Laminate or wood veneer for rail rebuild

I have removed the chipped/broken/scratched up laminate from the rails of a table I am going to rebuild. I'd like to use wood veneer in place of the formica that was originally on the rails. Is this a good idea? I am wondering if a polyurethane finish will be hard enough to resist scratching or scuffing from cues moving across it. Has anyone ever attempted this or should I stick with laminate? Also, the formica that was on it previously had started lifting on just about every one of the rails. I'm thinking the wood veneer would be a little more flexible and not want to lift so much. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have absolutely no idea what kind of table this originally was. It is very similar in design to a 1970's Fischer with drop pockets I used to have, only this one is a 7 footer with a 1 piece slate. Pretty sure it wasn't a high end table to begin with.
It was a project someone started and didn't finish. I'm also going to have to try and make a new base and aprons.
The formica on the rails was all chipped and broken so I removed the laminate with a heat gun. My plan is to redo the rails using veneer and shoot about 20 coats of automotive clear on it. I'm going to fabricate the new aprons out of walnut laminate flooring or something like that has a nice prefinished luster. The base should be fairly straightforward but I have to decide if I should make the base with levelers or not.
I'm going to post the rebuild on instructables.com once I get started in the next couple of weeks.