Is snooker harder than golf?

Imurg

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If you're equating Golf and Snooker then you don't leave the green.
Although there could, arguably, be a touch more skill required as you're hitting one ball onto another to make the target but your playing area never breaches the 12 x 6 and it's always flat. No 27 ft downhill left-to-righters against the grain and wind for the Penguins....
And I'd like to see them get their spherical objects on the table from 180 yards off a sideways lie with bunkers right and a pond left...
They don't know they're born..
 

Canary_Yellow

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If you're equating Golf and Snooker then you don't leave the green.
Although there could, arguably, be a touch more skill required as you're hitting one ball onto another to make the target but your playing area never breaches the 12 x 6 and it's always flat. No 27 ft downhill left-to-righters against the grain and wind for the Penguins....
And I'd like to see them get their spherical objects on the table from 180 yards off a sideways lie with bunkers right and a pond left...
They don't know they're born..

Potting in snooker is relatively easy though, positional play is far from it. Controlling the cue ball is the real skill - applying spin to ball to get it where you want it while also adjusting the potting angle to take account of that spin..... it’s incredibly skilful and incredibly hard.
 

Lord Tyrion

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If I can slightly misquote Henrik Stenson, both 'are stupid hard'. They are both technical and very precise. It is that precision that makes them far more difficult than most other sports, the margin for error is not there.

I think you can make arguments for both sports and both are valid. Tough to split them.
 

Canary_Yellow

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If I can slightly misquote Henrik Stenson, both 'are stupid hard'. They are both technical and very precise. It is that precision that makes them far more difficult than most other sports, the margin for error is not there.

I think you can make arguments for both sports and both are valid. Tough to split them.

I agree - I think there are more physical impediments to being good at golf than there are to being good at snooker. But on the other side, I’d say the precision required in snooker is probably greater.
 

Imurg

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I agree - I think there are more physical impediments to being good at golf than there are to being good at snooker. But on the other side, I’d say the precision required in snooker is probably greater.
On a 15 foot putt, if your aim is out by 1° then the ball isnt going in.
I don't know for certain but I'd say a 4 foot shot on a snooker table that is similarly offline will probably drop. If the pace is right it will, at worst it will rattle the jaws.
Add in the curvature of the green compared to the dead flat table and I don't see a comparison.
In Snooker, you're also looking down the line of the shot, you have a great alignment aid in the cue...
Golfers stand 2 feet to the side..
Snooker is a hard game, absolutely, but its only half the game that golf is.
 

Bunkermagnet

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They are different animals, and reallly it's rather silly to claim one is harder than the other, in fact I would say they are both as hard as each other. A full length table shot on a snooker table gives no forgiveness in where you hit your cue on the white, the spin you apply to it or its contact with the coloured ball. Snooker is about being exact with no room for error. Golf equipment gives you plenty of forgiveness.
As I can play both (quite well I feel) I would say neither is harder than the other:)
 

Canary_Yellow

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They are different animals, and reallly it's rather silly to claim one is harder than the other, in fact I would say they are both as hard as each other. A full length table shot on a snooker table gives no forgiveness in where you hit your cue on the white, the spin you apply to it or its contact with the coloured ball. Snooker is about being exact with no room for error. Golf equipment gives you plenty of forgiveness.
As I can play both (quite well I feel) I would say neither is harder than the other:)

I agree - they’re both very hard. They also require very different abilities.

I’m commenting though as someone that’s ok at golf and worse at snooker.

My dad was the other way round!
 
D

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Fair enough. But for the laugh I suggest someone send big Shaun this ?

Most difficult sports ranked

Skateboarding at 37th place.

Skateboard, to me, is undoubtedly the most difficult sport there is.

The margin of error when the best guys do a kickflip to noseblunt slide down a 10-15 stairs. And the balls to do it. Still dreaming nightmares of all the slams I’ve had over the years.
 

IanM

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At a basic level...hand a complete newbie a club , chances are they miss the ball! In snooker they might hit the cue ball, they might hit an object ball, but it isn’t going in the pocket too often.

Played both, both are difficult enough to make the argument tough.

I did some skateboarding in my younger days...basic going up and down wasn’t as hard a golf or snooker... but then again, doing tricks is a bit different!
 
D

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At a basic level...hand a complete newbie a club , chances are they miss the ball! In snooker they might hit the cue ball, they might hit an object ball, but it isn’t going in the pocket too often.

Played both, both are difficult enough to make the argument tough.

I did some skateboarding in my younger days...basic going up and down wasn’t as hard a golf or snooker... but then again, doing tricks is a bit different!

I bet kickflip wasn’t even invented when you were on the board! ?
 

jim8flog

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Having played both to a good club level I do not think I could seperate the two in terms of difficulty.

At least with snooker you are not stood over the ball in a force 3 gale and it chucking down with rain with just 40 seconds in which to play the shot.
 

jim8flog

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I’m not sure I’d compare single figures with a 50 break.

I reckon if you went to a local snooker club you’d find a higher percentage of regular players who have had a 50 break than single figure golfers in the clubhouse.

I know in the snooker club where I played there were only about 10 who could say they had done that and only 4 that I knew who could break the 100.
 

williamalex1

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I've never came near losing a ball playing snooker or getting it wet.
Including the time years ago when I was slightly inebriated, my mates had slipped in a trick weighted biased cue ball :confused:.
If you hit it hard it would go straight but played slowly it wondered all over the place.
It didn't dawn on me, I thought it was the table we had just moved to :eek::whistle:
 
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