 Belinda Lee and Julie Melman |
The Fast Eddie's Olhausen 9 Ball Tour sponsored by Schuler Legacy Cues held stop number nine for the 2007 season in Austin, TX. for the Ladies division. With many new faces in attendance, thirty-three ladies descended on the Texas capitol to do battle.
Along with the new faces, the hierarchy of Ladies' Tour was in attendance making this an outstanding field of talent. Top picks were Heather Lloyd, Amanda Lampert, Kyu Yi, Belinda Lee, Julie Melman, Jennifer Kraber, Michelle Cortez, Terry Petrosino, Cristina De La Garza, Melinda Hinojosa and Helen Hayes.
First of all, The Tour staff would like to thank Shayla Neris for helping run the bracket and keeping things hopping on the ladies side of the tournament. She was a life saver!
Jumping into the 7-8th positions were Michelle Abernathy and Kyu Yi. Each received $60 for their efforts.
The 5-6th placements went to Jennifer Kraber of Austin and Cheyna Wigley of Odessa. These ladies played hard and were rewarded $90 for their play.
Heather Lloyd of Austin played with her usual consistency with victories over Shannon Rivera, Melinda Hinojosa and Michelle Yim before being sent to the one loss side by Julie Melman. From there, she defeated Jennifer Kraber. Heather was finally defeated by Helen Hayes to end her run with a very nice 4th place finish and a $240 payday.
Helen Hayes of San Antonio had lasik surgery recently and her new eyeballs did the trick as she triumphed over Sue Chong, her good friend and long time adversary on the table, Kim Margeneau and Julia Rapp before being sent to the other side of the bracket by Belinda Lee in the semi's on the winner's side. She, then, eliminated Cheyna and Heather before ending her journey after again running into a determined Belinda Lee. A $390 paycheck and a great 3rd place finish for a very nice lady.
Belinda Lee of Houston played with a lot of heart and determination as she had wins over Jennifer Kraber, Yvette Reyes, Michelle Abernathy and Helen Hayes to reach the finals in the winner's bracket for the hot seat match where she took her first loss against Julie Melman.
Julie Melman of Detroit has been on the road, honing her skills, and it showed this weekend. She went through the winner's bracket virtually unthreatened with victories over very tough competitors such as Kelly Stanley, Amanda Lampert, Barbara Wisdom, Heather Lloyd and Belinda Lee to jump into the hot seat.
After her loss to Julie for the hot seat, Belinda eliminated Helen Hayes in the finals of the one loss side to challenge Julie again for the final match. Belinda played hard but Julie again showed her dominance by winning the final match by a score of 7-2. Congratulations to Belinda for her second place finish worth $585 and to Julie for her first Tour victory and a $930 paycheck.
Thanks to Ron Geyer of The Custom Cue Connection, Jack Kompan of Mystick Cues, Jeff Reidel and Robby Tims of Behind the 8 Ball Cue Sales & Service and Paul with S & S Custom Cues of Lubbock for their support of the Tour.
This Tour would not be a tour if it were not for the support and generosity shown by Olhausen Billiards and Schuler Legacy Cues. Both companies are not only cornerstones for the Tour but for the entire billiard industry.
A huge thanks goes out to Fast Eddie's Billiards for simply being the greatest. Thanks to Danny and his staff at the Fast Eddie's in Austin for hosting the event.
See y'all next month at the Fast Eddie's in Amarillo on August 11-12. Until then, keep knockin' the backs of those pockets out!
