Murray Tinker's croquet visualiser is no longer just coming soon. The 2017 Australian Golf Croquet Men's Singles champion, now club captain at Caloundra Mallet Sports Club, has put his free browser-based tool to work, and the first full lesson is one every player can use: ghost-ball aiming.

The ghost ball, borrowed from billiards

Ghost-ball aiming comes from billiards and snooker. You picture an imaginary ball sitting against the ball you want to hit, lined up with where you want that ball to go. The point where the imaginary ball touches is exactly where your ball has to strike. Once you can see it, you can aim for it, or pick a blade of grass on that line and aim for that instead.

What makes Murray's tool different is that you can watch the physics happen. Drop the balls on the simulated lawn, draw an aiming line, and play the shot out. Hit through the centres and the balls separate straight ahead. Put an angle on the strike and they part at close to a right angle, the elastic collision that every croquet player relies on without always knowing its name.

Murray is honest about the real lawn, too. Between the milling on the balls and the resistance of the grass, that right angle is often closer to 85 degrees than 90. The model teaches the principle; the lawn teaches the feel.

More than a party trick

In the lesson, Murray walks through where ghost-ball aiming earns its keep. Cutting a ball onto the peg from a tight angle. Clearing an opponent off the front of a hoop while still running it yourself, the in-off that wins games. These are the shots that look like luck until you understand the angles behind them, and then they start to look like a plan.

A coaching tool for the whole game

The aiming lesson is one slice of what the visualiser does. It covers all three codes, golf croquet, association, and gateball, the ten-ball game from Japan laid out properly with its three gates and centre pole. You can draw arrows and circles straight onto the lawn, mark the spot where you want a ball to finish, and record a sequence then replay it slowly while you talk through each shot. A 3D version is taking shape as well, with a lawn you can spin and view from any angle.

It began, in Murray's own words, when he set out to make better videos and "got carried away". Gemini AI lent a hand with the building, and the croquet knowledge is all his own. He refines it almost daily, and his aim is to make it free for everyone, everywhere, if the right sponsor can be found.

Have a look at the lesson below, and if you would like to know more, Murray welcomes enquiries at 2tinkers@gmail.com.