The tour returned to Rockville on July 22/23rd at Winston Billiards Cafe for event 7 of the 9 ball tour. Strong fields came out in both the Open and Women's divisions. This was a $2000 added event made possible by the host room and the Tiger Tour sponsors.
At the top of the bracket, Jim Henson made the most of a rare appearance by defeating points' leader Josh Brothers 9-7. Joining Henson in the final four winner-side were Brett Stottlemyer, Shaun Wilkie and Jerry Slivka. Eight players remained on the 1-loss side going into Sunday morning.
Stottlemyer and Wilkie easily advanced on Sunday over Henson and Slivka 9-4 and 9-2 respectively. The hot seat match was thrilling coming right down to 8-8. Wilkie broke, made a ball and played a great safety. Stottlemyer jumped to escape and Wilkie played safe again. Stottlemyer repeated his jump escape this time leaving Wilkie safe. Wilkie's jump shot left an open table that Stottlemyer ran out.
In the elimination bracket, BJ Ussery knocked out Slivka and placed Henson into the 4th spot. Wilkie took out his hot seat match frustration on Ussery with a 7-0 blanking. This set up the final single race to 11 final between Shaun "Get Some" Wilkie and Brett Stottlemyer. Wilkie took control and cruised to an 11-5 win. 1st was worth $1000 with $700 for 2nd.
The 18 entrants in the ladies event on Sunday included the current top 6 on the points list. An early matchup between points' leader Pamela Treadway and WPBA touring pro Liz Ford went to Treadway 7-6. Ellen Yu and Kim Sudler shot their way into the final four winner side joined by Treadway and another WPBA pro Sueyen Rhee. Treadway slipped past Yu 7-6 while Rhee advanced 7-2 over Sudler. Treadway and Rhee have been playing each other frequently on tour and this one went to Treadway easily 7-2.
Yu put Sudler into the 4th spot but fell to Rhee 5-2. Rhee re-doubled her focus and took control of the single set final winning 9-3. This was Rhee's third win in a row on tour. 1st paid $410 with $270 for 2nd.
