go back out and have confidence at the onset of each hole.

Mondays have become my “play golf” day where I go and play 18 for score to see where my game is at.  This Monday I shot an 85, but was playing like I could have easily shot in the mid 70s.  The driver was on and I was hitting solid approach shots (although the 25 mph gusts were knocking ‘em down short or giving them enough spin to roll off the back of the greens), but gave up a couple in the water and 3-putted 3 times, which is totally unacceptable but something that happens when you have a bunch of 60 foot double break putts.

Now, I know what I need to do and it’s not anything new.  First and foremost, I need to get my chips closer to the hole.  Second: play smarter.  If there’s a hazard down the right side and my drives have been going right, hit the 3-wood as you don’t lose much distance and you can keep it in play.  Third: continue to work on hitting crispy irons; I had a few thin/fat shots that either came up 10 yards short or long of the green.  Fourth: Keep on grinding, it’s all going in the right direction, just need to keep the train rolling.

I only have one more month in Atlanta and I want to take advantage of the great weather while I can.  Also, now that I have my first tournament in sight I have something to work towards.  I am going to play the Oregon Golf Association event at Pumpkin Ridge on April 21.  It’s going to be awesome and I’m already excited about the experience.  I’m starting to adjust my mindset from practice to competition and each minute of practice is working towards this new goal.  Along with that, not only am I practicing mechanics and course strategy, but am putting extra emphasis on staying focussed during rounds.

Nick Faldo said that controlling his walking pace on the course helped control his tempo, pace of play and nerves.  I’ve noticed that when I hit a poor shot my pace speeds up and that causes me to hit another poor shot, which speeds up pace, etc…  For the next month, I focus on playing with the same speed regardless of the quality of the previous shot.  Will let you know how that goes.