What is this "golf" of which you speak?
Played in the back on a snooker table by old guy's, I think.
What is this "golf" of which you speak?
The Ryder Cup is actually a good comparison. The USA has a Tiger Woods type player in SVB who should be dominant, but for whatever reason seems unfit for the format and has a sub-.500 record. When your #1 doesn't play like a #1, then of course the whole team is going to suffer.
Then years of losing lead to a rot from the top unless there is an infusion of fresh players who can change the negative psychology - just as Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth may be doing with the American team in golf. But as long as that underperforming #1 player is there, the USA is going to have issues, especially when there are only 5 players on each team.
That makes Tiger's team record 9-13-1. Even if you blame half the losses on Tiger's partner and give him all the credit for his wins, which is charitable at best, then he is an okay 9-6-1. Even that misses the point, though, because someone like Tiger should be inspiring his teammates and working to mitigate and overcome their faults, not getting dragged down with them.Tiger has a 13-14-2 record in the Ryder Cup and is 4-1-1 in the singles with the lone loss coming to Molinari in the last match in '12 after the Cup had been decided. He's also been the victim of having several partners that played horribly in the team matches. Tiger has actually performed great in the Ryder Cup, but it gets overlooked because he's been saddled with sh!tty playing partners and the team hasn't done well as a whole.
I've got a final tomorrow that'll take me away from the first two matches. How does my teacher expect me to focus on a final when the fate of the pool world is at stake! Ohh the humanity!
It isn't like the Euros are playing over their heads, and the Americans are playing badly. Nick VDB and Daz are not playing that well. Ouschan is a machine. Boyes is playing very well, and Feijen is playing the way he plays. Shane is playing ok, Skylar and Justin are playing well, and Mike and Corey are succumbing to the pressure.
Pool is starting to mirror golf. For a long time, Americans dominated the PGA. There was the odd European that would come and win, but if you look at the face of golf now, the Euros are starting to produce the top golfers in the world. If you look at their schedule, they compete at least twice as often as the American golfers. They compete at most of the PGA events, as well as European tour events. Steel sharpens steel. You get experience by playing the best players in the world as often as you can.
The fact is, America doesn't support pool as widely and openly as Europe does.
They're going to have win the first 2-3 matches to start a comeback, and they seem to be front-loaded enough to do that. If they manage it though, they'll need Mike and Corey to step their game up and redeem themselves against two tough opponents.
Hoping for a great final day that goes down to the wire!
Win or lose I think next year the Mosconi Cup should be rack your own and the 9 ball doesn't count anywhere on the break !
Why would you ever have rack your own when there is a ref present?
Win or lose I think next year the Mosconi Cup should be rack your own and the 9 ball doesn't count anywhere on the break !
If it goes the distance, I predict we'll see Shane vs Karl* for the Captain's picks, and Karl flukes a 9 double hill.
*I'm assuming a captain can't play the same player twice in a row.
Saku,
I mean that in Europe, pool and snooker for that matter is more widely known and understood. Everyone understands what's going on in a game of snooker, etc. The viewing people in America don't know a thing beyond 8-ball and 9-ball. I tried explaining one pocket to my family and they lost their heads.
Matter of fact, trying to get my dad to understand BIH vs. Kitchen took an entire afternoon. The casual viewer (as I've been enlightened to know actually exists) doesn't know the game past a very small level.