The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour drew a star-studded field of 48 players to Gametime-Riptide in Greenville SC for their event this weekend. The field contained five former Viking Tour winners, along with five female and four junior players to took advantage of the free entry offered to females and juniors.
Joe Rossman, from Columbus Georgia, surprised a few players with wins over Brian Bagwell, Mike Gulyassi, Brian Butler and BJ Ussery to get to the match for the hot-seat. Rossman's opponent for the hot-seat, Ignacio Chavez, scored wins over Marcus Henley, Brian White, Jeff Bumgarner, Mike Stewart and Tony Watson on his way to the match. Chavez took the hot-seat with a dominating 7-2 win over Rossman.
On the one-loss side, Rossman found Tony Watson waiting. Watson had eliminated Ussery and Butler to get this far and he took out Rossman 7-3 to earn a rematch with Chavez in the finals.
Watson took the first rack of the finals for an early 1-0 lead, but an empty break in rack two let Chavez to the table and Watson did not get to the table again until he was trailing 6-1. Chavez came up dry on the break in the eighth rack, but Watson did not have a shot. A push out and quick safety exchange led to Chavez regaining control of the table and running out for a 7-1 win.
Chavez earned $1850 for first, while Watson settled for $1100. Rossman and Ussery filled out the top four spots.
Tour director Mike Janis commented that the 18 tables at Gametime-Riptide played like a dream and the room is a "must see" for anyone traveling in the Greenville area.
The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour will be at Smokin Cue Billiards in Charlotte, NC for their next event on November 20th-21st.
Complete Results:
1st Ignacio Chavez $1850
2nd Tony Watson $1100
3rd Joe Rossman $700
4th BJ Ussery $425
5th/6th Brian White, Brian Butler $200
7th/8th Nikki Hollingsworth, Brian Capps $100
9th/12th Mike Bumgarner, Mike Stewart, Jeff Abernathy, Scott Rabon $50
