The 2008 Carolina Open has been the talk of the town for some time now and it has finally come. Monday night, October 6th, at Fast Eddie's Sports Bar and Grill, 1308 Parkway Drive, Goldsboro, North Carolina (www.fasteddiessportsbar.com), a warm-up nine ball tournament was held with a full field of thirty-two players getting in stroke for the week to come.
With $250 added and a $20 entry, the warm-up matched the players up in races to seven on both sides of the charts and nine for the finals (double elimination, Texas Express Rules). Some of the top names in attendance: Larry Kressel, Michael Fuller, Shane Harvey, Manuel Chau, Sidney Champion, Ronnie Wiseman, Brian White, Craig Wolfe, Charlie Bryant, Tony Chohan, Sam Monday, Jeff Abernathy, and Mike Gulyassy.
The results are as follows:
1st Ronnie Wiseman $400
2nd Charlie Bryant $200
3rd Larry Kressel $100
4th Scott Rabon $70
5th/6th Manuel Chau/Sam Monday $40
7th/8th Mike Gulyassy/Sidney Champion $20
The One-Pocket Tournament will be held October 7th-8th and it has officially kicked off with a mandatory player's meeting at noon today. It is a $100 entry division racing to three, with finals one race to five (double elimination). The initial line-up has already played through the first round and there does not appear to be any major upsets. The brackets for this event will be updated periodically, so keep an eye out for those here on AZBilliards.com. Many thanks to Doug Ennis, Tournament Director for this event (and for the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour) for keeping us up-to-date on the latest details.
On Thursday, the Open Ten-Ball Tournament will get underway with the same type of start mandatory player's meeting at noon, play after. This one is a whopper at $10000 added (based on 128 players) with an entry of $200, races to eleven on both sides of the board and in the finals one race to fifteen.
AZBilliards.com will be providing brackets and updates throughout the week from this event. If you are interested in participating in the ten ball event, contact the room directly at (919) 759-0071. As a side note, the venue will remain open 24 hours during the week. Additional information can be found here.
