What would you consider a good sign if you were getting married? How about going undefeated through a field of 196 players to win the Reno Open and a $12,000 first prize? If you are Rodney Morris, that is exactly what happened.
Morris, who was set to marry his longtime girlfriend Sheina this weekend, wasn't really challenged until his fifth round match against Scott Frost. Prior to that, Morris rolled over Alex Kopel 9-1, Arizona's Chuck Evans 9-4 and Canadian Stan Tourangeau 9-3. Frost took Morris to hill-hill, but was unable to send the groom-to-be to the one loss side as Morris won 9-8.
From there, Morris beat 'Hillbilly' Charlie Bryant 9-5 and then fellow Hawaii resident Alex Pagulayan. Morris was on a roll by now and cruised over Cliff Joyner 9-0 for the hot-seat. Joyner took the trip to the one-loss side where he eliminated Pagulayan 9-6 to set up the rematch in the finals.
Joyner came out much stronger in the rematch with Morris and held a lead for a short period of time, but Morris took advantage of stifling safety play along with his usual style of shotmaking prowess to take control of the match and beat Joyner 9-4 in the finals.
Morris added $12,000 to his wedding fund, while Joyner settled for $6,400 in prize money. Pagulayan and Jose Parica filled out the top four spots.
Check out all the match results with our online brackets.
Photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe - Pool Pics by Hoppe
