With his first recorded regional tour win this past weekend (Feb. 4-5), Kirk Hixon launched what is already his best recorded earnings year, surpassing his previous-best (2021), when he got as close as runner-up (to Josh Heeter in April) on the PremierBilliards.com Q City 9-Ball Tour and finished 9th at the 2020 Tour Championships. Hixon went undefeated to the hot seat and lost the opening set of a true double elimination final versus Cameron Hollingsworth, but won the second set to claim the title at a $500-added event that drew 54 entrants to Action Billiards in Inman, SC.
Hixon and Hollingsworth advanced through the field to arrive at their winners’ side semifinal matches. Hixon faced Casey Looper, while Hollingsworth battled Josh Miller.
Hixon got into the hot seat match following a shutout over Looper. Hollingsworth joined him after downing Miller 6-3. In their first of three, Hixon claimed the hot seat over Hollingsworth 6-2.
On the loss side, Miller picked up Sammy Epps, who’d defeated Daniel Adams, double hill and Joe Bryant 5-2 to reach him. Looper drew Chad Dill, who’d leapfrogged over a Chris Cody forfeit and eliminated Dustin Brown 5-3. Miller advanced to the quarterfinals, double hill over Epps and was joined by Dill, who’d sent Looper home 5-3.
Miller and Dill locked up in a double hill fight in those quarterfinals. It was Miller who advanced to take on Hollingsworth in the semifinals. Hollingsworth gave up only a single rack to Miller and advanced to his double elimination rematch against Hixon.
In what tour director Herman Parker described as a pair of “great matches, the result determined by a few rolls, here and there,” Hollingsworth took the opening set 6-4. In the second set, Hixon came back, by the same score, to win the set and in effect, the event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Action Billiards, as well as title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, Breaktime Billiards (Winston-Salem, NC), BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and TKO Custom Cues. The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 11-12), will be a $250-added event, hosted by Bernie’s Billiards in Cary, NC.
In the first of 12 planned Open events in 2023, to be known as The PremierBilliards.com TOP (The Open Players) Tour, Mike Davis, Jr. was crowned as its premier champion. The $500-added, non-handicapped event had to compete with a number of other regional events in the immediate and not-too-distant area and as a result, drew only 18 entrants to Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC.
Davis and Mark Bolton opted out of a final at this event, allowing their one and only match to stand as the title-claiming victory. As the occupant of the hot seat at the time, Davis went into the books as the event’s official champion and they split the top two prizes.
With races to 7 on both sides of the bracket, they met first in the hot seat match, once Davis had defeated Barry Mashburn 7-5 in one of the winners’ side semifinals and Bolton had sent Kelly Farrar to the loss side 7-4 in the other one. Davis claimed the hot seat and, as it turned out, the official event title with a 7-3 win over Bolton.
On the loss side, Mashburn picked up Josh Heeter, who’d defeated Graham Swinson and Corey Morphew, both 7-2, to reach him. Farrar drew Chris Turner, who’d survived two straight double hill matches, versus William Baize and Derek Leonard, for a shot at Farrar.
By identical 7-3 scores, Heeter and Farrar advanced to the quarterfinals over Mashburn and Turner, respectively. And it was 7-3’s all the way to the end. Farrar over Heeter in the quarterfinals and Bolton over Farrar in the final match of the event, the semifinals.
Davis and Bolton opted out of the final, split the top two prizes and completed the Open Tour’s first event.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Gate City Billiards Club for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, Breaktime Billiards (Winston-Salem, NC), BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and TKO Custom Cues. The next stop on The PremierBilliards.com TOP Tour, scheduled for the weekend of Deb. 25-26 will be the 11th Annual North Carolina State 9-Ball Open and Ladies 9-Ball Open, to be hosted by Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
Cameron Hollingsworth, Breaktime owner Sundeep “Sonny” Makhani and Larry Hughes.
Both finalists in the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball’s 10th Tour Championships, held this past weekend (Nov. 19-20), had something to play for, beyond just the cash and whatever bragging rights they might claim later. Larry Hughes and Cameron Hollingsworth were both looking to record their first cash wins. Hollingsworth was also trying to take advantage of the fact that his older brother, the twice-defending champion of this event, Landon Hollingsworth, was in Puerto Rico. Ahead of the final match, each of them had recorded a single loss. Hughes took the last match to claim the title. Though the outcome could be attributed to any one of a number of factors, it would appear to be unlikely that it was due to which of them wanted it more. The $1,500-added event drew 56 entrants to Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
Winning it was a breakthrough for Hughes. Coming from the loss side, winning seven and the opening set of the true double elimination, not to mention recording his first cash win was a breakthrough for Hollingsworth.
With Hollingsworth on the loss side, having lost a third round match to Billy Walker, Hughes advanced through the field to face Eric Stanton in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Clay Davis and Jason Blackwell squared off in the other one.
Davis defeated Blackwell 8-1, while Hughes was shutting Stanton out. Hughes grabbed the hot seat 6-2 and waited on the as-determined-as-he-was Hollingsworth to complete his loss-side run.
With two notches on that loss-side belt, Hollingsworth defeated Barry Mashburn 5-4 (Mashburn racing to 9) and Trent Talbert 5-4 (Talbert racing to 6), to pick up Stanton. Blackwell drew Josh Heeter, who’d defeated Jeff Howell and Thomas Sansone, both 9-3, to reach him.
Hollingsworth and Heeter advanced to the quarterfinals; Hollingsworth 5-2 over Stanton and Heeter 9-4 over Blackwell. Hollingsworth chalked up wins #6 and #7 with a double hill, quarterfinal win over Heeter and 5-1 victory over Davis in the semifinals.
With Davis racing to 6, Hollingsworth took the opening set of the true double elimination final 5-4. Hughes fought back in the second set to take a lead and stretch it to three games, winning it 6-3 to claim his first event title and the 10th Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour Championship title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked tour sponsor Sundeep Makhani and his Breaktime Billiards staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Breaktime Billiards (Winston-Salem, NC), BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Ridge Back Rails, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division.
The tour will be off for the Thanksgiving weekend and return to the felt on the weekend of Dec. 3-4. The event will be a $250-added event, hosted by Mickey Milligan’s in New Bern, NC.
At 4 a.m. on the Sunday morning of a Labor Day weekend pool tournament, a reduction in pay in exchange for going home immediately can look pretty good. So it was for Daniel Adams, Mark Bolton and Billy Fowler, who arrived at such a decision-making moment on Sunday morning, Sept. 4, at what became the end of a $500-added stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour that drew 36 entrants to the Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC. Adams, in the hot seat, became the official winner. Mark Bolton, whom he’d defeated in the hot seat match, moved to the loss side and was to compete against Fowler in the semifinals that didn’t happen.
The negotiated settlement between the players is a private matter. The player who occupied the hot seat at the time becomes the event’s official winner and has officially earned the event’s top cash prize. So, too, with the runner-up and third-place finisher. How they split those three cash amounts up is their business. An even, three-way split would have given each of them a little over $515, although there’s no way of knowing if that was the ‘deal’ they worked out. In any case, the amount that went to Adams turned 2022 into his best recorded earnings year to date. Any amount over $100 would have done it. According to our records, it was Adams’ second 2022 win on the tour, his fourth overall since he chalked up his first win in what, before this past weekend, had been his best earnings year, 2017.
Adams, Bolton and Fowler were three of the four competitors who advanced through the field to compete in the event’s two winners’ side semifinals. Adams faced the fourth, Jamie Bowen, while Bolton and Fowler squared off against each other.
Adams downed Bowen 6-1, as Bolton was working on sending Fowler to the loss side 8-4. In what was, in effect, the title match, Adams defeated Bolton 6-3 to claim the hot seat.
When Bowen and Fowler arrived on the loss side, they competed in what was the first money round and two of the event’s last three matches. Bowen picked up Matt Lucas, who’d eliminated Stevie McLinton and the room owner’s junior-competitor son, Jas Makhani, both 6-1. Fowler drew Josh Heeter, who’d survived two straight double-hill matches to reach him; the first, against Brian Overman (10-5) and the second, against Jayce Little (10-4).
Bowen sent Lucas home 6-3. Heeter followed him out the door (so to speak) at the conclusion of Fowler’s 9-2 victory over him. Fowler won the event’s final match, the quarterfinals, 9-2 over Bowen. The three-way split was negotiated and the combatants retreated to neutral corners to enjoy the remaining two days of their Labor Day weekend.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Sundeep Makhani and his Breaktime Billiards staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Breaktime Billiards (Winston-Salem, NC), BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Ridge Back Rails, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Sept. 10-11), will be a $500-added event, hosted by The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.
North Carolina’s Joey Tate is right on the verge of making his age an irrelevant fact. He turned 17 less than a month ago (June 28) and he’s in the midst of recording his best earnings year since he started showing up on AZBilliards’ database in 2017 at the age of 12. It could well be that his competitors over these past five years are growing tired of hearing that he’s a junior competitor, especially after he’s defeated one of them in a major event. This past July 4th weekend, he joined 32 other entrants at a $1,000-added stop on the Carolina Pool Tour (in collaboration with the Players Madness Tour) at Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC and went undefeated to the finish line, defeating perennial North Carolina State Champion Mike Davis, Jr. in the finals.
As the Billiards Education Foundation’s 2022 Junior National Champion in the 18 & Under Boys Division, which is only the most recent of his accomplishments since he was a 7th grader, Tate brings to his forays into the ‘real world’ of regional tour competition, a sense of confidence, tempered by an awareness about the dangers of overconfidence.
“When you win,” he said after this past weekend’s victory, “you can get caught up in it, to the point of arrogance; not like in how you behave, but an arrogance in your own mind.”
“You still have to stay humble and hungry,” he added.
He pointed to separate influences on him, which keep him in that ‘humble and hungry’ mode; his Christian faith, which grants him the opportunity to be, among other things, thankful for the victories, as well as his own experiences at the table and his observations of the top professionals.
“Through experience,” he said, “you can catch the thoughts that trigger arrogance and block them out. And watching pro players when they’re playing their best; you can see how focused they are and how clean their shots are.
“So,” he added, “it’s really about a combination of those things.”
Tate had his ‘hungry and humble’ hands full from the outset. He opened his six-match march to the win against Michael Yingling, who promptly battled him to double hill. Tate survived, advancing through another junior competitor, Cole Lewis 7-3, then, Adam Pendley 7-4 and in a winners’ side semifinal, in a second double hill fight, he defeated Josh Heeter. Tate advanced to the hot seat match.
Tate’s eventual hot seat opponent, Cory Morphew, on the other hand, shut out three of the four opponents he faced to get to that match; Reene Driskill in their opening-round match, BJ Ussery in the third round and Chuck Ritchie in the winners’ side semifinal. The only opponent he didn’t shut out was Mike Davis, Jr., who chalked up five against him in their second-round match (33 entrants in the bracket made the opening round of the event a single match). Davis and Morphew would meet again in the semifinals, which, as it turned out, did not go well for Morphew. Neither did the hot seat match, won by Tate 7-4.
On the loss side, Heeter picked up Ussery, who’d followed his loss to Morphew with victories over Bruce Campbell 7-4 and Kelly Farrar 7-2. Ritchie drew Davis, who followed his loss to Morphew with a seven-match, loss-side run to the finals, that had recently eliminated Adam Pendley and Clint Clark, both 7-4.
Davis downed Ritchie 7-3 and in the quarterfinals, faced Ussery, who’d eliminated Heeter, also7-3. Davis gave up only a single rack to Ussery in those quarterfinals and stepped into his rematch against Morphew in the semifinals.
Davis downed Morphew 7-3 for a shot at Tate in the hot seat. Tate claimed the event title of Stop #8 on the Carolina Pool Tour with a 7-2 win over Davis.
Co-tour directors Nickolus Rogers and Xzavia Boykin of the Players Madness Tour thanked the ownership and staff at Breaktime Billiards and all of the players who attended the July 4th weekend event.
Just over two weeks ago (March 19-20), Billy Fowler and Josh Heeter faced off in the finals of the first-ever West Virginia State 9-Ball Championships, held under the auspices of the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. Fowler won it 9-5 to chalk up his 8th recorded win on the tour, dating back to 2016. They’d met twice in the event; once in a winners’ side semifinal, won by Heeter and again, in the final, won by Fowler.
This past weekend (April 9-10), they met in an event final on the tour again. They met only once this time, though Fowler returned from the same relative position on the loss side as he had in West Virginia to challenge him. They reversed finish positions, with Heeter going undefeated this time to claim the title. The $500-added event drew 63 entrants to The Rock House in Gastonia, NC.
As had happened in West Virginia, they both emerged victorious from their respective winners’ side quarterfinal matches, but not to face each other in the winners’ side semifinals. Heeter squared off against Barry Mashburn, while Fowler faced Kelly Piercy.
Piercy sent Fowler to the loss side 6-5 (Fowler racing to 10) and in the hot seat match, faced Heeter, who’d defeated Mashburn 9-3. Once again, Heeter claimed the hot seat, this time sending Piercy to the loss side 9-4.
On the loss side, Fowler picked up junior competitor Cole Lewis, who’d recently eliminated Michael Carter and Dayne Miller, both 8-3. Mashburn drew Zach Martin, who’d defeated Jesse Draper, double hill, and Thomas Sansone 5-3 to reach him.
Martin downed Mashburn 5-4 (Mashburn racing to 9) and in the quarterfinals, was to face Fowler, who’d fought a double hill battle against Lewis, before prevailing 10-7. Fowler jumped over the quarterfinals when Martin couldn’t return on Sunday and forfeited the match.
Fowler took care of the last obstacle in his path to a second straight final against Heeter, Kelly Piercy 10-4 in the semifinals. Unlike the open (no handicap) event in West Virginia, in which Fowler, coming from the loss side, won just a single, extended, race-to-9 final match, he’d have to win twice to claim the handicapped event title in North Carolina. Heeter began with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 10. They battled to double hill, before Heeter prevailed 9-9 to claim the title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at The Rock House, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Break Time Billiards of Winston-Salem, NC, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Ridge Back Rails, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (April 16-17), will be hosted by Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
Billy Fowler’s been collecting and recording payouts in his profile here at AZBilliards for 18 years now, since he won his first (recorded) major tour victory in Chicago on the Viking Cue Tour back in 2004. This past weekend (March 19-20), he recorded his eighth victory on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour in the past six years; one each in ’16, 17’ and ’18, along with two each in 2019 and 2020 (his best recorded earnings year). He also became West Virginia State’s first 9-Ball champion, coming from the loss side to down Josh Heeter in the finals of the $1,000-added WV State 9-Ball Championships, which drew 68 entrants to Sonny’s Billiards in Princeton, WV.
The Open (non-handicapped) event featured races to 7 on both sides of the bracket, with a single race to 9 in the finals. Tour director Herman Parker was pleased with this first WV State Championship, as were, he noted, many of the 68 who competed.
“It was a great event for everybody,” he said.
Fowler and Josh Heeter, looking for his first tour win in about a year, battled twice to claim the title. They met first in a winners’ side semifinal, as Cameron Lawhorne and Mike Clevinger battled in the other one.
Lawhorne downed Clevinger 7-5 and was joined in the hot seat match by Heeter, who’d sent Fowler off on a three-match, loss-side trip 7-3. Heeter grabbed the hot seat with a 7-2 win over Lawhorne.
The event drew the last 12 competitors back to Sonny’s on Sunday. Fowler began his loss-side work against Cory Morphew, who, earlier, had defeated Scott Roberts, double hill, and Trent Talbert 7-4. Clevinger drew Shannon Fitch, who’d defeated junior competitor Cole Lewis 7-4 and Craig Brown, the last West Virginian standing, 7-5.
Fowler downed Morphew 7-4, as Fitch was busy eliminating Clevinger 7-3. Fowler had to battle for his advancement over the next two steps. He survived two straight double hill matches; versus Fitch in the quarterfinals and Lawhorne in the semifinals to earn his second shot against Heeter.
In the extended, single race to 9, Fowler edged out in front and kept widening a lead. He kept at it until the end, completing his championship run 9-5 over Heeter and taking the title home.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Sonny’s Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Break Time Billiards of Winston-Salem, NC, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Ridge Back Rails, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (March 26-27), will be hosted by Hummy’s Bar (formerly, Jack’s All-American) in Newport, TN.
Heeter’s loss-side run evokes memories of the late Larry “The Truth” Nevel
Back in November of 2021, Buzzy Gonzalez chalked up his first recorded cash finish anywhere at a stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour at the Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC.He finished 5th that weekend, and with no evidence of competition since, this past weekend (Feb. 12-13), he returned to the Gate City Billiards Club, where he recorded his first regional tour victory on the same tour. He was challenged in the finals by Josh Heeter, who lost his opening round match and won 12 on the loss side for the right to meet him in the finals. The event drew 68 entrants to the Gate City Billiards Club.
Heeter’s run through the loss side of the bracket brought eerily relevant memories to tour director Herman Parker (among others), who recalled that the only player to ever win that many matches on the loss side of a Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball event before was the late Larry “The Truth” Nevel, who passed away on February 11, one day before this past weekend’s tournament began.
With Heeter already at work on the loss side, Gonzalez advanced to a winners’ side semifinal versus Jerry Stone. Hank Powell and Daniel Adams squared off in the other one.
Powell and Adams fought to double hill, before Powell advanced to the hot seat match 8-5 (Adams racing to 6). Gonzalez joined him after shutting Stone out. Gonzalez claimed the hot seat over Powell 7-6.
Heeter had already chalked up nine of his eventual 12 loss-side wins, including recent victories over Justin Ward 9-3 and Gene Parker 9-4. when he ran into Stone, fresh from his defeat at the hands of Gonzalez. Adams picked up Kelly Farrar, who’d eliminated Joe Woo 7-4 and Dakota Ash, double hill (7-4), to reach him.
Heeter chalked up loss-side win #10, 9-2 over Stone. Adams joined him in the quarterfinals following his 6-6, double hill win over Farrar. Heeter then downed Adams 9-4 and in a tense, semifinal, double hill fight, defeated Powell 9-7.
Minus their respective handicaps, the event finals were a tie. Heeter, though, had to chalk up two more racks than Gonzalez, and when it reached the tie at 7-7, Gonzalez had won.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Gate City Billiards Club for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 19-20), will be hosted by Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
Between the two of them, they hadn’t cashed in more than five events in just over a year, all in competition on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. Kirk Hixon finished third on a tour stop last October, while Josh Heeter finished in the tie for 5th at the NC 9-Ball Open and 9th at another stop, both in February, 2020. They had each also competed in a single 2021 stop; Heeter finishing in another tie for 5th last month (Feb.) and Hixon finishing in the tie for 9th at the Tour Championships in January.
They met in the finals of this past weekend’s stop in Chesnee, SC (Saturday, March 27). Heeter went undefeated to claim the title, but not before facing Hixon, who’d been defeated in the third round and won seven on the loss side to meet him in the finals. The $500-added event drew 46 entrants to Break & Run Billiards in Chesnee, SC.
Heeter had worked his way through the field to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Terry Cannon. Steven Ellis, who’d sent Hixon to the loss side in the third round, advanced to meet Kelly Piercy in the other one.
Ellis downed Piercy 6-4 and moved into the hot seat match against Heeter, who’d sent Cannon to the loss side 9-2. It became the first (recorded) time that Heeter had ever battled for the hot seat. In all of his ‘cashed’ appearances, in which he had finished either 2nd, 3rd, or won an event, dating back to 2012, he’d come from the loss side. In the win, his first major tournament win, in January 2019, he lost his opening match and won 11 on the loss side to meet and defeat Brian White in the finals. He won a little less than half that number of matches to reach and win the hot seat match this time out, downing Ellis 9-4.
On the loss side, Cannon ran into Dustin Lackey, who’d defeated Kevin Price 7-2 and survived a double hill match against Gary South. Piercy picked up Hixon, who’d picked up loss-side wins #3 and #4 against Matt Gibson 6-2 and Marty Opyd 6-3. With Lackey racing to 7, Cannon dropped him 5-5. Hixon eliminated Piercy 6-3.
Picking up a bit of speed, Hixon eliminated Cannon in the quarterfinals by shutting him out, and turning for a re-match against Ellis in the semifinals. Hixon defeated Ellis 6-3 for shot at Heeter in the hot seat.
Looking for only his second victory on the tour, though, Heeter was not to be denied. He defeated Hixon 9-3 to claim the event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Break & Run Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, AZBilliards, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and Dirty South Grind Apparel Co.The Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour will be off this coming Easter weekend. A location for an event on the following weekend (April 10-11) has yet to be determined; check in with the tour’s FB page for up-to-date information on the next stop.
Mike Davis, Jr. won the first three NC State Open 9-Ball championships from 2014 to 2016. After relinquishing the title for three years, to (in order) Shannon Fitch (‘17), Reymart Lim (’18) and Keith Bennett (’19), Davis returned to compete in the 7th Annual NC State Open 9-Ball tournament and in spite of having his path to victory re-routed through the loss side of the event’s bracket, returned to meet and defeat Justin Martin in the finals and reclaim the title. The $500-added event drew 43 entrants to Randolph’s Billiards in Hickory, NC.
Davis advanced through the field to draw Justin Martin in one of the winners’ side semifinals, as Barry Mashburn faced Brian Capps in the other one. Martin sent Davis to the loss side 7-4 and in the hot seat match, faced Mashburn, who’d defeated Capps 7-5. Martin claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Mashburn and waited on Davis’ return.
Capps sent Mackie Lowery home with some cash in a 7-5 win. He was joined in the quarterfinals by Davis, who’d survived a double hill battle versus Heeter. Davis then denied Capps a second shot at Mashburn by downing Capps in those quarterfinals 7-2.
Davis moved on to deny Mashburn a second shot at Martin with a 7-3 win in the semifinals. In the finals that followed, Davis was looking to regain a title he’d last held in 2016. His opponent, Justin Martin, was looking to break a three-year streak of being the NC State Open 9-Ball tournament’s runner-up.
Davis won his fourth NC State Open 9-Ball title and handEd Martin his 4th runner-up finish. Davis completed his run with a 9-4 win in the finals.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Randolph Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Tickler Pool Ball Washing Machine. The next stop on the tour, scheduled for March 7-8, will be a $500-added event ($1,000-added with 64+ entrants), hosted by Break & Run Billiards in Chesnee, SC.
