The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour got their 2004 season underway with a field of 64 players at Northfield Billiards in Northfield, OH.
Tournament favorite Shawn Putnam fell to Jim Davis late on Saturday night, which left the right side of the board wide open. Chris Szuter and Leil Gay took full advantage of the open right side and cruised undefeated to the match for the hot-seat. The hot-seat was won by Szuter with a 7-2 win.
On the left side of the board, Putnam was tearing through opponents working his way to the finals the long way. After Gay lost to Szuter, Putnam handed him loss #2 and left him in third place.
Putnam came roaring out of the losers side and defeated Szuter 7-5 in the first set of the finals, but the Viking Tour uses a true double elimination format and Putnam was not able to score the second win over Szuter. Szuter handed Putnam a 7-5 loss to earn first place.
Szuter collected $1300 for first, while Putnam settled for $900 in second place prize money. Gay and Ken Kerekes filled out the top four spots.
The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour will be at Szuter's room; Fiddlestix Billiard Café in Canton, OH this weekend for their next event.
Complete Payouts:
1st Chris Szuter $1300
2nd Shawn Putnam $900
3rd Leil Gay $600
4th Kenny Kerekes $400
5th/6th Bill McCollim, Chris Austin $220
7th/8th Ronnie Martin, Wally Bentley $90
9th/12th Stan Weister, Jim Davis, Josh Ulrich, Raymond Wilson $70
13th/16th Sy Brown, Jackie Palmer, Tulio Antonelli, Dave Slovick $50
