Adam Wheeler started the year off by winning the amateur event of the KF Cues 9-Ball Tour in January. On Saturday, July 25th, after seven interim tournaments (three Amateur and four Open, or Pro-Division), he recorded his first Open win on the same tour, defeating Manual Chau twice and finishing undefeated. The $1,000-added Open portion of the KF Cues tour stop drew 41 entrants to Ultimate Billiards, in Fort Pierce, FL.
Wheeler opened his tournament bid with an eye-opening 9-2 win over European Marco Tschludi. He followed that with a 7-5 win over Raul Alvarez and then sent tournament director, Tony Crosby west 9-6 to be among the event's final four on the winners' side.
He was joined by Chau, Jeff Hughes and Jerry Calderon. Chau defeated Hughes 9-6, as Wheeler served up another eye-opener; a 9-1 victory over Calderon that put him into the hot seat match. Wheeler hung on to sit in the hot seat with a hill-hill victory over Chau.
Charlie Williams and Prescott Buckwold, in the meantime, were working their way through the one-loss side to an eventual meet-up with Hughes and Calderon. Williams emerged from 7-3 wins over Mike Delawder and Tony Crosby to take on Hughes, as Buckwold got by Jimmy Sandaler 7-1 and Keith Brinton 7-3 to meet Calderon. With a 7-4 win over Hughes, Williams advanced to the quarterfinals against Calderon, who'd stopped Buckwold 7-6. Calderon got into the semifinals with a commanding 7-2 win over Williams.
It was getting late at that point, and when it came down to the semifinals, pitting Calderon against Chau, the two, who had driven to the event together, decided that they'd flip a coin to see who would move on to the finals. Chau won the toss, and got a second chance at Wheeler.
Wheeler, though, with his best ever finish in an Open event already in his pocket, took command of the finals early, jumping out to 6-1 lead. Chau mustered a comeback that would draw him to within two at 7-5. Wheeler won the next two out of three and won it 9-6.
