Mike Davis began the year with two back-to-back victories in January on the 2008/2009 Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour. He made appearances at three more stops on the tour through April and then shifted his attention to Florida, and a few selected other locations. He won the Florida State Championship in September and a stop on the KF Cues tour in October, before he came back to North Carolina and won the opening stop on the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour at Shooters, in Greensboro, NC on the weekend of October 30-November 1. He joined a small field of 15 entrants who'd signed on for the $1,000-added event and went undefeated.
In such a small field, a single victory put Davis among the winners' side final four, where he faced Scott Lewis and promptly sent him to the left bracket 7-2. By the same score, Eddie Little sent Arnold Hamlet west. Davis gained the hot seat with a 7-2 win and waited for what turned out to be Hamlet's return to the finals.
On the one-loss side, Jeff Abernathy, who had just been narrowly defeated by Davis in the previous round (hill-hill, with Abernathy sinking the final 9-ball and then scratching) was on something of a mission to get back to the finals. He defeated Delton Howard 7-3 and shutout Jerry Hilton to meet Hamlet. Lewis, in the meantime, was met by B.J. Ussery, who'd defeated Adam Stanton 7-2 and Paul Mullins in a hill-hill struggle. Abernathy's quest for redemption came to a stop when (if you'll excuse the expression) Hamlet chose it ‘not to be' and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-5 win. By the same score, Lewis ended Ussery's bid.
Hamlet then got by Lewis in the quarterfinals 7-4 and survived a hill-hill matchup versus Little in the semifinals that followed. Hamlet's quest for the top prize was another ‘not to be' moment. While Davis took an early, slim 3-1 lead, Hamlet fought back to tie it at 4-4 and stay close through 14 racks at 8-6. Davis three-fouled Hamlet to move out in front by three at 9-6 and then, reach the hill first. Hamlet was shooting at the 9-ball in the 16th rack, but missed it. Davis missed it as well, but left Hamlet with a low percentage shot, which he missed. Left with a difficult cut, Davis made it to finish an undefeated weekend with an 11-6 victory.
On Friday, five players entered an Early Bird event, which was won by Kris Bowers in a hill-hill final battle against Kevin Boggs. Two women squared off in a Ladies event, won by Adrianna Cody in a 7-2 final victory over Trish Cody. Zach Leonard picked up the award as the event's only amateur. Johnny Miller won the $600 Jacoby Custom Cue Raffle, the Break Contest was won by Delton Howard, and with no one successfully winning the event's Break and Run contest, the ‘pot' for future events was raised slightly to $66/ball.
The next stop on the tour is scheduled for the weekend of November 20-22 at Greentop Billiards in Rocky Mount, NC.
