The Tiger Tour 2008 year-end finale took place at Blue Fox Billiards in Winchester, VA on Dec 13/14th. The players all love this room and 74 shooters came out this weekend for the $2000 added event made possible by Blue Fox, Tiger Products and the tour sponsors.
A strong field of 62 players entered the Saturday Open Division event. This was the last chance to jockey for position on the year long points' race. Brandon Shuff was the leader going into the event and kept that spot for 2008 Player of the Year honors. Richmond, VA's finest Larry Kressel worked his way through Saturday's play with wins over Cary Dunn, Shaun Wilkie and Paul Adolini. Visiting pro player Shawn Putnam had little trouble with Richard Nace Jr, former tour owner Nick Prinsloo and Shawn Toni. Joining these two on the winner side for Sunday were Andy Lincoln, Alan Duty, Ryan McCreesh, Russ O'Baker and John Newton. Rounding out the final eight was Brandon Shuff coming off a 5-8 recovery to Sam Monday to win 9-8.
On Sunday, Shuff, Putnam and Duty advanced easily while Kressel won a hard fought 9-8 win against O'Baker. Kressel had an easier time afterwards by downing Shuff 9-1. Putnam escaped his match with Duty 9-7. The hot seat match did not disappoint as Kressel broke and ran the last rack for a 9-8 win.
The elimination bracket was being ruled by Sam Monday. He won matches over Chuck Fake, Scott Tollefson, Andy Lincoln, Ryan McCreesh and Brandon Shuff. Another win over John Newton put him in the elimination bracket final with Putnam. A 7-5 win over Monday allowed Putnam to take another shot at Kressel. In the single race to 11 final, Kressel jumped out to an early lead and never looked back winning 11-7. 1st paid $1000 with $670 for 2nd. This was the first Tiger Tour win for a very deserving Kressel.
13 ladies signed up for their Sunday only event. Tour regular Cheryl Squire started out with a 7-5 win over previous event's winner Tina Meraglio. She followed this up with a strong match against tour owner Ceci Strain. This put her into the hot seat match with Rachel Eliazar from North Carolina. Eliazar took care of this one 7-3. In the elimination bracket, Strain won a couple of quick matches including placing Spring Helligrath into the 4th spot. Squire earned a rematch with Eliazar following a 5-3 win over Strain. The single race to 9 final was controlled by Squire who won 9-4 for her first Tiger Tour event win. 1st was worth $350 with $230 for 2nd.
