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CAN A BEGINNING GOLFER REALLY MAKE THE PGA TOUR WITH 10,000 HOURS OF PRACTICE?


At the time of this writing


McLaughlin was more than 4,500 hours into his quest and rarely breaking 80; after hitting zero fairways in a couple of re- cent rounds he was embarking on a couple of swing changes. At his current pace McLaugh- lin will run out of time around December 2016. It’s quite pos- sible he’ll be a scratch golfer by then, which is a great accom- plishment. But how far is that from making it through Q-School? “Light-years,” says PGA


Tour veteran Jonas Blixt. But wherever McLaughlin


winds up, his noble pursuit is of interest because it raises larger questions about nature vs. nur- ture, inherent talent vs. learned behavior and the ephemeral— even mystical—nature of the competitive spirit. McLaughlin has been deeply influenced by the work of K. Anders Ericsson, a Swedish psychologist and researcher whose ideas perme- ate two influential best-sellers: Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” and Geoff Colvin’s “Talent Is Overrated.” The title of the latter is what gives the Dans of the world hope: according to Ericsson’s research, inherent ability is less important than the will to improve, and virtu- ally any skill can be mastered with 10,000 hours of “deliber- ate” practice. But every golfer knows that our pursuit is much different than most. Chess, for instance, is entirely mental, while ice


Elite athlete Michael Jordan devoted countless hours to golf but was never able to achieve a standard anywhere near even a struggling Tour player.


skating is mostly physical, on a playing field that never really changes. What makes golf such exquisite torture is that it tests the body and the mind equally, and that no two shots are ever identical. You can spend a lifetime hitting balls off of a flat Astroturf mat at the range, but that teaches you nothing about how to execute a shot from a downhill, sidehill stance with an iffy lie in the rough to a hole location on the front edge of an elevated green into a quartering wind. Some of golf ’s leading experts can’t even agree on the fundamental nature of the challenge. “I always say golf is 90


David Leadbetter, the brand-name swing coach, believes that physical tools are what separate good players from the best of the best.


percent mental and 10 per- cent mental,” says Dr. Joseph Parent, author of “Zen Golf ” and “How To Make Every Putt” and the mental guru to Vijay Singh and Cristie Kerr when each reached No. 1 in the world ranking. Parent has been following McLaughlin’s progress; he lauds him for choosing an astute swing coach (Bruce Furman) and working with a trainer and chiropractor, but is dismayed that he chose only a little-known “goal guru” for the work between his ears. Says Parent, “If the stated goal is to make it on Tour, doesn’t it make sense to work with a mental coach who has worked with Tour players and under- stands their mentality? It is the mental work that will ultimate- ly determine how far he goes.” David Leadbetter, the


FALL 2013 / NCGA.ORG / 27


PHOTO: AP


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