Larry Walthall had the home field advantage taking first place when the Fury Florida Amateur 9-Ball Tour brought its event to Wally's Billiards in Lakeland, Fl on October 24. Walthall, an employee of Wally's Billiards and the points leader in the tour showed the 32-player field that he was in stroke.
Walthall was working his way though the winners side when he met up with Jim Sandaler in the quarterfinals. Sandaler forced Walthall in a 7-4 match to the one-loss side showing him he was going have to work for a win in his own home field.
Showing he was in stroke Walthall keep his cool and determination as him moved through the west side. Tim Wotherspoon was knocked to 5th/6th place when he faced Walthall 5-4. Last events winner Robert Noon met the same faith as Wotherspoon when Walthall took him out 5-4 leaving Noon in 4th place.
Tony Plescia was on the winners side till he met up with Sandaler in the hot seat match. The match was tough with Sandaler jumping into an early led 1-0 but the defensive play was giving everyone a good guessing game. Plescia got some breaks and brought himself in the lead 3- but Sandaler was in stroke and had played some good matches. Sandaler tied the score up 4-all and then took off winning 7-5.
Now Plescia and Walthall were facing off in the semifinals and both were ready. Walthall broke and run the 1st game but Plescia showed Walthall that he was ready for a fight when in the second game he did a 1-9 combo to tie the score. The two battled it out by trading a few games till it was 3 all. Walthall played an excellent match as he went the rest of the way taking the match at 5-3 leaving Plescia in 3rd place.
The finals was now set with Walthall coming back to play Sandaler who had put him into the losers side earlier. Both players exhausted from the long day and lots of matches were still in the game with some excellent plays. Walthall was determined not to be beat in his own home field but Sandaler took the first lead 3-1. The match when tied 4-all showed that both players wanted the win. Walthall grabbed the next two games but Sandaler was not down for the count yet. The play was traded but Waltall never gave up his two game lead and took the match 9-7 winning the tournament.
1st place: Larry Walthall $430
2nd place: Jim Sandaler $260
3rd place: Tony Plescia $170
4th place: Robert Noon $140
5th/6th place: Tim Wotherspoon, Fred Alexander $50 each
7th/8th place: Wayne Hutter, Jose Ybarra $40 each
