A Year to be Professional Golfer?

In the past, I’ve wondered (outloud to some friends) how difficult it would be to become a professional golfer. Before I dive in, I’ll throw some assumptions (and my golf pedigree) out there.

money is available, but in limited quantities / access to a golf course and practice facility / access to exercise facility / golf equipment is current technology / weather would allow year-round golf / I’ve played golf since I was 5 / My handicap as of September 2008 is 1.4 / I played golf in high school, but not in college

Before I tick-off the professional golfers who are serving their time on the mini-tours and struggling to get by, I’m not saying I can or ever would be able to compete on the professional level. (As an aside, I know many struggling professional golfers who are great players; with the way I currently play, there is absolutely NO WAY I can compete with them, they are that much better). I’m just asking the question, how close could I come to that competition if I took a year off and completely focused on my game?

There’s been a few attempts from people to do similar things. ESPN featured Kathryn Bertine on a two-year quest to make the Olympics (spoiler: she failed).

This also brings up something I’ve been meaning to take a closer look at: deliberate practice and the 10,000 hour rule. While I won’t dive into what these both are right now, expect to read more about these ideas.

[Deliberate practice] is activity designed specifically to improve performance, often with a teacher’s help; it can be repeated a lot; feedback on results is continuously available; it’s highly demanding mentally, whether the activity is purely intellectual, such as chess or business-related activities, or heavily physical, such as sports; and it isn’t much fun.

…

Gladwell repeatedly mentions the “10,000-Hour Rule”, claiming that the key to success in any field is simply a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of 10,000 hours.

I don’t know if this is possible, but it’s fun to think about. Like I said I know plenty of guys who are struggling on the mini-tours and can mop the floor with me on the course, so I’m highly hesitant to say it’s possible. Thoughts?

Tags: deliberate practice, golf, malcolm gladwell, my ideas, sports

A Year to be Professional Golfer? was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 16:38 and is filed in Curation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Tim Walker

In general, I doubt that a year is enough time. But if you *were* going to do it, it's not enough to practice all the time. As you know if you've been reading Geoff Colvin et al., you have to practice the right *way*.

A great book to help you think further about this is The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. He really lays out what's involved as your brain improves its wiring in support of the work you're doing -- but he does it with a flair for telling interesting stories.

Whatever you decide . . . good luck!

Anonymous

I've had The Talent Code on my "to read" list for a little while now, but haven't gotten to it...although now I will likely move it to the top of the list. I just watched this Charlie Rose interview with Geoff Colvin (http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9856) and found that pretty interesting.

Thanks for the information.