Hansen on Golf and how good the pro's are.

[Below Par]

I believe you guys when you say how good the top Pro’s are, I’ve been to two Ryder Cups and followed Rory round Walton Heath when the only people who had heard of him were Irish and he’d just shot 61 at Portrush.  Unless the sun is shining they hit the ball further than I can see.


However I was a about a “6 hcp”  club Rugby player and I once took part in a training session to provide opposition for a scratch team  to play the Barbarians at Twickenham the next day.  Somewhere there’s a video of me jumping against Robert Norster the British Lion.  ON the sound track there’s my mates urging me to Jump – my speciality - and ‘assisted’ he was 3’ above me.   The other second row, my position was Willie Anderson who went on to Captain Ireland.  I was in awe of their abilities and they were still officially amateurs.   I saw Martin Johnson in the flesh last month and he was much bigger than Norster and let’s face it, Rugby today is a faster more skilful game.


"the sport with the biggest gulf between the amateurs and the pros"

Maybe Hansen just didn’t’ choose his words carefully. I can see how golf by it’s nature exposes that difference but put a good amateur tennis player into Wimbledon and he’ll get whitewashed no matter who he comes up against in the first round. 


Those guys ARE good...but  all top sportsmen are these days.

[NiceShot]

Pretty much agree. I played 36 holes with current flavour of the Honda Tournament; Tom Gillis many years ago,and whilst a 'nobody' in the scheme of things he was pretty awesome to say the least. Short game was just mind boggling.

And I bet you beat him!

[sevenfourate]

And I bet you beat him!

Not sure why you even thought that buddy. But your wrong !

Trajectory control through the 2 days was to die for and every driver was an exact replication of the last ! Short game was even more immense. Considering he was and still is seen as nothing more than a journeyman it was humbling to say the least.

[NiceShot]

Not sure why you even thought that buddy. But your wrong !

Trajectory control through the 2 days was to die for and every driver was an exact replication of the last ! Short game was even more immense. Considering he was and still is seen as nothing more than a journeyman it was humbling to say the least.

I was jesting mate! These guys are something special.

[Ian]

To be fair saying a good amateur could get by in a Liverpool side is not quite a fair comparison, be more like a team of good amateurs v brazil all time world 11 such is the difference in class between top pros and amateurs.

[inoculator]

Not sure I agree that this would be the biggest gulf between amateur & pros in sport.

Problem is how do you judge it. At least an amateur could knock it round Augusta.

Not sure how many amateur skier's would fancy a run down the Hahnenkamm 

[CapnAhab]

How about chess?
The chances of a "normal" player getting any result out of Karpov or Kasparov is so insignificant that I reckon it'd be something like 1 in 100,000 or greater.  Give me this many goes at Augusta, and I'm bound to have at least one decent round!  (OK, a decent 9 then!). 

[Below Par]

How do we get Hansen and Linaker in to the ring with the current world champs at their weight?

[Scotty]

I'm not sure theres a huge gap between top AM and pro's in golf. I've played with some top notch AMs that went on to play Nationwide and US PGA and they're all just as good on their day. Difference is short game and consistency.

I've a friend that used to play the Asian / Euro joint venture tournaments and he quit because his B game wasn't nearly as good as other players B games. His A game was just as good as anyones out there, just couldnt do it as often as he needed to.

I've also played with some guys who are now on tour and they've not been impressive at all. One hit it off the toe every single time, but he was consistent so it worked.

Others are just superb and they've always been superb. I've played with Richie Ramsay a handful of times throughout his life and he's always been great. He beat my best mate 6 and 5 round Moray New in the Scottish Unis a few years back and my mate was 3 under when they finished. I've seen Richie win similar games finishing 4 or 5 over.

You'd be surprised what dedicating your life to the sport can let you achieve, it's just there aren't many people around with the time / money / backing to do that. There are very few guys out there who just tee it up and excel every week through natural ability. There are a few, but the real awesome players have both and we all know who they are.

I'd say the biggest gap between pros and Ams is snooker!

[SkankyShanky]

Phil The Power Taylor. There's the biggest difference. End of. Fact.