A few pics from the final day.
He vs Hohmann in the 14.1 semi:
Last 1/2 of my hot Italian for lunch
14.1 finals getting ready to kick off....
Overall the event was pretty nice. Can't complain much finally having a world class event right here in my JAX backyard. Venue was fine, spacious, clean, modern, staff all friendly, SMOKE FREE, and fairly well maintained clean bathrooms. All the water stations in main room was greatly appreciated.
Decent amount of vendors. Saw some nice Prewitt cues with beautiful ringwork among others. Would have bought an event shirt but they were all gaudy - typical of poolwear.
Only real complaint was some of the scheduling that needlessly ate up the evenings, particularly Friday for the 9 ball finals and Sunday for Bigfoot finals. The first of the semis Friday shouldn't have been held to start at 3:30 or 4:00. Could have easily been noon, 3:00, 6:00, whatever. The 3+ hour break between last 10 ball semi that ended at 5:00 and start of finals was ridiculous, especially after they had it advertised to start at 7:00. Have no idea why anyone would want to watch Massey do trick shots, unless you are maybe 8 years old.
They could really use some low music playing in the background so every single conversation and phone ring doesn't come over like a car backfiring.
The Refs for the 14.1 need help. Stop doing the stupid outdated calling of shots. It was a constant distraction for the players especially when announcing the wrong ball and at the wrong times, on top of them already having to run around the table like rats for the unnecessarily short 30 second time clock. Every 30 seconds you constantly heard the barking out of the called ball, "TEN", and then the ball run. That was the finals, the TV semi was even worse with Kenny doing that one. Thankfully I only heard it in the background while sitting over watching the other semi at the outer table. AND keep the bridges under the table where every player expects them to be (see above about running like rats).
Pat said he was working on next year's contract and trying to get it earlier in the month. Good to get it away from Thanksgiving. Maybe he can try to get it before Predator presumably hold their Puerto Rico events. Would be great if he could have a small top women's pro invitational too. Get them before they head to San Juan
