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| Rory McIlroy: |
What an amazing US Open at Congressional Country Club in Washington, DC! Congratulations to Rory McIlroy who ran away with the title and played golf like he was playing a different course than the rest of the field. Whether or not we were watching the next greatest player ever, we were certainly watching some amazing golf and a shattering of US Open scoring records. I can't wait to see what Rory does at The Open Championship in mid July.
My friend Porter Briggs, who is a missionary in Honduras where he runs an orphanage, sent an email in response to my last post on The Dan Plan. In summary, Porter wanted to make these points about Dan's plan to become a professional golfer through putting in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice.
"In the 'nature vs nurture' argument, I actually believe nurture to be far more influential. I've discussed this issue with many people and I call it my "Michael Jordan Argument." The basic point being that if I, Porter Briggs, had had the opportunity to grow up with Jordan, and eat when he ate, practice when he practiced, and done everything exactly as he did, that I still would have NOWHERE NEAR his talent, and the reason being because I was not born with anywhere near the talent that he was. That said, I still think practice is extremely important, and it can be the difference between success and failure, but it can only take us as far as our genetics allow."
It will be interesting to continue to follow Dan and see if his deliberate practice can produce a golf swing as beautiful (or as effective) as Rory McIlroy's!
I thought it would be fun to check back on Dan McLaughlin and his transformation plan from no previous golf experience to golf expert by way of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Dan quit his day job as a commercial photographer on April 5, 2010 and began his journey to see if he could become a professional golfer. He will hit the 10,000 hour mark in November of 2015, with 8,379 more hours to go. Dan's goal is to inspire others to live their dreams and accomplish their goals. He has a full team of support, including a golf coach, a strength coach, a nutritionist, a cinematographer, a marketer, and a web designer. Of interest is that he still has only a putter, pitching wedge and 8-iron and is learning the game from 100 yards and in.
"Individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years." (The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance: Ericsson, Krampe, Tesch-Romer)
