Did you read the one I posted in this forum a few years back about when Cole played Ritchie Florence? Search for it. Let me know.Oh well you got my attention. I had some interesting interactions with Cole. 3877 is the number scribed in the stainless joint of the cue I purchased from Cole.
My first conversation experience with Cole came when I drove him from Kelso to Seattle in his truck. Oh did I get stories. A perk for a good cab driver.
Any Cole stories are appreciated. Thanks
Shoot a Million Balls? Give me a break.
- Thread starter jjohnson
- Start date
Hey there. Where you from? I'm from Fremont. A high school buddy of mine used to play golf with Cole. He told me about Cole wrapping his clubs around a tree because golf was hurting his stroke. My friends name was John Treglown (or something like this.) John had an older brother that was a very good baseball pitcher. Come back...
Give me a couple of weeks/months and I will prove to you that any average person with average eyes and intelligence with no physical handicaps can be a great player. That is, if they have the "knowledge." See, if you don't know where you're going and/or know how to get there, most likely even 2 million balls won't get you to pro status let alone champion status. Most all you guys, don't sell yourselves short. You just weren't told what was really going on or statistically, you didn't hit on the secret or two that makes all the difference. I remember when I was in the Corps in Japan back in '74, one day I decided to play some golf. I rented some clubs and played by myself on the base course. There was this one shot. It was about maybe 50+ yards from the hole. Even never having played before, I stepped up to this particular shot like I knew what I was doing. I stroked up a couple times and swung. It felt real good. Solid. I can still see myself standing there on that warm sunny day just watching in awe as that ball arced high into the sky. It was a thing of beauty. I could feel it. But then I looked aside and shook my head. I said to myself, no way. I had wasted too many hours at the pool hall as a kid, so I was not about to waste any more time starting to play golf. Probably a bad choice. I'll never know. My point is this. As you begin to play pool, you probably hit a few ball too perfectly. But didn't catch it. Or the cue ball reacted unbelievably but it all happened too fast. If you had been more attentive, you might have seen how you did it. You could have learned a secret or two. But you missed it. Maybe if you hit another 100,000 balls you might have repeated those shots and maybe this time you might see and remembered exactly what you did. And that could have made all the difference in your game. But fate didn't favor you. So you ended up a short stop or quit altogether. I played in a local tournament several years ago at Danny K's in Orange. I played a nice looking chick. Warming up I hit a short two footer. That cue ball drew back like a cartoon rocket. And she was standing right next to me and said, "Who is this guy." I just sort of acted embarrassed, awe shucks. Hell, I didn't have a clue. That was like world class draw. She won the match. Again, I think I can prove it to you that knowledge can give you a tremendous head start that is so exciting that it accelerates your enthusiasm even now. You'll put in the time and perfect what you have just learned. Here's one idea: watch Allen Hopkins. He has reduced everything he does to its bare minimum. The less he does minimizes risk and errors. Everything you do executing a shot has numerous degrees of freedom. You name it. Every slightest little thing. These are all things that can go wrong and probably some will. If you can eliminate them, you could achieve what Allen Hopkins has achieved. Near perfection. Maybe I'll let you know more about the specifics.Yep
I can't tell you how many people who will tell you that if they just had the time and resources to practice and play as much as they liked, that they would be on the tour.
Of course there's a huge talent factor that they refuse to acknowledge/accept.
Most people have no idea what that level of skill and athleticism looks like. Or how far they are away from it themselves...
Mitch, I'll be happy to relieve you of som of that 15 mil burden. I'll pm you my address!!
Look up the "Dan Plan".
For perspective, I've played golf for over 50 years, the vast majority at a mid to low single digit handicap, averaging well over 100 rounds a year for much of the last 15 years or so...
I know a lot of fairly athletic people who have devoted decades and tens of thousands of dollars to the game who can't break 80. In fact, the vast majority of recreational players can't...
I also play a lot with people a lot better than me. Until people see what someone with real skill/talent looks like, they have no idea what "good" really means...
Like everything else in life- some people start with more natural talents for something and develop those talents to a professional level. Some without great natural talent are fortunate enough to have elite instruction/knowledge imparted to them early in their career and they develop everything from a superior starting point.
Nobody becomes great at any game/sport just because they had millions of repetitions, those repetitions can create a certain success level, but it takes more than that to beat the best players in anything because you need numbers 1 or 2 above or both, combined with dedication to be truly great.
This is just from the physical side of the game, the " mental" side is another discussion and huge factor in longer term success. You don't have to be mentally balanced ( as we all know from seeing greats in many sports who were lunatics in life) ; rather you need to be consistently mentally " correct" during your execution in competition - characterized by very, very consistent short bursts of extreme focus without mind distractions.
Nobody becomes great at any game/sport just because they had millions of repetitions, those repetitions can create a certain success level, but it takes more than that to beat the best players in anything because you need numbers 1 or 2 above or both, combined with dedication to be truly great.
This is just from the physical side of the game, the " mental" side is another discussion and huge factor in longer term success. You don't have to be mentally balanced ( as we all know from seeing greats in many sports who were lunatics in life) ; rather you need to be consistently mentally " correct" during your execution in competition - characterized by very, very consistent short bursts of extreme focus without mind distractions.
I never heard that. It was, "you get the 8 and breaks"
I was number 3 in the pecking order on the east side. (Bellevue centric). I did get the money from numbers 1 and 2 though. 
Off handed was the game and I busted both. I played Lucky Lefty whenever possible. According to a few things i've read roughly 55% of golfers can break 100. That's for fairly active players, those that only play 1-2rds/mo its down to about 15%.
Make them play strictly by the rules, and I suspect it's lower than that.
People take two off the tee, roll the ball in the fairway, drop a ball near where they think they lost one rather than taking stroke and distance, pick up any putt inside a couple of feet, etc...and then crow about their score.
I usually play it up in the fairway(not a country clubber) but down in the rough and putt all but really short ones. If i play it down all the way my score might be 5shots higher. I've got friends that would easily shoot 10+shots higher(prob more) if they played anything close to the rules. There was this old dude we called 'TeeBill' 'cause he literally tee'd up everything but a putt or trap shot. He was old and cool so we never said a word.