Mike dechaine vs an apa 9 …

The earlier comment mentioning golf made me wonder, since I never played golf. Is this similar to what would happen if a golf club champion took on a top pro?
 
The earlier comment mentioning golf made me wonder, since I never played golf. Is this similar to what would happen if a golf club champion took on a top pro?
Rich Beem, a journeyman club pro, once stared down Tiger on a Sunday in his prime in a major championship, and Tiger blinked. The crowd roar from Rich’s eagle on 11 actually made Tiger back off of his shot. It was deafening. All on camera. Woods would go on to birdie 15 16 17 18. Yet Rich held strong and defeated Tiger that day by 1 stroke to win the PGA. But generally speaking to your point… yes. This was a golf exception.
 
To me, it seemed like the APA 9 rushed his shots, and didn't chalk up before most of them. Granted I didn't watch the entire thing, I skipped around quite a bit. He definitely did not look like a 650 shooter. Having said all of that, I think it's 90% mental when you're playing a pro even like that. I would love to see him play his usual game, the one that he plays against other players in his league, against the pro. If that makes sense. Of course he would still lose, but I don't think it would be as bad as we saw in this match.
 
A few weeks ago he was supposed to be playing a doubles match against two locals here that are both in the 650's, and for the life of me I can't remember who was gonna be his partner. Gonna have to ask how that turned out...

I've told the story before, Mike came to our APA night one time a few years ago, doing challenge matches and stuff. It was a fun night.
For $20, he'd have to win 9 games, to you making ONE ball. He got the break, racked his own, magic rack, 9' Diamond. He'd run out, or stitch the player so bad, it was hilarious. The one time that I was watching where he coulda lost, he left a moderate cut shot, not a gimmie, but not crazy, to a player who probably would make that shot 6 times out of 10. He was so nerved up, actually having a chance, that he practically miscued, botched it big time. We all broke out laughing, shooter included.

I hope he does get back into it more.
Kind of what I was thinking when he was playing that guy in the video. We probably didn’t see that Guys real speed When your mind is as much on who your playing as it is actually playing. Early in my league playing I watched that happen. We have guys who were legends playing around here And I would watch guys dog easy outs against them that against a kid like me they would have ran out and not given it a thought.
 
The earlier comment mentioning golf made me wonder, since I never played golf. Is this similar to what would happen if a golf club champion took on a top pro?
Yeah you can watch YouTube videos and see what happens. Huge difference between a club champion and a pro.

last year there was a guy ( can’t remember his name) who is a club champion and top instructor who earned a spot in the us open. He actually was in the top 10 going into the 4th day and 1 of only a few players under par. The us open is brutal even for pro’s . He ended up finishing 17th I believe. They asked him why he doesn’t go pro and his answer was he putted chipped and drove the best he could .. he also had a hole in one!.. and he still finished 17th. Lol he’s going to remember it as the best golf weekend of his life and that’s it.

Btw the following week they gave him a spot to play at the colonial.. the shortest course on tour And he didn’t make the cut. That could just be a hangover from his huge weekend but who knows.
 
Yes, what you say is true, but equating Rich Beem to an APA nine is not a thing
Yep. Rich could flat golf his rock but just never had a lot of chances til that PGA. He was selling car stereos and playing mini-tour golf and hustling til his big break.
 
The point is, the 7 is not really a 7, he's inflated his ranking by only playing opponents they know they can beat. It's cherry picking, they will never shoot anyone they know they can't handle. This in turn raises their ranking to an undeserved level, because their win rate is high. They actually might be a 5 or less. That's why I stated, there's a huge difference between a 9 and a 9. Brian.
Win rate is not the only thing the APA checks for handicaps, innings per game is a big part. I have seen players show undefeated seasons as 3s and 4s yet not go up much if at all. To max out APA you must be able to break and run or have 1 and 2 inning games fairly often. No APA 5 would be able to do that unless they are cheating to drop their level.
 
Rich Beem won the Kemper Open in 1999 and the International at Castle Pines in 2002 -- two weeks before he won the PGA Championship. He won four tournaments overall, finished in the top 10 18 times and won over $9 million in prize money. Beem was a fantastic golfer who was hampered by an equipment change after his big win (took the big payday from Callaway and was never the same) and injuries. I also think he stopped caring as much after he won the Major. He cut way back on his tournament schedule.

Better comparison might be Jason Gore, who went into the 2005 US Open tied for the lead and won one PGA Tour event in his entire career.
 
In pool it is nearly as common for the top guys to dominate as in tennis ....that is with huge fields and almost ever using seeded brackets unlike tennis.
 
Yep. Rich could flat golf his rock but just never had a lot of chances til that PGA. He was selling car stereos and playing mini-tour golf and hustling til his big break.
Exactly. He was just an average Joe club pro up to that point. I remember watching that and wondering why he was wearing his dad’s trousers. Like 4 sizes too big and draped over his shoes. He was a rare exception of what would happen if a club pro played a top pga player.
 
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I get that, and it's funny. But I'd sure love for him to come back to one of our APA nights and hang out, doing challenge matches and such. It was a lot of fun to watch.
Have some pretty girls there, he'll come!
I'm a huge fan of Mike's when he just plays Pool!
 
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