Great Southern Billiard Tour / Sanford, NC
by Lea Andrews
Sean Davis plowed an undefeated path through the Great Southern Billiard Tour field the weekend of July 25-26. The $1,500-added A/B amateur event, held at Speakeazy Billiards in Sanford, NC, drew 74 tough competitors.
B-ranked Davis found himself in the hot seat match following a hill-hill match with B-ranked Brad Shearer. Meeting him there was AA-ranked Sam Monday, who’d just sent B-ranked J.R. Poste to the left side of the bracket 11-5. Getting off to a 4-1 lead, Monday seemed the likely winner, but Davis battled back, tying it at six and at seven to win the match while Monday, who was going to 11, still needed four games.
On the one-loss side, AA-ranked Scott Lewis fell 7-7 to B-ranked Danny Crouch, who was coming off a 7-6 win over A-ranked Larry Faulk. Meanwhile, B-ranked Danny Mastermaker had his own 7-6 win over A-ranked David Brown, moving on to a 7-4 win over B-ranked Barry Mashburn before falling to Poste 7-3. Poste moved on to the quarterfinals against Crouch, who’d come out on top of a hill-hill match with Shearer. Crouch didn’t allow Poste as many games, though, holding him to four and moving on to the semifinals against Monday.
Although the match began relatively evenly, tying up at four, that was where Monday made his move. After making five balls on the break in rack nine, Monday ran out to make it 5-4 and didn’t let Crouch back in, finishing up 11-4 to get back to Davis.
In the true double-elimination final match, Monday got off to a 2-0 lead, but Davis tied it at two, at three, and, after Monday’s unlikely miss on a 9 ball, at four. Monday got it to 6-4, but that’s where he stopped. Davis took rack 11, making it 6-5, and made it 6-6 after Monday missed the 1 ball in rack 12. Davis’ controlled and powerful break put three balls in the pockets in the final rack, opening up the table for game, set, match, and tournament.
Sean Davis plowed an undefeated path through the Great Southern Billiard Tour field the weekend of July 25-26.
Results:
1st Sean Davis $1,000
2nd Sam Monday $600
3rd Danny Crouch $400
4th J.R. Poste $150
5th Danny Mastermaker $150
Brad Shearer
7th Barry Mashburn $100
Scott Lewis
9th Vernon Ringold $70
David Brown
Joe Williams
Larry Faulk
13th Mike Fuller $45
James Blackburn
Duane Davis
Glen Russell