An old pool room debate at LeCue

An old pool room debate at LeCue

I say golf for me. I just finished a round btw and boy do I stink. 5 years in and still between 95-105. MUCH harder than I thought it would be!

LSJohn said:

Since you didn't play golf long I'll mention some stuff you probably don't know.

"I shot 88" is kinda like saying, "I won five games of one pocket in a row." In other words, "On what course?" would be as important as "Against whom" in 1P.

I shot 65 a couple of times on a pretty easy par 70, and I've had trouble breaking 90 on a couple of courses set up for a PGA tour event.

Most of the people who routinely shoot in the high 80s on their home course would have trouble breaking 100 on some PGA tour courses, 110 on others, and 120 on courses set up for the US OPEN.

The guys I gambled with would lose all their money shooting 88 on the course where I shot 65, and win all the money on a PGA Tour course.

A "shortstop" in golf would average mid-70s on most country club courses, and most of those courses are more difficult than most public courses.

Talking about "hard to master" as Jeff phrased it initially (which is a little different question than becoming top 10 in the world because of the much larger number of people trying in golf) I'd say that if you put a golf club in the hands of one typical 16-year-old and a pool cue in the hands of another, they'd have about an equal chance to "master" their game... One in a thousand? too close to call, IMO.

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You nailed it well. Mid 70's is a shortstop, actually par. My buddy was a club pro, minus 2 handicap...but could not even think about the tour, let alone top 10. Pool is what it is and should not be compared to anything else. 1P is the most difficult game, maybe 3C the hardest consistent shots. However, that is more of a query as I know nothing about 3C, and need help in 1P.

phil dade said:

You nailed it well. Mid 70's is a shortstop, actually par. My buddy was a club pro, minus 2 handicap...but could not even think about the tour, let alone top 10. Pool is what it is and should not be compared to anything else. 1P is the most difficult game, maybe 3C the hardest consistent shots. However, that is more of a query as I know nothing about 3C, and need help in 1P.

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I think you're saying that a shortstop is around par rather than mid-70s. My thinking is mid-70s will be the best player at a lot of clubs, but again, course difficulty has a lot to do with the strength of any score.

LSJohn said:

I think you're saying that a shortstop is around par rather than mid-70s. My thinking is mid-70s will be the best player at a lot of clubs, but again, course difficulty has a lot to do with the strength of any score.

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Actually I was not disputing or trying to alter anything you said. I pretty much agree with what you said, 72-75 doesn't matter. Neither is top 10. The arguement at LeCue was top 10 and par will not get you on tour or junior tour whatever it is called these days.

pool is the harder game

pool is the harder game

Jeez, they give you five tries to get the ball in the hole! In pool you only get one !!

TomRoden said:

Jeez, they give you five tries to get the ball in the hole! In pool you only get one !!

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:lol :lol :lol

Jeez they give you 5 tries,

Jeez they give you 5 tries,

Yeah but you don't have to shoot your 1 shot from 8 tables over.

Pasture Pool

Pasture Pool

There are quite a few players out there who are excellent at golf and pool. I've personally known a few. They would have an informed answer to the question. One who comes to mind was a grand champion at pool including One Pocket and also the club pro at a private golf course near where I live. In his prime he was a top 10er in pool but probably not golf. I don't think he'd mind his name being mentioned but I could see some slim possibility of it knocking him out of a golf score sometime so I won't.

Another who lived around here was a jam up pool player and also played on the pro golf tour, with not much success. Neither sport got him, it was a stroke during a poker game (that I had nothing to do with).

The two sports do seem to have much in common. Golf didn't pick up its other name 'Pasture Pool' by accident.

golf... and reminder to those that do golf...wear 2 pair of pants......







in case you get a hole in one

RedCard said:

There are quite a few players out there who are excellent at golf and pool. I've personally known a few. They would have an informed answer to the question. One who comes to mind was a grand champion at pool including One Pocket and also the club pro at a private golf course near where I live. In his prime he was a top 10er in pool but probably not golf. I don't think he'd mind his name being mentioned but I could see some slim possibility of it knocking him out of a golf score sometime so I won't.

Another who lived around here was a jam up pool player and also played on the pro golf tour, with not much success. Neither sport got him, it was a stroke during a poker game (that I had nothing to do with).

The two sports do seem to have much in common. Golf didn't pick up its other name 'Pasture Pool' by accident.

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Somewhat along these lines, I think almost all good golfers will have quite a bit of natural ability at pool, but not the other way around.

If I ever see Charles Barkley playin' pool, I'm gonna bet against him sight unseen. .

one pocket guy said:

Yeah but you don't have to shoot your 1 shot from 8 tables over.

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OK, you earned a :lol :lol :lol too.

the toughest game to master

the toughest game to master

i don t think its even close
both are brutal games....
but they are 300 million golfers in the world and only 130 of them get to keep their card...let alone be in the top 10.....

champagne said:

i don t think its even close
both are brutal games....
but they are 300 million golfers in the world and only 130 of them get to keep their card...let alone be in the top 10.....

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Before Arny there were maybe 200 starving pro golfers!

After Tiger there are 2000 playing on 4 different tours & no starving pro golfers!

Golf was an easy sell to tv once they had a hero and a villain, ( Arny vs. Jack )
It was a squeaky clean sport played on pristine pastures, associated with the upper class.

Television and sponsors with huge advertisement budgets brought the money,
and the money brought the players to golf.

Tiger took it to the next level, he was the perfect hero, it was him against the field every time he played. He, along with Arny and Jack, made purses what they are today.

On the other hand we have pool, a game associated with gambling and generally a lower class of people, ( public image, not mine! ) which no tv executive would touch with a ten foot pole, let alone any major sponsorship $$.
The best pool could ever hope for was a major beer producer jumping on board.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why there are more people striving to play pro golf, IMO it does answer the question about which is the hardest to make top 10, due strictly to the sheer #'s associated with golf. However IMO, it's still very debatable which game is the hardest to master!

Taylor reigned as the best for what, 30 years?
Ronnie was the best for roughly the next 20 years.
Efren held the crown for 30 or so, still might be!

Was there ever a golfer that held on for 30 years?
Arny? No
Jack? No
Tiger? No

Kinda makes you wonder, which really is the toughest to master!

gulfportdoc said:

To make it into the top ten? I'm not sure that one-pocket would even be in the top ten of difficulty.

Golf would win this comparison, hands down. There are hundreds of thousands of good golfers in the world. There are truck loads of money in golf; and to even scratch the surface is brutal. Are there even a thousand good 1P players?

~Doc

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Just in Fremont, California.:heh:heh:heh

I'm not sure why we chose One Pocket over Golf as being the toughest and not Pool in general. Maybe I'm misreading the intro to this thread. This debate has gone on for years in pool rooms everywhere. It goes on in my pool room all the time. I can say that in pool you start your inning where your opponent leaves you and in golf you start your inning where you leave yourself. Aside from the physicality, and I believe pool is just as physically taxing, golf may be a bit more difficult. However after a few hours of golf you are done. Sometimes great pool matches last many hours and even days. So you tell me which is tougher?

jerry matchin said:

I'm not sure why we chose One Pocket over Golf as being the toughest and not Pool in general. Maybe I'm misreading the intro to this thread. This debate has gone on for years in pool rooms everywhere. It goes on in my pool room all the time. I can say that in pool you start your inning where your opponent leaves you and in golf you start your inning where you leave yourself. Aside from the physicality, and I believe pool is just as physically taxing, golf may be a bit more difficult. However after a few hours of golf you are done. Sometimes great pool matches last many hours and even days. So you tell me which is tougher?

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I believe both are very difficult to play on even a decent level, say legitimately break 85 on almost any 6500 yard course, and run a rack of 9 ball, or 8 and out playing one pocket. It takes a fair hand at golf to break 85 for real, playing the ball as it lies and not using the occasional mulligan, I.e., playing by golf's rules.

It also takes a pretty good pool player to run out in either 9 ball or one pocket.
I'm not sure about the exact comparisons I have used here, but the point remains, in order to consistently perform either one of these in either sport is something that most people will never accomplish, no matter how hard they try or how much they practice.

Both are tough! I believe both sports require somewhat similar mentality, both require a lot of natural ability, both demand physical strengths, and both require an abundance of desire and passion just to make it to a mediocre classification.

Taking either sport to the elite level requires all of the above, only tenfold!
Its akin to making it to the major league in baseball and winning the Cy Young Award or the Leagues MVP Award. It only happens to a few people, and they are amazingly gifted & talented individuals.

I truly don't know which is tougher, both are really really hard to climb to the top.

P.S. You're right Jerry, it used to be just pool in general against golf in general. I just made it one pocket for the benefit of this forum. Tried to make it fit, prolly shoulda left it alone.

Jeff sparks said:

legitimately break 85 on almost any 6500 yard course, and run a rack of 9 ball, or 8 and out playing one pocket.

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Good comparison/relationship, and one that interests me more than "top ten in the world."

The difference would occur with increasing frequency ; 85 1-time-out-of-ten and run out 1-time-out-of-ten are comparable, but at 9-times-out-of-ten they are vastly different... lots of people can break 85 90% of the time but no one can run out 90% of the time.