Golf and Pool
I took my fist formal golf lesson on Thursday from my good friend and student, Tom. We met at Mile Nine (formerly, Table Steaks East) for a two hour lesson before heading to Kennedy Golf Course, just around the corner. As it turns out, Tom’s an exceptional golf instructor!
We began at the putting green (you’ll have to excuse any vernacular bungles here as I am no golfer) where Tom spent about 20 minutes on my grip alone before I ever hit one ball. As it turns out, I’m a pretty decent putter. In fact, about three hours later, we made our way to the driving range and I was swinging at the ball. My second shot went 100 yards. I don’t know if that’s good, but it was pretty exciting when it happened!
So, the big pool nerd that I am, the entire time during my lesson, of course, the only thing I could think about was how this was relating to pool and to my pool game. Unlike tennis, in golf you are also striking a stationary ball. There are way more similarities with golf and pool than with tennis and pool.
I’ll get into those later. As for right now, I have no aspirations of becoming a champion golfer or even compete at it. I have no desire of being a Bo or a jack of all. There is still only one true passion that I would love to master and it does not begin with a “G” or a “T”. This has just been a refreshing perspective to the game I love.
I do, however, have pretty decent eye-hand coordination. And, it seems I’ve developed quite a bit of “junk in my trunk” though. My small trunk is becoming quite the cornucopia of sporting equipment. If I didn’t live within walking distance of the tennis courts, my racket would probably be in there too.
Today, I payed a visit to Tom at his pro shop. Again, how I wished that the sophisticated technologies that are offered for golf are available for pool.
Here is Tom (right) with his co-worker John (left). They work at D’Lance Golf.
Wow… I didn’t know it worked this way. They pick the perfect “shaft” (also called a shaft, interesting) to go with the perfect head just for you.
This machine has clubs attached to it that have over 8,000 data points to measure shaft deflection, downswing time, and clubhead position at impact. Then it prints out a “swing profile” for you. All I could think was how cool it would be to have a pool cue with 8,000 sensors on it that could printout a “stroke profile” of how you hit the ball.
Next is this crazy contraption that you strap your club into that measures the exact “loft” angle (the angle of the club face that controls trajectory and affects distance) and “lie” angle (the angle between the center of the shaft and the sole) to see if your clubs are playing the way they are supposed to. The professionals get this checked on a regular basis, unless they just replace them on a regular basis.
Back here is where all the fitting magic happens:
Once you have the perfect set of clubs, now you can move onto the instruction area. In case you are having trouble learning the proper golf grip, there are ergonomic club handles that teach you where your fingers are supposed to go. Apparently, you’re not allowed to use them in competition, but wow…
And last, and my most favorite, is the camera setups. You can watch yourself in any speed side-by-side with yourself or a professional or anyone. You can draw lines on the screen (I mean straight lines, not wacky telestrator lines) to see where your body is supposed to be.
When I think about if I could set something like this up for pool instruction, the possibilities would be endless…
So, for all you engineers and inventors out there, get crackin’! You invent it and I’ll use it and promote it! Why can’t our sport have such cool gadgets? Don’t answer that.
Anyway, I leave for Phoenix on Wednesday. Already???
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Be very careful Samm…golf is more addictive than pool, (the money is a heckuva lot better too) and you actually get to be outdoors on nice sunny days. But you are absolutely right that there is a great deal in common. The mechanics (Stance, grip, posture, visualization) are very similar, and having the right tools matter a great deal. Big hint - buy the very best putter you can. Not necessarily the most expensive, but the one that fits your eye and feels “right”. It’s the club you will have in your hands the most (think half the strokes).
And when you drain your first 20+ foot curling downhill putt for a birdie, or even just to save par, the hook will set deep. Beware…beware….heh heh.