shorter backswing = more distance ???

How true. The amount of times I hit shots whereby there are gasps of amazement from my playing partners, to be followed up by a disappointed "oh, thought that would have gone further than that." Looks good but at times completely ineffective...
The other thing I was trying to tell a guy I know, who has only recently started to play was that tour golfers also hit thousands of golf balls a week, as well as having a coach constantly around to watch for things going wrong. Must make a huge difference. I'd like to see one of these virtual reality shows on tv take a totally average golfer and see if they could be made ready for the Euro or PGA tour. Reckon it could be done ? How long would it take, if they played and trained every single day ?