 Tournament director Bull Vankerwyk and Scott Frost |
As the Summer months in Arizona come to an end, everyone is usually relieved because the temperature turns cooler. The players on the Olhausen Billiards Desert All Around Tour are not relieved though as it has quickly turned very cold very on tour. Scott ‘The Freezer' Frost earned his third straight tour win on October 14th and 15th when the tour stopped at Northern Lounge in Phoenix.
The early favorites of Frost, Doug Hale, Glenn Bond and Gus Briseno made their way through day one without a hitch. That didn't mean that day one did not see it's fair share of excitement. Northern Lounge room owner Larry Eans faced off against #3 ranked Jimmy Mendoza in a rematch of the finals of this year's Arizona State BCA 8-Ball Championship. But that was 8-Ball and this was 9-Ball. Jimmy cruised with ease to a 9-5 victory. In a very good match early on Saturday, recent hot stick Dan Allen took on home room favorite Tony Norem. Norem didn't seem very impressed by Allen's recent high finishes and ran out to a 5-2 lead. From 5-2 though, it was all Allen's match as he won seven of the next eight games for the 9-6 victory.
Sunday dawned with eight players still in contention. The winners side would be Gus Briseno vs #1 ranked Doug Hale and Scott Frost vs #2 ranked Glenn Bond. On the one loss side, tour newcomer Brady Juve took on Babe Thompson and Dan Allen faced Mike Sandoval. Brady and Dan moved on with very close match wins leaving Babe and Mike in 7th place.
On the winner's side, Gus looked to be in total control with a 5-1 lead over Hale. It only took one lapse of concentration though, and Hale had clawed back to take the lead and win the match. The match between Frost and Bond looked to be a mirror image of the Briseno/Hale match as Bond took an early 5-1 lead but was forced to watch Frost come back and tie the score. The match went to hill-hill, but it was Bond that came away with the win sending him to the hot-seat match against Doug Hale.
On the one loss side, Briseno and Frost bounced back from their winners side losses and eliminated Dan Allen and Brady Juve. Frost then went on to eliminate Briseno, leaving Gus in 4th place and Scott looking for an opponent.
The hot-seat match featured #1 ranked Doug Hale vs #2 ranked Glenn Bond and it was close all the way, but Hale inched ahead at the end and took the victory.
The semi-finals were a rematch between Scott Frost and Glenn Bond. This match turned out to be a battle of the breaks as Frost couldn't seem to buy a ball on the break while Bond was making balls with ease when he broke. Bond took an early lead and made it to the hill first at 8-5. A couple late errors by Bond led to another hill-hill match between these to players. Frost broke the final rack and came up dry (again), but Bond missed the one ball leaving Frost hooked. Frost whipped out the jump cue and made a great half ball jump to pocket the 1 ball. There was no need to go back for his regular cue just yet though, as Frost left himself hooked on the 2. Another outstanding jump shot pocketed the 2-ball and left Frost in command as he ran out the final rack to eliminate Bond in 3rd place.
The finals was a match to make Mother Nature proud as ‘The Hale Storm' Doug Hale faced off against ‘The Freezer' Scott Frost. The first six games looked like a great start to what would be a tight match with the players tied at 3-3. But then Hale found himself frozen in the chair as Frost turned his hame up a notch and won the next 10 straight games for his third Olhausen Billiards Desert All Around Tour Win.
First place earned Frost $1290 in prize money, while Hale settled for $670. The second place finish pushed Hale into a 95 point lead on the Poker Pool points list with only 2 events to go. With next month's tour stop being held on the big tables at Main Street Billiards in Mesa, Hale knows he will need to finish well to stay ahead of #2 ranked Glenn Bond. To make things worse for Hale, Main Street is Bond's home room and sponsor.
Complete Results:
1st Scott Frost $1290
2nd Doug Hale $670
3rd Glenn Bond $445
4th Gus Briseno $250
5th/6th Brady Juve, Dan Allen $125
7th/8th Babe Thomson, Mike Sandoval $50
