Is snooker harder than golf?

[Captainron]

It’s certainly a harder watch than golf.

I’m equally bad at both though.

 

[hovis]

All I know is if I spent the hours practicing snooker that I have golf I would be a much better snooker player

 

[Dibby]

I find comparisons like these strange, it would be like asking what is harder, brain surgery or rocket science, and of course making sure your sample of responses is only taken in either a neurosurgery department or at NASA.

All sports present different challenges that will be "easy" or "hard" depending on your genetic make up. If you're 4' tall basketball will be hard, if you're 6'8 and 140kg then being a jockey will be hard! if you have a mind that lets you judge velocities and angles for snooker easily, you may still get battered in the boxing ring. If you have an iron jaw and can throw a mean punch, you may not be able to pot a single ball on the green baize.

If we want to indulge in this nonsense, lets throw gymnastics in the ring, even if they started practising from now untill the end of thier life many people wouldn't even get in some of the positions needed to do all the routines on all the apparatus, at least with snooker most people could eventually pot a ball and score a point.

 

[2blue]

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.

Agreed.
I'd have to say that the two games are surprisingly similar to each other ..... yeah, I know, seems crazy.

 

[USER1999]

The other thing to consider here, is that we are making judgements on the difficulty level of a sport we have barely scratched the surface of. We all on here play golf, but actually, we don't. Not really. Every one on here is crap at it. People who truly play golf appear on telly. Same for snooker. Any one on here is dabbling with snooker. Hard to make a 50 break? Not for a pro it isn't.

 

[sweaty sock]

As @Crow mentioned, if a perfect game of golf is 18 shots, and a perfect game of snooker is 147, well im pretty sure ive seem a number of 147s, despite the tiny pool of participants in snooker.

Ive never seen anyone be on track for a perfect game of golf past the first tee shot...

 

[greenone]

As @Crow mentioned, if a perfect game of golf is 18 shots, and a perfect game of snooker is 147, well im pretty sure ive seem a number of 147s, despite the tiny pool of participants in snooker.

Ive never seen anyone be on track for a perfect game of golf past the first tee shot...

A perfect game of snooker is breaking off, potting a red on the break, be on the black, then score 147. Then rinse and repeat for each frame until you win the match. Except you can't due to the alternate breaks.

 

[Crazyface]

This is not even a question that deserves debate.

 

[jim8flog]

As @Crow mentioned, if a perfect game of golf is 18 shots,
.

As inferred by another as yet only seen in North Korea.

p.s. a truly perfect score/break in snooker is a 155, once scored by Alex Higgins.

 

[evemccc]

Switch on the Olympics - summer and winter - and see what hard individual sports look like. As just said above combat sports, tennis, even stuff like fencing is technically crazy difficult at the highest level and snooker, while no doubt difficult, is played by fat blokes in perfectly repeated conditions. It’s hard Shaun but have an actual look at yourself ?

I love snooker, love golf too.
But can see a real similarity between them, and I am understanding to the view that regards them as past-times rather than a 'sport'..(I wouldn't do this, personally).. but for those who think sports have to have proper athletic ability and sweating etc etc, then if snooker isn't a sport, then neither is golf

Snooker played on a proper sized table which runs to the correct speed of cloth, is insanely difficult

I love that Tom Watson nearly won the 2009 Open, and that Langer carded very well at the 2020 Masters...but he's 63!! Very few other sports have 60 yr olds competing at the highest level in the best tournaments. 'Golf-only' fans who denigrate other sports, need to also look at their own sport too

 

[howbow88]

I find ALL sports difficult.

I think the key in judging the difficulty of a sport lies in how easy it is to look like an average player. Eg, I am terrible at football. But, I can run around a lot, don't mind getting stuck in, and so I can basically be a massive nuisance to the opposition.

In that way, I sort of think football is a much easier sport than many others. You're in a team too, which also helps. Rugby is another that as long as you're athletic, you can sort of get by. If you're having a bad day on the course though, it can be a truly horrible experience.

 

[sweaty sock]

As inferred by another as yet only seen in North Korea.

p.s. a truly perfect score/break in snooker is a 155, once scored by Alex Higgins.

I disagree, the potential free ball is entirely out of control of the perfect player. Lets agree a perfect frame is total clearance at highest scorable value at first visit... again witnessed regularly...

 

[greenone]

I disagree, the potential free ball is entirely out of control of the perfect player. Lets agree a perfect frame is total clearance at highest scorable value at first visit... again witnessed regularly...

First visit is the break. It's never been done.

 

[nickjdavis]

Its a difficult comparison....when you consider what we are technically doing in golf....

i.e. getting a club face typically no more than 3 inches from heel to toe (of which only a relatively small area is actually useful), to contact a ball that is only 1.68" in diameter, at a speed of 80 mph some 3ft or so away from the end of your hands, taking care that at impact the club face is pointing at the target and the path of the swing is pointing at the target (assuming you want to hit the ball straight at the target!!) when the ball is sat on a surface that is of variable consistency with impediments that might get between club face and ball and cause a perfect stroke to result in a less than perfect outcome....

...that's a tough ask in anyone's book and there aren't many ball sports where such a level of stroke precision is required. The only thing we've got going for us is that at least the ball is still when we try and hit it.

 

[clubchamp98]

Snooker your opponent can snooker you behind the yellow.
That’s the equivalent of your opponent in golf picking your ball up and putting it behind a tree.
In snooker you are only as good as your opponent lets you be by his good play or his mistakes.
In golf YOU are the only one who has control or not of your ball unlike snooker where you have to share the cue ball.
Both are hard but golf is under your sole control where snooker isn’t.

 

[Orikoru]

That is exactly the point I was getting at - it isn't at all! In snooker you don't pot the red and then pick up the cue ball and put it somewhere else on the table. You have to make the pot and then make sure you leave the cue ball in position for a colour.

You don't choose where to put your golf ball either do you?? It's exactly the same thing. Putting it in position makes the next shot easier. That applies equally to both.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

All I know is if I spent the hours practicing snooker that I have golf I would be a much better snooker player

I don’t want to come across as being disrespectful, but how do you know that’s the case?

The only conceivable answer I can think of is that you think you’re hopeless at golf because I don’t see otherwise how you could know for sure you’d be better at snooker! That’s somewhat tongue in cheek, but my point is that practicing snooker a lot doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get good at it unless your technique is good and your eye for the potting angle is good too.

Unless you have a very good cue action, controlling the cue ball is going to be very very hard indeed. Most players get found out at a certain point as their cuing isn’t good enough, much the same as golf, if you’re not cuing absolutely straight, you’ll put unintended spin on the ball and then your control is diminished. You can’t fluke a 50 break, I’d say someone that can consistently make a 50 break is equivalent to a single fig golfer. Someone who has made a few is equivalent to someone that has shot a few rounds in the 70s.

 

[Orikoru]

I don’t want to come across as being disrespectful, but how do you know that’s the case?

The only conceivable answer I can think of is that you think you’re hopeless at golf because I don’t see otherwise how you could know for sure you’d be better at snooker! That’s somewhat tongue in cheek, but my point is that practicing snooker a lot doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get good at it unless your technique is good and your eye for the potting angle is good too.

Unless you have a very good cue action, controlling the cue ball is going to be very very hard indeed. Most players get found out at a certain point as their cuing isn’t good enough, much the same as golf, if you’re not cuing absolutely straight, you’ll put unintended spin on the ball and then your control is diminished. You can’t fluke a 50 break, I’d say someone that can consistently make a 50 break is equivalent to a single fig golfer. Someone who has made a few is equivalent to someone that has shot a few rounds in the 70s.

I never play snooker, maybe play pool a couple of times a year. I play golf every week (when allowed). I still somewhat agree with Hovis - if I played snooker every week for the next 3 months I think I'd be at least as good at it as I am at golf, if not better. Golf just has far more variables which is what makes it harder.

 

[Yorkshire Hacker]

I am fortunate enough to have a full sized snooker table upstairs. The joke is that I am absolutely rubbish. If I ever get a break of 50, it will be a red letter day.
My golf is reasonable, (9.8 WHS), but I marvel at the top players in both sports. There are some folk out there, who could be good at almost anything they turn their hand to, and that's just the way it is. I used to be an instructor at a motor cycle racing school. Some riders were born to ride. Others, even if you had painted a white line to indicate the correct line, they still couldn't have stuck to it. Like golf and snooker, the difference between a top rider, and a no hoper is HUGE.
Sticking with the subject, i.e. is snooker harder than golf, I reckon snooker is probably harder, especially in controlling the cue ball. I wonder how many top snooker players are single figure golfers. Similarly, I bet loads of top golfers play snooker after a round. I wonder how many of them can get big breaks?

 

[greenone]

I never play snooker, maybe play pool a couple of times a year. I play golf every week (when allowed). I still somewhat agree with Hovis - if I played snooker every week for the next 3 months I think I'd be at least as good at it as I am at golf, if not better. Golf just has far more variables which is what makes it harder.

Pool is to snooker what crazy golf is to golf.