Pool proficiency requires mastery of spins and angles and skill in organizing a sequence of shots. Winning depends heavily on sound, strategic thinking. Champion pool players, such as Minnesota Fats or Steve Mizerak, know how to manipulate the cue ball with spin. Their wizardry includes almost perfect control of all angles on a pool table. Golf is also a game of spins and angles.
Pros talk of working the ball.
Technically, this means imparting various spins so that while the ball is airborne it moves toward the chosen target and rolls advantageously when it lands. Working includes the skills of fading, drawing, stopping the ball, and making shots bounce forward. While a well-made pool table is a perfectly planed surface, a golf hole can be seen as a field of hundreds of angled planes, which can deflect the ball in various directions. Visualize a hole as a series of planes without grass, trees, and water. That s the designer s view when he lays out a hole.