George Saunders, Will Schoonmaker, Erica Gordon, Erik Decious, Amanda Brisson, Bobby & Jimmy Garza
The Billiard Factory hosted its third annual pool festival at its Jacksonville, Florida store. Four events took place which included the Andy Cloth Mixed Doubles 9-Ball Open, the Billiard Factory Junior 8-Ball Open, the Pure X Cues 10-Ball Amateur Open and the Kamui Free Pro Clinic with Charlie Williams. The big story was about two local Jacksonville brothers named Jimmy Garza and Bobby Garza who split up in events and both won their respective divisions. There was a little something for everyone that came. The Billiard Factory events were all produced by Dragon Promotions.
The events drew over 50 players from Georgia and Florida as well as numerous fans who came just to watch and enjoy the fresh grilled barbecue. Players competed from the ages of 7 years old up to 70. In the Andy Cloth Mixed Doubles 9-Ball, early favorites included the teams of Rachel Manning (last year's runner-up) & Asher Le, Shanelle Loraine & George Saunders, and Bobby Garza and Amanda Brisson. Manning and Le made an early upset against Loraine & Saunders but later were in turn upset by Erica Gordon and Will Schoonmaker in the semi-finals. But in the end, Brisson & Garza defeated Gordon & Schoonmaker 4-2 for the title.
In the Pure X Open 10-Ball, 30 players narrowed down to the clash between the event's two best players. George Saunders of Orlando was the early favorite, but Jacksonville's Jimmy Garza had been on a hot streak in the Southeast winning back to back amateur events. Garza took a loss against Saunders in his first match, but came all the way back to meet him in the finals. Saunders had escaped a thrilling hill hill match with Scott Rohleder, but Garza came out strong and in a high quality match, he came out with a 5-3 win over Saunders for the title.
“ We've been keeping an eye on our Billiard Factory location in Florida, and we are really excited to see the fan interest grow. Pro-active events create more loyalty, which is essential to building any business. Our managing partner Erik Decious has been with Billiard Factory for 17 years and his enthusiasm for the billiard industry is something we can all use today," says Tony Stick, Vice-President of Billiard Factory which has 12 locations throughout the nation. Billiard Factory is the largest billiard retail store in the United States.
"The events this year were an even bigger success than last year. And we have something special planned with Dragon Promotions this October to commemorate the 18th anniversary of our Florida Billiard Factory location", said Erik Decious, Managing Partner for Billiard Factory.
