I think it was an obvious split....with Rodney needing the Mosconi points !!!
-Steve
If not a split there was clearly a large saver in place to make it little difference. This is one problem with savers and splits, you get people in finals who are in effect doing an "exhibition" and it is not close to as interesting as watching two people do battle for the cash.
Alex looked like a guy who was just happy to have made it to the finals and ws content to do whatever at that point, he played pretty loose and if he wins great but if he loses that is OK to. If the money had been on the line it would have been different.
I don't blame the pros for it, in Alex or Rodney's shoes I would have done the same, there are no rules against it in this sport, but it sucks for the fans at times. I have chopped finals, we usually don't play at all, if we were forced to as with professional events like this then you are playing with a whole different mindset then you would if you were playing for the cash difference between 1st and second. Even the title is kind of moot at the point that you are splitting, both players know they are playing with a different mindset and the game is alot looser and the winning or losing does not mean as much at that point.
Hopefully if/when this game actually gets into some more serious money they will clamp down on splits and savers. If Nadal and Federer went and did a saver they would both be suspended from multiple events on the tour, if they did it twice they would probably be banned for life.
But the game of pool has to change alot, the professionals need an honest to god tour, they need a decent event every 2 weeks with decent payouts all the way down to 64th. For that we need actual big business sponsers who are NOT pool industry, such as Pepsi and the US-Open which is IMO a huge step in the right direction and people should be at this very moment working like crazy to build off of that, talking to OTHER big companies and saying "look, we have this huge tournament called the US Open 9-ball, gets over 200 of the world best players playing in it, and oh yeah, Pepsi is a sponser, so how about it Southwest Airlines, want to become a part of it?". Sponsership is often times like that, get one big sponser to take the first step and alot of others are more likely to follow.
But anyhow, ya, Alex vs Rodney was an exhibition, Rodney played great but he looked like a guy shooting off the hip with no fear of missing as if he was just practicing. Alex got down early, was tired, and hammed it up abit and did whatever to make the final score respectable. That is our sport atm in all but a small few events.
