Bagwell Hangs on to Great Southern Billiard Tour Win
Great Southern Billiard Tour / Conway, SC
by Skip Maloney, Inside POOL Magazine
Brian Bagwell snared the win at the latest stop on the Great Southern Billiard Tour at Break Room Billiards in Conway, SC.
In spite of a strong effort that forced a second set in a true double-elimination final, Brian Bagwell hung on to defeat Greg Dix and win the Great Southern Billiard Tour’s amateur event, held the weekend of August 23-24. The $2000-added event drew 53 entrants to Break Room Billiards in Conway, SC.
Earlier Sunday, among the winners’-side final four, Bagwell had defeated Danny Mastermaker in a double-hill struggle that put him up against Larry Faulk in the hot seat match. Faulk had just completed an 8-6 bout of his own against Larry Jackson. Bagwell sent Faulk to the semifinals with relative ease 8-3.
In the meantime, Dix, already assured a spot among the event’s final 12 winners, proceeded to win four matches in a row on the one-loss side by increasingly narrower margins. He started off with an 8-3 win over Rocky Guell and followed it with an 8-5 victory over Jason Heyward. He then defeated Jackson 8-6 and won a double-hill battle against Phillip Britt in the quarterfinals. He picked up some momentum from a subsequent 8-2 victory over Faulk in the semifinal match.
Dix took that momentum into the opening set of the finals, jumping out to a 6-2 lead. He allowed Bagwell to draw within one at 6-5 but won the final two to force a second set. This time it was Bagwell, jumping out to an early 3-1 lead, before Dix tied it. Bagwell went ahead by another three games and Dix responded, knotting it at 6-6. Bagwell reached hill first, but Dix matched the effort. With an alternate-break format in place, Bagwell broke the last rack and ran the table to secure the victory.
Results:
1st Brian Bagwell
2nd Greg Dix
3rd Larry Faulk
4th Phillip Britt
5th Larry Jackson
Danny Mastermaker
7th Jason Heyward
Junior Farias
9th Mike Staubes
Rocky Guell
Jim Jennings
Jared McGee