"Lucky" or "Skillful"?

By Charles E. Vasoll

Did you see Tom Watson’s second shot on the Par 4 hole on the first day of the U.S. (golf) Open? It rolled in the hole from over a hundred yards away for an eagle score of 2. Was it "lucky" or a matter of skill?

The reason I mention it is because I have heard so many comments about the platform tennis serve hitting the net and dropping for a winner. "Lucky" or a shot with skill?

It seems to me that every sport has a moment when even one of its least talented players does something that is unlikely to ever be done again. There is no way to make Official Rules to prevent it. Certainly the rules should be made to equalize the "lucky" situations. However, there will always remain a shot, a stroke, or some unusual occurrence that will make a standard play into a "lucky" break.

When the net cord rule changed from a "let" to "being in play" the discussion brought about several examples of "luck" in other aspects of the game. The most notable was when the ball hit the net and just as an opponent was about to return it. But, because of hitting the net, the ball hopped over the opponent’s paddle for a winning point. "Luck or skill"- you tell me. Probably the player hitting the ball could not hit the net and have the ball hop over the opponent’s paddle once in several hundred attempts.

A second situation in which "luck or "skill" became a factor was when a service was inadvertently called a let (net cord) when, in fact, the noise heard was from a car door closing some distance away. Is it "luck" or "skill" to have served at just that moment when noises from other areas determine the correct call in such a situation?

Finally, I guess it’s everyone’s favorite, the ball that is hit off the end edge of the paddle and spins furiously so that an opponent can’t get to it. Luck or skill? How many times in the warm-up has this happened with a remark following like "You practice that all the time?"

There is just no question that "luck" plays a role in determining a champion in most sports. It is the frequency with which it happens that is the concern. We know from actual play, especially on the highest skill level, that "lucky" net cord winners on service in platform tennis are very, very, rare. As I see it, there is no reason to reverse this rule considering the few instances in which it happens.