Four time nine-ball world champion Johnny Archer grew up and learned to shoot as a kid just a few miles down the road from me. I followed his career, as much as I could watching TV, until he retired from pro level competition. He now shoots local tournaments where I have had the opportunity to get to know him better, and try to learn from his techniques. Billiards has been a fascination for me ever since high school. In college I majored in agriculture and minored in snooker. Spent about as much time in Kendrick's Recreation Center, the local pool hall in Tifton, as I did in class at school.
I played golf in high school and college but lost interest in playing the game as an adult. It's a ritual for my wife and I to watch the closing round of The Masters Golf Tournament, here in Augusta, each April. The Augusta National, where it is held, has to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It's like a paradise.
Cliff Thorburn, first and only non British World snooker champion used to play at the pool hall my friends and I played at during Uni days in the mid 1970s.
