Shawn Putnam motored through a field of 82 players at the Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour stop held at Fiddlestix Billiard Café in Canton, OH this weekend.
Putnam and Troy Frank were the top two seeds on Saturday and both played some great pool all weekend long.
Frank finished in fourth place after a loss to Jim Davis from Mentor, OH on the one loss side. At the same time, Putnam also scored the come-back win of the weekend as he fell behind 7-1 and 8-2 against Joseph Arbuckle from Greenway, WV. Putnam came back to trail by one at 7-8 and was running out the 16th rack to knot the score at hill-hill when he missed a very makeable 9-ball allowing Arbuckle to secure the hot-seat for the first time in his Viking Tour career. Arbuckle commented that he couldn't remember winning a match in the Viking Tour events he has played in, let alone winning the hot seat.
The remaining players then learned that while beating Putnam on the winners side might be tough, it is even harder to beat him on the one-loss side. Putnam immediately snapped into gear as he defeated Jim Davis 9-3 to set up the rematch with Arbuckle. Putnam would have to defeat Arbuckle twice if he wanted to secure his third straight Viking Tour win and he overwhelmed Arbuckle 9-2 and then 9-1 for the victory.
Putnam won $1350 for first, while Arbuckle settled for $1050 in second place money. Davis and Frank filled out the top four spots.
The Viking Tour will be at Bankshot Billiards in Hilliard, OH next weekend for their next stop.
Photo courtesy of Worldpool.com
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Complete Payouts:
1st Shawn Putnam $1550
2nd Joseph Arbuckle $1050
3rd Jim Davis $750
4th Troy Frank $510
5th/6th John Maki, Mark Cimperman $230
7th/8th Brian Halter, Louie Karamas $150
9th/12th Aaron White, Doug Nauer, Shayne Morrow, Sean Graham $70
13th/16th Marty Lawson, Jason Nimitz, Jeffe Lee, Chris Szuter $50
