Townsend comes back from semifinals to defeat Stone on SE Open stop

Scotty Townsend got edged out of the hot seat by Stoney Stone, but came back to take a single race-to-11 final at the Southeast Open Tour stop on the weekend of February 12-13. The $1,000-added event drew 30 entrants to Pockets in Dothan, AL.

Before meeting in the hot seat match, Townsend and Stone sent Mark Shimmelman and Shawn Putnam, respectively, to the one-loss side with identical 9-4 wins. They then battled to double hill, before Stone prevailed, sending Townsend to the semifinals.

Shimmelman moved over to face Darin Brewer, who'd defeated Jeff Calhoun and J.R. Rossman. Putnam drew Howie Gordon, who'd advanced past Mike Townsend (son to Scotty), and Denny Singletary. Shimmelman moved into the quarterfinals with a 9-5 victory over Brewer. Putnam joined him with a relatively commanding 9-2 win over Gordon. Shimmelman missed out on a second chance versus Townsend in the semifinals, when Putnam dropped him into fourth place 9-4.

Townsend, looking for a measure of revenge himself, defeated Putnam by the same 9-4 score and turned to face Stone again. The two battled back and forth, with Townsend eventually pulling ahead and winning by a three-point, 11-8 margin.