Been thinking about this comment all night, funnier than hell, it’s one of those that stay in the noggin for quite some time.
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The tongue is usually firmly planted in the average Irish cheek, but we tend to get the point across.
I hear ya. Black Flies were the worst I’ve experienced, in behind the earlobe where you can’t really feel anything - it was like golf meets Elm Street.
Was waddling through one of the best threads ever and thought it deserved a bump when seeing this entry from BomGolf222, along with several good responses from others.
Here’s something else in common courtesy of Mr. James Black who had a real good mind when it came to swinging a club.
During his lessons he said the left-hand acted as a ‘bridge’. It took me a while to figure out what he meant by that. I first thought he was using the term as the lead hand is a ‘connecting’ piece to something, but no. Instead, it was the bridge seen in billiards, and it accepted and supported the ‘blow from the right hand’.
I’ve always been inspired and intrigued by “greatness”. In another stick and ball game.. clearly we are seeing it here. This is just incredible. That being said, golf has lost this kind or articulation in the modern version. It really makes me sad actually. The great strikers were doing this kind of strategizing with the golf ball. The ball needed to spin a lot to play a world class course correctly with so many strategic options, risk and reward scenarios etc.
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Interesting here that the announcer mentions Efren Reyes grew up on a Three Cushion Billiards table (with no pockets) as a kid in the Philippines. Three Cushion is the most elite billiards game requiring the most skill in shotmaking.. and Efren “called the magician” sees shots that other players just don’t usually see.
Golf should also be moving in this direction.. of placement and strategy. That is the part of the game I love the most. The placement and articulation of the golf ball. Here we teach or focus on technique so that you can then actually start playing golf.. not just swatting at the golf ball and “see where it goes”. Efren’s control of the cue ball is just stellar. Greatness is always an inspiration.
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I used to see Efren play in the NY area at a billiard parlor called Herberts(I think). His control of the cue ball was almost otherworldly. In addition his creativity was almost the same. Other guys might play safe but he would often see a way to make it and often did. In that way he was kinda like Seve with the control of Hogan.
In Secaucus, NJ? I don’t think it exists anymore.
Have you ever played three-cushion billiards? The old Julian’s on 14th between 3rd and Irving (above the old Palladium) used to have six carom tables. I’d watch the old men play there and it’s where I first picked up the game when I was in high school in the '80s, which was only a few blocks away. When Chelsea on 21st just east of 6th opened in the late '80s, they has a couple of tables. Sadly those rooms are gone now. I have to go the Flushing (in Queens) to play now. Carom Café in Flushing was Sang Lee’s room. It’s a great place with a 14 carom tables. I played in a three-cushion league there for many years. I wish a room featuring billiards (and not just pool) would open again in the city.
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Yes it was Secaucus. Had a pal who worked in E Rutherford. He was much better pool shooter than I was. I played carom and 3 cushion mostly when I visited Holland. Just about every pub had a table…or darts. I remeber seeing some of the guys from Law and Order at Herbert’s too. Jerry Orbach for sure. Chaz Palmetieri too.
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Jerry Orbach used to play straight pool at Amsterdam Billiards, on the UWS in the '90s too. Paul Servino also played there often. I lived only a few blocks away and played there a lot. I frequently begged the owner to get a billiard table, put it fell on deaf ears. (They moved to where Corner Billiards was, on 4th Avenue and 11th Street. Alas, still no billiard table.)
I met the Dutch three-cushion campion Dick Jaspers several times when he would come to New York and play at Caron Café.
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So cool! I was out in Orange County so I didn’t get to play much in the city. We had one place in Chester that had a billiard table as well as British size snooker. Was a family owned place and I think they picked up and moved to Vegas. Their daughter was hoping to go on 9 ball tour. I used to hit the balls around on the bolita table there but no one wanted to play for real. Sometimes my dad would come and play since his dad played at a club in holland when he was a child.
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@hanisch I played some 3-cushion a long time ago. A friend introduced me to the game and at the time I could execute the stroke, like how many tips and location etc., but I couldn’t really see the shots on the table, he told them to me. Anyhoo, I was wandering the ratnet a while back and came across ‘slip stroke’ and hadn’t seen it before. You ever use that, it looks interesting but maybe not in vogue anymore.
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Are you still in Orange County? If you’re ever in the city, let me know if you want to meet for a beer or a bite to eat.
That would be really cool to do but I am no longer in Orange County. I move to Mississippi almost 30 years ago. I might make a visit up there to visit some family and old habits and if I do I’ll be sure to touch base and meter up. Maybe even get a round of golf in!
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I knew a guy who used a slip stroke on the forward stroke. You kind of “throw” the cue into the cueball by loosening the grip of your back hand (the one holding the butt end, not the bridge hand) directly after changing directions, and letting the cue slip or slide through your hand. I can see using it for specialty shots where you purposely don’t want to accelerate through, and just want to let the momentum of the cue deliver the strike into the cueball. You can also do it on the back stroke, letting the cue slip back, and then re-gripping for the forward stroke. Some people say they can get more power by having more range of motion on the forward stroke. I played around with it but never used it seriously.
Three-cushion is hard but not as hard as it looks at first, so long as you already have a decent stroke. I know it seems so abstract at first, but if you watch people who know what they’re doing and play just a few times, you quickly pick up the major patterns. Just knowing the major patterns allows you to play decently. What makes it such a great game is that that there are always new patterns to learn and discover, and even the common ones have so many subtleties that you learn over years of playing. For example, knowing how to see potential kisses and how to manipulate the cueball or object ball to avoid them. And the once you get good, you can even start playing position, controlling where all three balls are going.
I’d love that! Please do!