MOSCONI CUP LEGEND Earl Strickland leads the way after event No.3 on the American Rankings following a fifth place finish at the recent Masters tournament in Virginia. The 2002 World Pool Champion, who will hit the half century in June this year, is playing some of his best pool of recent times, as he looks to cement a return to pool's top tournament.
He won the Steve Mizerak Championship in November of last year to get his 2011 Mosconi Cup campaign going and followed that up with decent finishes at Turning Stone and now the Masters.
Strickland has played in 13 Mosconi Cups going back to 1996 and has been on the winning side no less than nine times.
Filling out the other two spots are three-time Mosconi winner Corey Deuel and Shawn Putnam, whose only appearance in the event in 2005, saw him on the winning side.
The US Mosconi Cup Ranking consists of 12 events – eight domestic events and four ‘World' events. Points will be allocated as per the BCA Points List and each event will be weighted depending on total purse, size of field and number of top-ranked players competing.
Only players finishing in the last 32 of each event will be allocated points and at the conclusion, after the 2011 US Open, the top three players will automatically gain entry to the Mosconi Cup side.
The remaining two players will be Matchroom Sport wildcard picks although the ranking will play a part in this.
The next qualifying event is the Players Championship at Valley Forge which commences today (Thursday 10th March) and concludes on Sunday 13th.
