Orange Park, Florida:
A field of 42 players including Buddy Hall, and former US Open Winner Tommy Kennedy, competed for the $1,000 First Place Money at Park Avenue Billiards' One-Day Tournament. Other notables included top regional players, Stoney Stone, Josh Diggler, Neil Fujiwara, Rod Rentz, Edward Rolvan, Larry Gayle and Harley Bryan, owner of Harley's Rack & Cue.
Buddy was cruising along until he collided with Josh Diggler, one of Florida's rising stars. Josh sent Buddy to the loser's side with a 7-3 victory. In the meantime Tommy, "TK from FLA" Kennedy, was showing his old skills with victories over in-house favorite Jack House, regional star Stoney Stone and Harley Bryan. However he ran into a roadblock when he met Rod Rentz, the eventual winner of the "Hot Seat" and went to the loser's side.
Rod Rentz, an up and coming player from Georgia made it to the hot seat with wins over, Ricky Howard, the younger bother of "Little David" Howard, Larry Gayle, local favorite and winner of Park Avenues' Point Championship two years in a row, Edward Rolvan, a new player to Florida, before meeting Josh Diggler for the "Hot Seat". Rod was in great form as he sent Josh to the loser side. There Josh met Buddy for the second time with Buddy, showing the form that made him one of the greatest players of all time, sent Josh home quickly, 5-0 and another third place finish for Josh.
There was tremendous excitement in the gallery as the former World All Around Billiard Champion, 2 times US Open winner and Hall of Fame member was set to meet, Rod Rentz, another of the "Young Guns." Buddy jumped out to a 2 to nothing lead only to see Rod come back and tie the score at 2 to 2. Although Rod would win 2 more games during the set, he was no match as Buddy broke and ran several racks for a final score of 9 to 4.
On Saturday night prior to the Tournament, Park Avenue Billiards hosted a "Beat the Pro" with local players challenging Buddy in a best of 3 contest. During the evening Buddy played 15 local players and he was pleasantly surprised at the skill level of some of Jacksonville's players. The fact that he met defeat 3 times during the evening, with wins by Jimmy Daniels, Bobby Garza and Christy Davis may have had something to do with his amazement.
The payout is as follows:
1st Place: Buddy Hall $1,000
2nd Place: Rod Rentz $500
3rd Place: Josh Diggler $300
4th Place: Shorty Musgrove $150
5th Place: Edward Rolvan $75
6th Place: Tommy Kennedy $75
7th Place: Harley Bryan $60
8th Place: Kevin Wishall $60
9th Place: Shawn Dowdy $50
10th Place: John Tatum $50
11th Place: Allen Johnson $50
12th Place: Dave Ross $50
