It's been about a year since we checked in with Dan McLaughlin,
the man who, at age 30, decided that despite never having played
a round of golf in his life, he would put in 10,000 hours of
work on his golf game and see if he could compete at the highest
level of the sport. So how's it going for him now, after three
years and 4,200 hours of practice?  "I hit a plateau around
3,800 hours," McLaughlin says. "But the last couple of months,
I've changed coaches, made some shifts in my fundamentals, doing
things that are going to take me to the next level." One big
change: He's spending more time in the gym, getting in shape so
he has more strength and speed in his swing. He's been steadily
shaving down his handicap, from astronomical (when he started),
to 13 (the first time he calculated it, a year and a half ago),
to about 5.5 now. He's also been entering tournaments, trying to
shoot 80 and to learn how to stay relaxed in the heat of
competition.  McLaughlin's still looking for a sponsor, but he's
even more exci