Been reading what seems to be a pretty honest book about Titanic Thompson. First thing I took out of it was that he was perhaps the best golfer in the world at one point, certainly very close to it, to the point he could beat anyone on a given day. He was infamous for one shot victories! This was playing corporate giants or the finest ringers they could bring in. He also had the hand/eye coordination to toss a half dollar at a quarter twenty feet away and land the quarter on the half dollar! No typo, the quarter would flip up onto the half dollar. He was about nine out of ten on that. He would make the bet at three tries. I have to admit that after verifying no gimmicks or tricks I would empty out on that one! This was the area he excelled, prop bets. He would spend endless hours making a proposition work, then usually make people think it was a spur of the moment idea.
Finally, there was Thompson the pool player. He could beat pretty much anyone that wasn't a pool player. The claim is that Fats took a million from him and then they went on the road together and Thompson made it all back. Anyway, Fats was the pool player of their combine and Ti acknowledged him his master at pool while Thompson could beat Fats at anything else. There were at least several dozen in the country that Fats had to duck or get a huge spot from. With Fats clearly better I suspect there were a hundred people in the country that could beat Ti playing even.
The thing is Ti was born twenty years too early or too late. Born twenty years or so earlier and he could have plied his trade coast to coast and never ran out of places and people to hustle. Born twenty years later and he would have been one of the legends of golf. The pro's were playing thirty-six holes of golf for maybe a five thousand dollar purse while he was shooting nine with some rich man for $30,000! Ti would also get some of the hottest young guns in golf to travel with him. Three months with Ti was likely to let you come home with more money than several years on the circuit paid. Some were too honorable to travel with him knowing that the score was in the setting up of suckers, all envied the money he made on a golf course!
As already noted by someone else, this was probably the last time we would have seen an elite pro at both golf and pool. The money in the games was much the same unless you were Titanic Thompson. Once golf took off and pool didn't, a person that could win on the golf tour or even play top 100 would be crazy to make pool more than an after hours activity. No idea today, but rumor in my youth had the pro's still doing a lot of gambling afterwards, but not on something that required a lot of physical tuning, cards and craps being more the games.
I forget how Ti stumbled into golf when he was already on the road. However, he loved the fresh air and sunshine, smoky pool rooms couldn't compete except for the cash! Funny thing, he hit a ball one day, went out and got a set of clubs at a hock shop the next day. That first set of clubs was right handed so he learned to play right handed despite being left handed. After he found out about left handers and left handed clubs he kept a set of both in his car trunk along with other tools of his trade. One of the things he excelled at was getting in with the money crowd so when he gambled he was winning nice chunks. The first day of play would be a fierce battle with Ti playing right handed and winning by one stroke natcherally. Ti being a kind fellow and a gentleman would offer to play them left handed the next day, for double or nothing or higher stakes! He had barely won right handed, they jumped all over a chance to play him with Ti shooting left handed.
Ti's biggest score snuck away from him. He spent months chasing Howard Hughes who fancied himself quite a golfer at the time and was considering going pro. Hughes deliberately ran Ti all over the place chasing him but had no intention of playing.
Today, I think playing golf or pool at the top level is a full time job. With generally piddling income from pool there is no incentive to put in the hours after putting in the hours to play golf at the top level.
Hu
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