The tenth annual US Open Warm-Up event is once again being hosted at John Moody's upscale room, Great Slates in Cambridge, Maryland this coming weekend (Sept. 17-18). The event is being organized by the Tiger/Planet Pool Tour for the second year running, and should be just as great a success as last year. The 64-player field is almost 90% filled with pre-paid entries, and with less than a week to go, should be full comes Saturday morning just like last year.
This tournament has long been the perfect way for US Open hopefuls to fine-tune their stroke right before the big championships in Chesapeake, VA, a little over two hours down the road from Cambridge. This year the World Summit of Pool is taking place in New York from Sept 13-16, leaving the weekend and Great Slates right between that and the US Open.
The field of this $4,000-added, $100 entry event is limited to 64 players because of time constraints since players want to get to Chesapeake for the US Open player's meeting on Sunday night. Last year, third place finisher, Santos Sambajon managed to squeeze into the field by buying someone else's entry--at double the price! Similarly to last year, the event should feature a star-studded field. A few big names are still missing from the list, but Shawn Putnam, Mike Davis, Frankie Hernandez, Allen Hopkins, Santos Sambajon, Chris Szuter, England's Tony Crosby and Australia's Craig Riley are all in. The organizers are awaiting confirmation from Francisco Bustamante and some of the other Filipino contingent.
For players intending to play in this event, please be aware that showing up on the day will bring disappointment. Any last-minute takers should call Nick Prinsloo at (703) 282-0912 before sending payment to see if there are any openings left.
Paid entrants, please note that this event starts at 11 AM on Saturday morning, not 12 noon as with most regular Tiger/Planet Pool events.
The payout based on a 64-player field will be:
1st - $2,300
2nd - $1,500
3rd - $1,000
4th - $700
5/6th - $450
7/8th - $300
9-12th - $200
13-16th - $130
17-24th - $100
Complete event details and host hotel info: http://www.planet-pool.com/viewevent.aspx?EventID=33
About Planet Pool
The Planet Pool concept was conceived during the winter of 1999 to serve the DC/Maryland/Virginia and surrounding areas as a regional pro-am tour. It has always been unique in that it offers both an "open" event and a women's event at each of its approximately 24 tournaments per year. The tour has since grown to have the best attended events of any tour in the country, boasting an average of 106 entries per tournament for the 2005 season. The tour also sports the most comprehensive Web site of any pool tour, with tournament and individual player results dating back to 2000. These aspects and the fact that it caters to all levels of players, combined with its well-run events, make it one of the most popular pool tours ever. This year, the tour started an 8-Ball amateur tour and joined the New Unified Tour System.
