Thanks for the kind words, guys. Dennis and I wanted to have tournaments to play in as much as anyone else here in AZ and, when we heard there wasn't going to be a tour in 2008, we kinda hit the panic button and started working to keep the tournaments going.
Of course, without the support we've received from our sponsors, such as yourselves, and Mike Howerton not having laid the groundwork with the All-Around tour for the past 4 years, we definitely would have had a tougher time getting this started.
Unfortunately, I didn't spend the night in Tucson Saturday night and, by the time I could have gotten on the road back to Tucson today, it was late enough that I didn't feel like it was worth it. I would have liked to have been there to see the finals and, perhaps, commentate some matches*, but I just couldn't get back in time. I'll definitely be getting a room in town for our November tournament in Tucson.
And what Scooper said is true. Dennis and I aren't making any money from this. Everything we collect, be it through tour memberships, raffled cues, etc., is going back into the tour; most of which will be going into the added money for our season finale in December which, at this point, is a guaranteed $5000-added event.
Again, thanks for the kind words, and if anyone else reading this is interested in playing in any of our events, you can visit our website (desertclassictour.com), or just email us at
info@desertclassictour.com with any questions you may have. The site is not 100% complete yet but, as of now, you can get most of the information you need. Anyone is welcome to play, whether you're a professional, amateur, non-AZ resident, etc. In fact, we'd love to see more participation from out-of-town'ers and promoting our tour in neighboring states is one of the things we've been talking about and will be working on.
I'd also like to give a big thanks to Chuck Bobbitt, owner of Visual Impressions, for making this possible by title-sponsoring our tour. He's been putting a lot of money into local pool, including the upcoming $25,000-added Desert Shootout, and deserves a lot of credit for his efforts and contributions.
* For those who don't know, we will be filming various matches from our tournaments and they will be available to view on our website. This tournament produced our first batch of recorded matches, so that is why there are no matches on the site just yet. Look for them soon though.
