Belinda Lee and Teresa Garland
Belinda Lee cruised to her second win of the tour season besting Teresa Garland in the final, 7-5, capturing the event and the 2014 Gulf Coast Women’s Regional Tour Champion title. It was a long row to hoe for Lee, with the plethora of Texas talent who turned out for the final event. WPBA player members took advantage of their final opportunity to earn points towards 2015 WPBA Regional Tour Championship invites. The “RTC’s” will be held January 8th-11th, 2015, at Breakers Sky Bar Lounge in Herndon, Virginia, and feature the top players from (14) WPBA Regional Tours across the U.S. and Canada.
Lee came out firing with wins over Mindy Williams, 7-2, Loretta Lindgren, 7-6, and Gail Eaton, 7-6, while Teresa Garland bested Gail Roles, 7-5, and Michelle Yim, 7-5, to meet Lee for the hot seat. After a first round loss to Eaton, 7-4, Kim Pierce aka “Texas Heat”, eliminated Gail Roles, 7-4, and Mercedes Vasquez 7-5. Lindgren came back with wins over Toni Esteves, 7-0, Diana Cardona, 7-5, and Yim, 7-2. Pierce met her fate with Eaton, 7-3, joining Yim in 5th-6th. Lee overcame Garland for the hot seat, 7-5, while Eaton eliminated Lindgren, 7-2. Garland squeezed by Eaton, 7-6, for another shot at Lee. Garland took charge, and the lead, but couldn’t hold on. Although it was a hard-fought set for both ladies, Lee ultimately overcame Garland, 7-5.
The Gulf Coast Women’s Regional Tour would like to thank all of the players who competed in the 2014 season, along with Chuck Adams and John Newsome for assistance with tournament direction, BCA Referee Derrell Montgomery for “keeping the peace” on the pool tables, and Cathy Metzinger for calculating the tour rankings. Bogies Billiards & Sports Bar owners David and Shannon Richardson and Skinny Bob’s Billiards owners John and Sue Cielo, hosted another great year of Gulf Coast 9-ball events. Players can look forward to the 2015 venue line-up which will include Houston’s newest 10,000 square foot pool room, Bogies Billiards West located at 9638 Jones Rd., Houston, Texas.
Many thanks to Gulf Coast Tour sponsors Delta-13 Rack, www.delta-13.com, Roger Schuett and the APA of North Harris County www.facebook.com/apanorthharriscounty who help make these events possible, and all the press outlets who publish our results, year after year. For information on upcoming events, please visit www.facebook.com/gulfcoasttour.
The Gulf Coast Women’s Regional Tour is a WPBA sanctioned regional tour where players compete at the semi-professional level of billiards competition, vying for cash payouts, invites to WPBA Professional Events and the prestigious, annual, WPBA Regional Tour Championships. Follow this link to find a WPBA sanctioned regional tour in your area http://www.wpba.com/regional-tours/list-of-regional-tours.html.
