Three in a Row on Lone Star Tour for Bryant
Lone Star Tour / Houston, TX
by Lea Andrews
Charlie “Hillbilly” Bryant is taking all comers on the Lone Star Tour and putting every one of them in their place. Going undefeated July 18-19 through the field of 89 who arrived for the $2,000-added Rose Country Classic at Rose Country Club in Houston, TX, Bryant notched his third straight win on the tour, putting himself even further ahead in the tour’s standings.
With a 9-3 win over Sparky Ferrell, Bryant arrived in the winners’ side final four to face Dennis Strickland, who had just gotten past Nick Hood 9-7. Bryant’s strong 9-5 win over Strickland landed him in the hot seat match against Bobby Pacheco, who’d edged out David Gutierrez 9-8 before knocking aside Gary Abood 9-2. It was in the hot seat match that there was a brief moment when it seemed the mighty Bryant might actually get a taste of the left side of the bracket, but it wasn’t to be. The two men went back and forth with their games the whole set, with Bryant reaching the hill first. But Pacheco tied it up and broke the final rack wide open, pocketing two balls and leaving himself a good shot on the 1 ball to get out. He drew the cue ball too far back, though, leaving himself almost frozen on the 2 ball and without a shot. After a few messy innings, Bryant finally took control, ending it 9-8.
On the one-loss side, Manuel Alaya, having made his way through Dalton Riley 7-2 and Gutierrez 7-2, came out on the right side of a hill-hill battle with Barry Emerson before running into Strickland, who put him on the wrong side of their own hill-hill battle. That win put Strickland into the one-loss quarterfinals against Ferrell, who’d gone through Ishmael Ramirez 7-6, Cliff Joyner 7-5, and Abood 7-3. Ferrell backed that 7-3 win up with one against Strickland to get into the semifinals, where he ended up on top 7-3 one last time.
The true double-elimination finals went quite a different way for Ferrell, though. Bryant opened up the set with seven straight wins, which Ferrell seemed to try to return, marking up four of his own. That’s where it ended for him, though, as Bryant took the last two to finish up by a nice 9-4 margin.
Charlie “Hillbilly” Bryant is taking all comers on the Lone Star Tour and putting every one of them in their place.
Results:
1st Charlie Bryant $1,280
2nd Sparky Ferrell $750
3rd Bobby Pacheco $550
4th Dennis Strickland $400
5th Gary Abood $325
Manuel Ayala
7th Cliff Joyner $160
Barry Emerson
9th Ishmael Ramirez $100
Nick Hood
Sunny Bosshamer
David Gutierrez
13th Gustavo Correa $80
David Thomas
Danny Lee
Dalton Riley