interesting question

A

accdealer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've been away from the forums for literally years, so forgive me if a thread like this already exists.

a friend of mine and I were talking the other night and we both used to play a lot of pool. out of nowhere he asks me, 'is it easier to run 50 balls or shoot par on 18 holes of golf?'

I suck at golf, so my immediate response was run 50 balls, but it's an interesting question and I figured that I would throw it out there in the forum for everyone to chew on.

after some thought, I realized that you could go to your local golf course on any given weekend and find 50 guys that are scratch golfers. however, you could go to 50 pool rooms and never find a guy who can run 50 balls. but, does that tell us which feat is easier or harder to do?
 
Much easier to run 50 than shoot even. 18 different holes, and the main factor is the weather.
 
As I am a really bad golfer, I would say that it is easier to shoot par. :)

I have played off and on for years, and at one point was practicing daily and playing nightly for close to a two year stretch. I would play continuous after my practice sessions, and have never gotten to a 50 ball run. Running out a nine ball rack wasn't too difficult at that time, if that gives you any comparison.
 
I think there are more pool players capable of running 50 than golfers capable of playing par.
 
not sure if this helps. but to run 50, you need to shoot 50 good shots in a row.
to shoot par, you need to shoot 72 good shots in a row.
 
michael4 said:
not sure if this helps. but to run 50, you need to shoot 50 good shots in a row.
to shoot par, you need to shoot 72 good shots in a row.
Click to expand...

But in 14.1 if you miss a shot your run is over, in golf you can miss hit a ball and make it up on you next swing.

-Steve
 
While I never have shot an even par round I have shot many rounds in the 70s and my high run is only 22 playing straight pool. Someone mentioned it earlier that you can do a lot of bad things in a round of golf and make up for it with a good shortgame and putting. In pool your margin for error over those 50 shots is a lot smaller, and there is way more mental strategy in playing pool. While both are difficult I'd say it's easier to play scrtach golf.
 
The wind will never blow an uphill left break cut shot for the 50...weather is the ultimate decider on this in my opinion.
 
I've done both and they aren't really comparable unless you are talking about a round with all fairways and green hit in regulation. In pool, as was mentioned, there is no good short game to make up for a missed shot. All well populated areas have dozens and dozens of golfers with low handicaps that shoot par.
 
With modern technology in golf it is probably easier to shoot par although for me a 50 ball run is easier because I play pool and haven't played a round of golf in 30 years.
 
I've played pool for 52 years and have ran more 50's then I can remember.
I played golf for 15 years and my best round was an 86,14 strokes over par.
For me running 50 was much easier.
But the 86 in golf was much more exciting.
 
I don't know if there really comparable. Having done both I would say for me that running 50 balls was harder. As far as the golf goes if your talking about just going out and playing with your buddies then yes running 50 balls maybe easier.

However if your talking shooting even par in tournament conditions. Then I would say golf would be tougher. Alot of guys can shoot par with their buddies, but have no chance in tournament play.
 
Hello,

I feel very qualified to add my 2 cents on this question.

A 50 ball run is a good achievement, but comparing it to shooting a round of golf at even par does not give the round of golf its’ true degree of difficulty.

After all, I have witnessed good shot-makers, who are not straight pool players, stumble into or even get lucky enough to attain a 50 ball run on a rare occasion. Certainly, they showed their talent in doing so and anything much over 50 was not really going to happen for them.

As for the round of golf at even par, one just does not get lucky enough to stumble into a low round like that. It takes a lot of talent, time and practice just to do it once. Sure, any golfer can get that lucky bounce or lucky roll on any particular hole, but that won’t happen 18 times.

Whereas a lucky bounce or a lucky roll (or two) can be a huge factor in stringing together the necessary balls for a continuous run of 50.

It would be more appropriate to compare a 100 ball run to the round of par golf, only due to the fact of the amount of concentration and focus it takes to achieve either feat.

There is a report that indicates that 6% of the total golfers play scratch or even par. I am very sure that 6% of the total pool players have never scored a run of 100 or more.

Except for the amount of concentration, focus and talent qualities it takes to attain either accomplishment it is almost impossible to compare one achievement to the other. I think the sports are just too different to do so.
 
accdealer said:
I've been away from the forums for literally years, so forgive me if a thread like this already exists.

a friend of mine and I were talking the other night and we both used to play a lot of pool. out of nowhere he asks me, 'is it easier to run 50 balls or shoot par on 18 holes of golf?'

I suck at golf, so my immediate response was run 50 balls, but it's an interesting question and I figured that I would throw it out there in the forum for everyone to chew on.

after some thought, I realized that you could go to your local golf course on any given weekend and find 50 guys that are scratch golfers. however, you could go to 50 pool rooms and never find a guy who can run 50 balls. but, does that tell us which feat is easier or harder to do?
Click to expand...

I suck at both sports so I don't ever see me doing either, As for running 50-100 I have trouble running 9.
 
topcat1953 said:
Hello,

There is a report that indicates that 6% of the total golfers play scratch or even par. I am very sure that 6% of the total pool players have never scored a run of 100 or more.
Click to expand...

^^ this is probably true, except that every good golfer is trying to shoot par, not every good pool player is actively trying to run 50 (or 100).
 
In pool you have to come up with a break shot every rack. Then you have to make it AND open the balls to continue.
 
I like that a lot of people have chimed in on this topic.

Please keep the responses coming, whether you feel the two feats are comparable or not.
 
my take

Ok here is my take. My best run - 34. my best round - 78. So I am "close but no cigar" on both. I am going to say golf is harder. I can see me reaching a 50 ball run but never see me hitting par. I have been asking myself am I better golfer or pool player? Even though I think golf is harder I think I'm a better in golf than pool.

It is a difficult question to answer correctly and the only way to answer it would be with stats. Take 1000 serious golfers who play at least 100-150 rounds a year and take 1000 serious pool players who play 30-50 hours a week. See how many you have of each accomplishing the goal and then you may have an idea of what is harder.

Of course the guy who can really answer that would be John Schmidt or Corey Duel. We know what they can do on the pool table, but they are pretty good golfers, around scratch or so. It would be great to get one of them to chime in on this question.

Come on Mr. 400 let's hear what you think!
 
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I know maybe three scratch golfers here in sunny so cal. But I refuse to get involved with golf because I spend most of my free time playing pool.
Ive only ran over 50 once in my short 37 years. I was probably lucky that I got that many. But I still use that as my target goal to reach for.
The golfers I know who shoot pool enough to know better would likely give me different answers depending on the time of day I asked them.
I think both are amazing accomplishments myself.
 
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