A small but competitive field gathered for the second stop of the Fury Georgia Amateur tour stop on February 26, 2005. Gametime Rip Tide room- owner Jimmy Hodges added money for the players who did make the trip and play began.
On the winner's side, Mike Szkulnicki worked his way into the hot seat with a combined 21-8 record, while Ronnie Mercer took control of the bottom half of the bracket at 14-4 to make the hot seat match. In the hot seat match, Szkulnicki and Mercer fought game for game until it was double hill. It was Szkulnicki who took the final game to secure his place in the finals, sending Mercer left to play the semis.
Meanwhile, Archie Ranew was recovering nicely from a first round hill-hill loss to David Holloway. Ranew was able to put together a run of 4 straight, including a win over Mercer to get his shot in the finals against Szkulnicki.
Close matches seemed to be the theme of the day and the finals were looking like they might fit the pattern. Ranew kicked things off with a 2-0 lead, but Szkulnicki tied things up with two wins of his own. Ranew took game 5 and Szkulnicki took the next game to tie it up at 3-all. Szkulnicki sank a tough carom off the 2 into the 9 and followed that up by forcing Ranew into a 3-foul in the next game, bringing him to a 5-3 lead. That didn't seem to put Ranew down though as he rattled off 5 straight wins to take over the lead and get on the hill 8-5. Szkulnicki came back and took two more games closing it up at 8-7 but Ranew put it together in game and wrapped up the finals with a 9-7 win to take first place in the event.
Results:
1st Archie Ranew $220
2nd Mike Szkulnicki $100
3rd Ronnie Mercer $40
