was approached today with this question and being stubborn as i am i answered and totally stood by my answer as i had all the answers to go with my beliefs.anyway the question is
Q-a boxer is getting totally wacked by his apponent.he is desperatley hanging on even to stand-up as he is being totally outclassed.out of desperation he throws a punch and knocks out his apponent!!!
Q-a golfer gets a hole in one!!!
these two senarios,would you believe to be luck or skill???
now just remember that the objective of boxing is to knock out your opponent and the objective in golf is to sink the ball in as little strokes as possible!!!
If you want to get technical about it… hole in ones usually happen for lucky bad golfers because they generally hit the ball with a lower trajectory and more roll. This type of ball flight gives the ball a greater chance of going in the hole than the high, low roll iron shots of better golfers.
in my opinion this question is really highly debatable.
re-the boxer=getting the stuffing knocked out of him and out of desperation swinging a wild punch would be in my opinion pure luck.right rime right place senario.on the other hand it could have been timed to perfection which can occur but i think not and this is why i would call it pure luck.
re-golfer=the objective on a par3 is to get a hole in one but it is very very unlikely that you will achieve it as the actual hole is tiny compared to the distance involved,wind direction and weather conditions.etc etc.i would again call this total luck.
skill is something that you can repeat over and over with precision.a golfer can perfect his golf swing and ball striking ability to perfection but althought this capablity is in place a hole in one is still luck.
Given the unforgiving competative nature of sport I don’t think it matters if it is luck OR skill. What if you went a step further and included “wining by bending the rules”. Mahummed Ali, Diago Maradonna and even Michael Jordan, they have once or twice bent the rules, and it didn’t stop them being the greatest at their respective professions. Winning is winning. Try saying the opposite point of view to a world champion poker player!
Based on the question Id have to vote for skill/talent. The boxer that got knocked out should have seen the wild punch coming. So he wasnt as skilled in defending counter punches. So the outclassed boxer was skilled enough to throw a wild punch in desperation.
As explained by X-Man the golfer aims to get the ball in the hole in as few a strokes as possible. Although a hole in one is rare it is not impossible. The golfer has the skills that in the right conditions would allow for a hole in one.