Great Southern Billiard Tour / Spring Hill, FL
by Lea Andrews
A-ranked player Dan Dennis made an undefeated run through a field of 32 to emerge the winner of the $1,500-added Great Southern Billiard Tour event, defeating Cliff Tyler in the finals. The June 6-7 event was hosted by Rocky McElroy at Capone’s, his room in Spring Hill, FL.
Dennis made quick work of his winners’ side final four match, sending Cliff Tyler west with a score of 9-2 and going on to face Dan Whitten, who had bested Jason Richko 9-6. Whitten’s score got reversed on him in the match for the hot seat, and he joined the one-loss side.
On the left side of the bracket, A-ranked Albert Howe, who had allowed Bill Stoll just three games in his last match, met AA-ranked Jimmy Dempsey, who’d just bested Nolan Lane 11-3. In this match, it was Dempsey who was held to 3, and he finished in seventh. Unfortunately for Howe, he carried the three-game trend into his next match, falling to Tyler 9-3. Meanwhile, Rich Schau, who’d had a strong 11-2 win over Bart Rich, met Louie Smith, who’d had a 9-8 win over Bobby Moore. A-ranked Smith managed to get to the hill against AA-ranked Schau but he came up short of the win, finishing in seventh with a score of 11-8. Schau backed up that win with an 11-6 win over Jason Richko, but he couldn’t close out the win against Tyler, marking up six games and taking fourth.
In the one-loss semifinal match, Whitten was shooting for a rematch with Dennis, but so was Tyler. The men both fought hard for it, taking the match hill-hill, but Tyler sunk the final 9 and moved on to the finals.
Tyler needed to take both sets of the true double-elimination finals to win, but Dennis was ready for him, and he wasn’t going to let Tyler level the playing field by taking the first set. Dennis took the final game in the hill-hill match for his first win on the Great Southern Billiard Tour.
A-ranked player Dan Dennis made an undefeated run through a field of 32 to emerge the winner of the $1,500-added Great Southern Billiard Tour event, defeating Cliff Tyler in the finals.
Results:
1st Dan Dennis $1,000
2nd Cliff Tyler $500
3rd Dan Whitten $300
4th Rich Schau $150
5th Albert Howe $70
Jason Richko
7th Louie Smith $30
Jimmy Dempsey