White Wipes out the Competition
Great Southern Billiard Tour / Cornelius, NC

by Lea Andrews

Though Ron Park tried twice, he couldn’t take down Brian White, who went undefeated to top the March 13-14 stop of the Great Southern Billiard Tour. White and Park were among the field of 43 that arrived at Kylie’s Sports Bar and Grill in Cornelius, NC, for the $1,500-added event.

AA-ranked White took care of A-ranked Matt Reed, who was racing to 9, 11-6 to face Park for the first time in the hot seat match. Park, who’d just blown through B-ranked JR Poste 9-2, moved over to the semifinals after notching just one game against White.

On the one-loss side, Mark Patterson got past fellow B-player Doug Bartlett 7-5 to face Jeff Peele, who’d ousted Bartlett’s brother Tim 9-3. But Peele, who owns the room named after his five-year old daughter, Kylie, with his wife, Amy, managed just three games himself against Patterson, landing in seventh. Meanwhile, last stop’s winner Josh Newman took care of B-ranked Paul Mullins 9-4 to meet up with Marty Free, who’d shut out B-ranked Robert Ash.

Newman’s bid for two in a row ended there, though, and he finished in seventh 7-5. Free moved on to Poste, who held him to four games to advance to the quarterfinals against Reed, who’d put Patterson in fifth 9-3. But against Poste, Patterson came up two games shy of his goal of nine games, and Poste advanced to the semifinals against Park. Their match-up went a little better for Poste this time around, but still not well enough. Park earned the rematch with White hill-hill 9-6.

In the true double-elimination final match, White could afford to lose the first set, but he didn’t take any chances. He stayed ahead of Park to earn his victory in one 11-6 set.

Results:
1st Brian White $1,000
2nd Ron Park $500
3rd JR Poste $300
4th Matt Reed $200
5th Mark Patterson $125
Marty Free
7th Jeff Peele $55
Josh Newman