Tommy Kennedy, Anthony Meglino and Raymond Linares
It was all of that.
Labeled as a “Masters Classic,” the August 20-21 stop on the Florida Pool Tour featured (among others) Anthony Meglino, Tommy Kennedy, Ray Linares, Mike Delawder and 28 other pool Masters. It concluded with Meglino, Kennedy and Linares finishing 1, 2 & 3, although when the hour hand on the clock was in the vicinity of 5 a.m. on Sunday morning, Meglino and Kennedy opted out of a final and split the top two prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, Meglino claimed the $1,500-added event title, which had drawn its (capped-at) 32 entrants to Stroker’s in Palm Harbor, FL.
In effect, the hot seat match between Meglino and Kennedy became the championship match. As it turned out, Meglino’s ‘toughest’ opponent (based on racks against him) was Kim Dyer, who faced him in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Meglino had opened with a 7-2 win over Dave Stern and followed that up with a victory over Tim Barron 7-4, before meeting up with Dyer, who scored five racks against him. Meglino advanced to draw the 14-year-old ‘phenom’ Konnor McFadyen in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Kennedy, in the meantime, downed Stroker’s owner, Jose Del Rio 7-4 and Linares 7-2 to draw Jimmy Garza in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Meglino downed McFadyen 7-3 and was joined in what turned out to be that championship hot seat match by Kennedy, who’d sent Garza to the loss side 7-5. Meglino claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Kennedy.
The ‘kid’ McFadyen drew Linares, who’d followed his loss to Kennedy with wins over Mike Delawder 7-3 and Jamison Daniels 7-2. Garza picked up Lee Heuwagen, who’d lost to McFadyen 7-5 in the other winners’ side quarterfinal and then eliminated Del Rio and Michael Xiarhos, both 7-5.
Saturday was slipping into Sunday as Linares finished McFayden’s day+ with a shutout. Garza joined him in the quarterfinals after ending Heuwagen’s day+ 7-4. Linares and Garza locked up in a double-hill semifinal fight that did eventually give Kennedy the chance for a rematch against Meglino, waiting for him in the hot seat.
Didn’t happen. Dawn was coming at the time and the two Florida vets were done, literally and figuratively. They split the top cash and headed home.
Tour representatives thanked Del Rio and his Stroker’s staff as well as sponsors Aramith Balls, Outsville, Simonis Cloth, Salotto Pro, DigitalPool, FargoRate, Crosby’s Billiards and Darts Supply, Straight Shooter Gear, propatchlab.com and XLPress Co. The next stop on the Florida Pool Tour, scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 5-6, will be the $A1,500-added Capone’s Winter Classic Championship, hosted by Capone’s in Spring Hill, FL.
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