By Brad Williams
Hitting perfection in any sport is something that only the top percentile of athletes could even hope to achieve- and even then, it is a tall order with a ridiculous amount of skill (and sometimes luck) involved.
Darts, Snooker and Golf are all sports where the prefect play can be made darts with its nine-darter, Snooker with the 147 and then Golf with the hole-in-one. However, sports fans often debate which one is the most difficult to achieve, so let us discuss and break them down one by one to start.
The nine-darter is the fastest possible way to check out from 501 and requires nine perfectly thrown darts. Although there are quite a few different routes you can take to achieve this, in fact there are 3,944 unique combinations, but it is essential to hit six to eight trebles on the bounce, depending on the route.
Now, as difficult as they are to land, we have seen a significant increase in the last few years due to the ever-improving standard of darts. The last televised nine-darter came on November 9th, 2025, when Luke Humphries hit perfection during the Grand Slam of Darts.
147 is the highest possible score during a singular visit to the table which can be done by all fifteen red balls, each one followed by black and then all six of the coloured balls in the sequence of yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black which completes the total score of 147. It requires 36 consecutive pots making it quite a rarity in the sport of snooker. The last televised 147 came at the hands of Mark Allen during the 2025 World Championship last April.
Hole-in-one does what it says on the tin: achieved by hitting the ball directly from the tee, at the first attempt, directly into the hole. A much-celebrated feat in the world of Golf due to its rarity, often honoured by the player buying drinks for their fellow golfers. A televised hole-in-one was captured as recently as January 2026 by Charley Hoffman during the Champions Tour.
So, which is the most difficult? Well, that is up for debate. It could be argued that the 147 requires more “perfect” hits as you have to pot 36 consecutive balls, as opposed to nine perfect darts or one perfect ball in golf, however the margin of error could been seen as lower in darts due to the small treble and double sections which require a greater degree of precision, or in Golf given the scale of the playing field and outside factors like wind.
What I will say is that the hole-in-one Is the most rarely seen and is statically the most unlikely to happen with it estimated to be around 3000-1 for professional players. With that said, the hole-in-one is probably toughest to pull off, especially intentionally, there is a larger degree of luck involved as opposed to the nine-darter or 147.
From a skill point of view, I would make the case for the nine-darter or 147 being the most difficult to achieve because of how small the margins of error are. Either way, it is always a fun and interesting debate to have, and we can all agree how impressive each one is to their respective sport.