When he started his day among the 62 entrants signed on for the KF Cues Amateur 9-Ball Tour stop on Sunday, July 25, Albert Howe trailed Mark Wathen by 10 points in scoring for Amateur Player of the Year honors on that tour. When the day was over, it was minutes into Monday, and Howe had added 125 points to that score, by winning the $700-added event, hosted by Ultimate Billiards in Fort Pierce, FL.
Howe had actually accumulated the points necessary to secure his standing as Player of the Year by getting into the hot seat match against Sam Ketcham. From among the winners' side final four, Howe had defeated Jimmy Sandaler 7-3, as Ketcham was sending Richard Knight west 7-5. With Player of the Year in his pocket, so to speak, Howe went on to defeat Ketcham 7-2, gaining the hot seat, and waiting for Ketcham to come back from the semifinals.
On the one-loss side, Delawder, who would finish third in Player of the Year standings, shut out Matt Holland and got by Faulton Kemph 5-3 to meet Sandaler. Jesse Langston, with a 5-4 win over Scott Nobel and a 5-1 victory over Bobbie Moore was waiting for Knight. It was Sandaler (6-2 over Delawder) and Knight (5-4 over Langston) advancing to the quarterfinals. Sandaler then dropped Knight into fourth place 6-5, and as an upper level amateur, giving up two racks, faced Ketcham in the semifinals.
Ketcham took four of the six games in those semifinals, which, with his two-rack advantage, sent him back for a second match against Howe; an even-up race to 8 in the finals. Howe gave up only a single rack on his way to an 8-1 victory that completed his undefeated day and honors as the tour's Amateur Player of the Year.
Fans and players alike, are urged to attend the event at Strokers II in Tampa, Florida on August 29th - 30th where the player of year awards will be handed out.
