Golf makes pool seem like Childs play.

CaptainJR

Shiver me timbers.
Silver Member
I thought that title might get your attention!

I thought it might be fun to discuss and compare the two. I don't think a planed argument can be called flaming so let's go at it. I'll start. If you haven't played both, feel free to chime in. Then I'll really have someone to tell that they don't know what they are talking about! :D

I haven't played golf in a while but when I was playing regularly I was a 6 handicap. I'd call that a very good armature. My pool skill I'd put in about the same range, a very good armature. I've been involved in several discussions about this question and I'm not really convinced either way. Since there are mostly pool players here, I'll take the golf side. Golf is more difficult than Pool!

I'll start out with a few points.

1. The physical aspect of golf. Take a trip to the driving range on an 85 degree(F) day, hit two large buckets of balls in about two hours and tell me you don't need a shower. (I know the pros can do it, but it still shows the physical side. (I always liked to grunt and fart when I hit the golf ball, thus I didn't go to the driving range much.)

2. How many moving part of the body are there in a pool swing? In golf I believe there is only one joint that doesn't move. For a right hander that would be his left elbow.

There, that should get things started. Need ideas? The first opposing writer could go into depth about the fact that in pool, every shot must go into the hole.
 

Phylbert57

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Since I have never played Cow Pasture Pool before, I cannot go into any depth. I want to try it some day. Maybe if I can get my cue fitted as a driver?? :)
 

CaptainJR

Shiver me timbers.
Silver Member
Phylbert57 said:
Since I have never played Cow Pasture Pool before, I cannot go into any depth. I want to try it some day. Maybe if I can get my cue fitted as a driver?? :)


Go for it Phylbert. You play pool so you must enjoy frustration. Believe me, you don't understand what the word 'frustration' means until you take up golf.
 

Phylbert57

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
CaptainJR said:
Go for it Phylbert. You play pool so you must enjoy frustration. Believe me, you don't understand what the word 'frustration' means until you take up golf.



Fortunately, I don't get easily frustrated. I do not aspire to be a worldbeater. I love to play and play very well - for a girl. ;)

I do know many pool players who also love to play golf. Seems like it would sort of relieve frustration when you can hit something as hard as you can and make it fly! Can't do THAT in the pool room!!!

Phyllis Gumphrey
 

gwvavases

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Phylbert57 said:
... Seems like it would sort of relieve frustration when you can hit something as hard as you can and make it fly! Can't do THAT in the pool room!!!

Phyllis Gumphrey

Sure you can!
 

bill190

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was thinking about this the other day when someone mentioned using something called a "stimpmeter" to measure the speed of the cloth on a pool table. I searched for "stimpmeter" and saw that it was used for golf to determine the speed of the turf...

And we complain about the speed of the cloth on various tables, say not to place a table outside, control the temperature and humidity of the pool room, etc.

I can just imagine the variations in turf even on the same golf course, not to mention changes in weather, etc.

FYI stimpmeter...
http://www.rittenhouse.ca/asp/Product.asp?PG=1909
 

bill190

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Phylbert57 said:
Seems like it would sort of relieve frustration when you can hit something as hard as you can and make it fly! Can't do THAT in the pool room!!!


I can! You should see some of my breaks. :(
 

Phylbert57

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
bill190 said:
I can! You should see some of my breaks. :(


Well, come to think of it. I guess you're right. The limitation is when it hits the wall - or someone else. I will be sure to stand behind you during the break if you get to my room!!

Phyllis
 
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JustPlay

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Why not compare Tennis, baseball, football, basketball and horseshoes to Pool? Why just stop at golf? If you want to compare apples to oranges you might as well bring in race car driving as well!
 

Rude Dog

<---Dumb and Dumber
I must agree, golf is harder than pool. My handicap, besides my driving, putting, chipping, long ands short irons, and the beer cart, is about 20. I take pride in feeling like I can shoot below 100 anywhere I go. I played a round back in May at a course in Las Vegas with a friend of mine and I shot 95 and beat him by 3 strokes. He was the one talking shit for years about how good he was and how bad he was going to beat me, in a friendly way, but he had a disastrous day. I think he plays better than that, but who knows. I just know what I shoot and when people say they shoot in the low 80's or high 70's, I gotta see it. My oldest brother is a 6 and my nephew is scratch and when I played with them, whoa!, it was cool. I once saw my nephew hit a shot from about 185 yards and slam dunkit in the hole, on the fly! He was 14 then, now he's 22. But, I get revenge on the pool table or in the bowling alley with them. Anyway, that's my opinion about the 2 games, for what it's worth. Peace.
 

CaptainJR

Shiver me timbers.
Silver Member
3. Golf - the only game that you can make the 'perfect shot' (hole in one) and it still counts against you.
 

JPB

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Both are hard. I like both. Golf is harder. Golf requires all the precision of pool and much more athleticism and endurance. Golf is 3 games. The putting game, the chipping and pitching game, and the power game. Putting and chipping require a lot of precision and touch. You need a precise grooved stroke in putting which is the skill most comparable to pool. But then you have to hit it on the green to putt. Hitting a golf ball decently is a very hard skill. It requires strength, flexibility, coordination, and timing.

Also, golf is a walking game. So you have to do precise physical motions after walking several miles up and down hills and dales. If you are in a cart, sorry, it isn't golf. Golf is played on foot in less than 3.5 hours, not in buggies in 5 as is now the acepted practice in too many places. The cart should be banned except for those with real physical disabilities that prevent them from walking.
 

BAZARUS

alien in a strange land
Silver Member
CaptainJR said:
I thought that title might get your attention!

I thought it might be fun to discuss and compare the two. I don't think a planed argument can be called flaming so let's go at it. I'll start. If you haven't played both, feel free to chime in. Then I'll really have someone to tell that they don't know what they are talking about! :D

I haven't played golf in a while but when I was playing regularly I was a 6 handicap. I'd call that a very good armature. My pool skill I'd put in about the same range, a very good armature. I've been involved in several discussions about this question and I'm not really convinced either way. Since there are mostly pool players here, I'll take the golf side. Golf is more difficult than Pool!

I'll start out with a few points.

1. The physical aspect of golf. Take a trip to the driving range on an 85 degree(F) day, hit two large buckets of balls in about two hours and tell me you don't need a shower. (I know the pros can do it, but it still shows the physical side. (I always liked to grunt and fart when I hit the golf ball, thus I didn't go to the driving range much.)

2. How many moving part of the body are there in a pool swing? In golf I believe there is only one joint that doesn't move. For a right hander that would be his left elbow.

There, that should get things started. Need ideas? The first opposing writer could go into depth about the fact that in pool, every shot must go into the hole.

First time I played golf was a few years ago, and I played a pro. I was so tired and frustrated after one match and I've never come back to try again.
 

CaptainJR

Shiver me timbers.
Silver Member
If we don't soon get some people to argue the other way, I'll have to take that view.
 

R Squared

Registered
CaptainJR said:
I thought that title might get your attention!

I thought it might be fun to discuss and compare the two. I don't think a planed argument can be called flaming so let's go at it. I'll start. If you haven't played both, feel free to chime in. Then I'll really have someone to tell that they don't know what they are talking about! :D

I haven't played golf in a while but when I was playing regularly I was a 6 handicap. I'd call that a very good armature. My pool skill I'd put in about the same range, a very good armature. I've been involved in several discussions about this question and I'm not really convinced either way. Since there are mostly pool players here, I'll take the golf side. Golf is more difficult than Pool!

I'll start out with a few points.

1. The physical aspect of golf. Take a trip to the driving range on an 85 degree(F) day, hit two large buckets of balls in about two hours and tell me you don't need a shower. (I know the pros can do it, but it still shows the physical side. (I always liked to grunt and fart when I hit the golf ball, thus I didn't go to the driving range much.)

2. How many moving part of the body are there in a pool swing? In golf I believe there is only one joint that doesn't move. For a right hander that would be his left elbow.

There, that should get things started. Need ideas? The first opposing writer could go into depth about the fact that in pool, every shot must go into the hole.

Yea, yea, yea, but which one is more fun. Definitely pool, it’s not even close! :D
 

Colin Colenso

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've also played a lot of both golf and pool. As a teen I used to regularly shoot in the 70's, but got into track and field rather than become try out as a pro golfer. After track and field I pursued pool seriously, but I had the advantage of having grown up with a snooker table inmy house so had already developed a quite natural game.

I want to make some points of differences, some of which will defend pool as a tougher sport.

Whatever the activity, to be the best is tough. The more money and more competitors the tougher it is. By that measure, golf is tougher to be a leading pro, because of the huge money incentivating thousands of pros to improve their game.

Pool requires a greater degree of accuracy in most aspects.

Pool requires more complex calculations of angles and spin and speed for different objects and collisions and requires selecting a shot from more possibilities, hence strategy is more complex a mental challenge.

It would be much easier to build a machine to play good golf than to build one that could play pool. eg. A machine can be built to drive a ball 400m within a few degrees of accuracy. In pool, getting a machine to line up accurately enough to pot a ball would be tough enough,let alone the machine trying to calculate the prefered positional shot and executing it. It is possible, but a more difficult problem to solve than for golf I believe.

Pool may be easier to pick up toa high level at a later age than golf because the swing is far less technical. It is rare to find a good golfer that didn't develop their swing at quite a young age.

In pool you need to consider your opponent's skills as well and determine your strategy accordingly. eg. If your opponent hates doubles, then the risk of leaving them a double chance is better than with a player who plays a lot of bank pool.

Golf may be more physically exerting, but that is not a key issue and most sports (running, swimming, football etc) are far more physically exerting than golf.

For me, pool offers more complexity and areas to learn and continually improve over golf. Golf to me is a little like darts. Once you have the basic swing skills, you can basically practice like a robot to hit straight and know the distances of your standard shots. Occaisionally you need to fade or draw a ball, or play tricky shot out of the rough, but if you get the basics right, 90% of the game is pretty much hitting straight.
 

CaptainJR

Shiver me timbers.
Silver Member
Colin Colenso said:
but if you get the basics right, 90% of the game is pretty much hitting straight.


But it is so so so hard to hit it straight.


Thanks for contributing Colin. Some very good points. After all, if you put the cue ball in one corner, the object ball dead center of the table and try to hit it straight into the opposite pocket! That shot is hard to hit straight also.
 

Colin Colenso

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
CaptainJR said:
But it is so so so hard to hit it straight.


Thanks for contributing Colin. Some very good points. After all, if you put the cue ball in one corner, the object ball dead center of the table and try to hit it straight into the opposite pocket! That shot is hard to hit straight also.

Sure it's tough to hit straight with such long swing with so many parts moving. It'salso tough to throw darts straight into such small targets. Snooker again requires more accuracy than both these games (+or- 0.3mm or less on the object ball contact point on some snooker shots) but hitting with a cue from a set bridge is naturally conducive to higher accuracy.

Why weakness in golf was to always want to test the limits. Extreme slice, snap hooks, steep lobs, whatever it took to get over and around trees or into tight pin positions. But this kind of play is not good percentage golf. Percentage golf is boring compared to a game of pool where you can spin the ball all over the place, make cannons, find combinations etc. This aspect of pool is much more interesting than perfecting a straight game of golf.

That said, I'm looking forward to my next game of golf. I willbe trying to hit every shot 40 meters further than I should and play for big hooks and fades where ever the opportunity presents itself. :D
 
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