Golf
This is a very popular pool game variety. You may encounter it quite frequently in social settings. No, it's not played with golf clubs with you standing on the cloth of the pool table. You still play with cue sticks with your feet on the ground, but the game is based on the rules of the outdoor sport. Golf is often played on a snooker table with snooker balls but can be played on a pool table as well. You just have to make a few adjustments.
The Rules
The pockets on the table are divided into holes as though they are holes on the golf course:
Hole 1 is one of the corner pockets on the head rail.
Hole 2 is the other corner pocket on the head rail.
The holes ascend in numerical order in a clockwise direction.
Tee-Off
You can have any number of players (up to fifteen) in one game, so the way to decide who goes first is by drawing pills. You can buy pool pills at your local billiard supply store. They are fifteen numbered pills in a plastic shaker bottle. You throw them out one at a time like dice and hand each player a pill. The player with the number 1 pill shoots first, followed by the player with the number 2 pill. The player to shoot first can choose any ball and place it on the foot spot with the cue ball on the center spot.
Some say the 9 ball is a lucky ball and will choose that ball to start the game. But you can use whatever ball feels luckiest to you.
To begin the game the first player must place the cue ball in the D-zone of the kitchen behind the head string. (You can refer back to Chapter 16 to find information on the D-zone.) The player's object ball must be placed on the foot spot. You are now shooting for hole number 1, so for your opening shot, you will have to bank the object ball by driving it to the foot rail and back toward the head rail where pocket 1 is located. When the first player misses (doesn't pocket her object ball into the designated pocket), the next player in line sets up the opening shot and shoots. When that player misses, the third player goes, and so on, until all players are in the game. Then it rotates back to the first player, who takes another shot at the pocket. It can get pretty tough at this point because you're dodging all the other balls that are on the table.
Once you've pocketed your object ball into the first pocket (or “hole,” since this is golf), you're ready to move on to the second hole. You then remove the object ball from the pocket and set it on the foot spot again, only this time you shoot the cue ball from where it stands. Here's where it's good to have developed good cue ball control. When you make your first shot, you want the cue ball to come to rest in a position where you can shoot the object ball that you just spotted into pocket 2.
The player who completes all six holes first wins the game.
Fouls
It is a foul to shoot your ball into the wrong pocket. You will lose your turn and the next player gets ball-in-hand within the D-zone and may shoot in any direction. It's also a foul to shoot any ball other than your own first. If you jump a ball off the table, it's a foul. If you're a golf player and a pool player and you can't choose which game you want to play one day — or if you just need a good healthy dose of golf in your day, you won't even have to go outside to dabble in the sport. Now isn't playing golf in the pool hall a lot easier than attempting pool on a golf course?
