The Billiard Player addressed to Mr. S. H. Fry this question: "Are you correctly reported as saying that proficiency at billiards does not necessarily imply brain power, and that golf is a far more scientific game than billiards?"
To this Mr. Fry replied:" When discussing, with Falkiner, the proposed charges for admission to the Professional Billiards Championship, he advanced the theory that billiards was the most scientific game in the world, and therefore required more brains to master it than any other game, and should be paid accordingly. I asked him, did he think that at a billiards show the seats should be as high as, or higher in price than, in a theatre? He seemed to think they should be higher. He may be right, but I very much doubt whether his heat, or any of the other preliminary heats, could fill either hall at advanced prices. The prices arranged for the preliminary heats range from 10s. to 2s. 4d. for semi-finals, and finals 15s., 10s., and 5s.
It had never occurred to me that billiards required great brain power to be played successfully; in fact, I always thought that the highly-strung imaginative person would be at a disadvantage as compared with the man of a stolid and matter-of-fact disposition. Comparing the games of golf and billiards from a scientific aspect, I consider golf to be the more difficult of the two, as billiards is much more mechanical, as demonstrated by the leading players, who seldom, if ever, have to play a difficult stroke. Asked further what were the scientific niceties of golf that are absent from billiards, Mr. Fry said:— "The individual strokes at golf are more difficult than at billiards. In playing a golf stroke every part of the body is brought into use, whereas at billiards the whole movement is made with the right arm, the rest of the body remaining perfectly rigid. More side, screw, swerve, stop, or run can be imparted to a golf ball than a billiard ball, except, perhaps, in the masse stroke. Then with golf there is generally the wind to contend with and make allowances for, also the inequalities and undulations of the ground to overcome. Again, all billiard tables are practically the same, whereas no two holes at golf are identical, and great judgment is required in recognizing the exact distance necessary to reach the green, especially on a strange course."