Those aren't really fair comparisons given that a single digit handicap is a statistical average and regularly beating the ghost is pretty unclear. What is regular? Every day or every week? Every attempt or most attempts?
Regularly beating the ghost, to me, means beating it more times than not. So you can say that someone who regularly beats the ghost is at worst even with the ghost.
They may do well in a race to 5 but that is not an appropriate match length for a pro 9 ball tournament. And that is less of a commentary on pool but the game of 9 ball.
That's a great point, which I intended to bring up in my previous post. As long as 9 ball is the standard game played among professionals (it still is, and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere), then pool will continue to be "easy" given my standard. If the standard game for professionals is straight pool (as it was over 50 years ago), then pool would be substantially harder in my book.
