Morris Comes Back to Best Hundal
Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour / Raleigh, NC

by Skip Maloney
Professional pool player “Rocket” Rodney Morris followed up on a hill-hill hot seat defeat at the hands of Raj Hundal by returning in the finals to win 9-4, capturing the first-place prize in the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour the weekend of June 7-8. The $1,000-added event drew 25 billiard entrants to Babineau’s in Raleigh, NC.
Earlier Sunday, Morris and Hundal moved into their hot seat match following defeats of Mike Fuller and Robert Ray, respectively. Morris couldn’t capitalize on the momentum, falling to Hundal and moving into the semifinals.
On the one-loss side, Cary Dunn defeated Sidney Champion, who had just eliminated Mike Davis from the tournament. Wade Crane, in the meantime, dropped Peaches Fuller into the seventh-place slot. Dunn and Wade then defeated Mike Fuller and Ray to face each other in the quarterfinal match. Crane advanced with a 7-5 win to face Morris in the semifinals. Morris ended Crane’s tournament with a 7-3 victory and turned to challenge Hundal a second time.
Morris and Hundal struggled back and forth to a 4-4 tie in the finals before Morris took command, winning the next five to capture the first-place prize. Morris’ victory also earned him an entry into the Carolina Open in October, though he narrowly missed an opportunity at extra prize money, offered to any player who ran five racks. While he’d closed out the tournament by winning the last five games, he’d allowed Hundal opportunities to shoot, which cost him the supplementary prize.
Results:
1st Rodney Morris
2nd Raj Hundal
3rd Wade Crane
4th Cary Dunn
5th Mike Fuller
Robert Ray
7th Sidney Champion
Peaches Fuller
9th Mike Davis
Doug Jones
Younger Chapman
Leroy Bryant

Page Takes Two From Davis
Tar-Heel Open 9-ball Tournament / Rocky Mount, NC
by Skip Maloney
Steve Page went undefeated in the Tar-Heel Open 9-ball Tournament in Rocky Mount, NC, the weekend of May 31-June 1. He defeated billiard player Mike Davis twice to capture the first-place prize in the $750-added event, which drew 25 entrants to Dot’s cue Club.
On Sunday, Page sent Larry Pittman to the one-loss side with a 9-3 victory, as Davis was doing the same to Mike Fuller 9-4. Page prevailed in the subsequent hot seat match, sending Davis over with a 9-5 victory.
On the one-loss side, Scott Rabon was at work on a march that would eventually take him to the semifinals. He defeated Qi Liu 7-4 before turning to face Fuller. He eliminated Fuller from the tournament and moved on to challenge Pittman. He dropped Pittman into fourth place with a 7-5 victory and then ran into a determined Mike Davis. Davis moved into the finals with a 7-4 victory that ended Rabon’s strong run.
The true double-elimination finals lasted only a single set. The two struggled to a 3-3 tie before Page surged ahead by 4 games. Davis managed two more racks but so did Page, ending it 9-5. It was Page’s first event victory of the year.
Scott Rabon followed his third-place effort in the open division with a hill-hill 3-2 finals victory over Tommy Briscoe in a $110-added bank tournament. Rabon had defeated Wade Crane 3-1 to face Briscoe in the finals, as Briscoe sent Mike Davis into the third-place slot with a hill-hill 3-2 victory.
Open Results:
1st Steven Page
2nd Mike Davis
3rd Scott Rabon
4th Larry Pittman
5th Phillip Richardson
Mike Fuller
Bank Results:
1st Scott Rabon
2nd Tommy Briscoe
3rd Mike Davis
Wade Crane

Fuller Wins Second Straight billiards Event
Jacoby Cues Carolina Tour / Rocky Mount, NC
by Skip Maloney
After recording his first victory in five attempts on the Jacoby Cues Carolina Tour in April, Mike Fuller picked up his second straight billiards tour victory the weekend of May 17-18. Fuller defeated Phillip Richardson twice to capture first place in the $1,000-added event, which drew 39 entrants to Sharks-N-Shooters in Rocky Mount, NC.
On Sunday, Fuller and Richardson were half of the final four on the winners’ side. They gave up only three games total between them in defeating Rob Krull 7-1 and Delton Howard 7-2, respectively. The going got a little rougher in the hot seat match, with Fuller prevailing 7-5 to send Richardson to the semifinals.
On the west side, Robert Ray faced Mike Gulyassy in the quarterfinal match. He’d sent Gulyassy to the one-loss side in the tournament’s opening round and defeated him a second time 7-5 to move into the semifinals against Richardson. Richardson defeated Ray 7-4 to advance to the finals.
Richardson took an early 3-0 lead in the finals before Fuller responded. They tied and then struggled back and forth to double-hill before Fuller closed it out and collected his second straight tour victory.
Results:
1st Mike Fuller
2nd Phillip Richardson
3rd Robert Ray
4th Mike Gulyassy
5th Rob Krull
Delton Howard
7th Ron Park
Mac Harrell
9th Matt Reed
Peaches Fuller
Jeff Pruitt
Russell Sasser

Fuller goes undefeated in Carolina Tour Stop

Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour / Greensboro, NC
Mike Fuller worked his way through a field of 40 entrants on the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour stop at Fast Eddie’s in Goldsboro, NC, the weekend of April 26-27. He sent Larry Faulk to the one-loss side of the bracket with a decisive shut-out in the round of 8 and defeated him again in the finals to capture the first-place prize.

Larry Faulk worked his way through two opponents on the west side before meeting Arnold Hamlet in the quarterfinals. He won all but 5 of the next 19 games, dropping 2 versus Hamlet and 3 against Liu in the semifinal.

The final match-up was something of a waltz, played out three steps at a time. Fuller and Faulk danced their way one game at a time to a 3-3 tie before Fuller decided that he wanted to lead the dance and jumped out 6-3. Faulk responded with his own three steps and tied it at 6-6, but it was Fuller who brought the waltz to a three-step finale to finish the dance.

The tour stop also featured a Friday night early bird tournament with 9 entrants, a second chance tournament Sunday with 11, and a small junior tournament with 3 entrants. Cary Dunn took the early bird, defeating Wade Crane, with Michael Fuller in third place. Mike Triplett defeated Shane Barnwell 7-1 to take the second chance first prize; Peaches Fuller and Charlie Brinson took third and fourth place, respectively. Justin Ward defeated Tiffany Leonard in the finals of the three-player junior tournament, taking the lead in points for the race to qualification to the Junior Nationals.

Results
1st Michael Fuller
2nd Larry Faulk
3rd Qi Liu
4th Arnold Hamlet
5th Younger Chapman
Wade Crane
7th Sidney Champion
Chris Vollmar
9th Cary Dunn
Mike Frowein
Charles McClung
John Hernandez

Ussery Takes Home Two in a Row
Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour / Chapel, Hill, NC
by Skip Maloney
B.J. Ussery picked up his second straight tournament win of the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour the weekend of April 5-6, defeating Michael Fuller 9-5 in the final at Oscar’s Q and Bar in Chapel Hill, NC. In addition to the $1,000 first-place prize in the $1,000-added event, Ussery won his second free entry fee into the Carolina Open, set for October.
The field was down to eight on Sunday morning as Ussery squared off against Leroy Bryant on the winners’ side of the bracket. Fuller, also undefeated, faced Arnold Hamlet, another previous winner on the tour. Ussery and Fuller both advanced and faced each other in the final winners’-bracket match-up. Ussery took the match 7-3 to earn the hot seat.
Meanwhile, over on the one-loss side, Eddie Little defeated David Tickle 7-5 and went on to defeat Hamlet 7-4. Cary Dunn bested Brian Overman 7-2 before falling to Leroy Bryant by the same score. Little then defeated Bryant 7-2 but lost to Fuller 7-3, securing the third place and setting up the finals rematch between Fuller and Ussery. Ussery, however, was unimpressed with Fuller’s prowess, soundly drilling him 9-5 in the final match. Fuller, who was the tour’s Player of the Year in 2005-2006 and continues to lead the field in points for this year’s award, went home with the second-place prize, having already picked up his own two entry fees to the Carolina Open with previous wins on the tour.
The tour stop featured both an eight-player early bird tournament Friday night and a four-player last chance tournament Sunday afternoon. Terry Champion took home the first-place, $100 early bird prize, defeating Chris Vollmar in the final 7-2. Peaches Fuller earned the $80 prize in the last chance final match-up on Sunday, defeating Joe Meskey 7-1.
Results:
1st B.J. Ussery
2nd Michael Fuller
3rd Eddie Little
4th Leroy Bryant
5th Cary Dunn
Arnold Hamlet
7th Brian Overman
David Tickle