April 4–7, Pinehurst Resort & Country Club

Wynand Louw is the 2002 North Carolina Open champion. In the final game of the Draw & Process he defeated fellow Atlantan Bob Cherry by +26tp. Earlier in the day, Cherry had beaten Louw by the same score. Louw then earned his way to the Championship final by beating Mike Jenner by +23tp.

In its fifth year as an open tournament, North Carolina’s international rules season opener drew its strongest field yet. Louw was ranked twenty-third in the world and third in North America at the start of the tournament, and he played up to his ranking by performing six triple peels in winning nine of ten games. But the depth of talented players was equally impressive. Twelve different players performed a total of twenty-nine triple peels, remarkable numbers for a field of North American players.

Clinics were offered the day prior to the start of the tournament: a morning session on basic tactics and an afternoon session on peeling. Both were well attended. Two of the players in the peels clinic went on to perform their first-ever triple peels during the tournament.

There were no separate flights (divisions) this year, all twenty-five players starting directly into the Main Event (Draw & Process). The eight top-ranked players were seeded. Any player with at least one loss could then start play in the Plate (flexible Swiss).

Upsets aplenty. Danny Huneycutt, playing in his first tournament, beat number eight seed Louis Nel in the first round of the Draw. He advanced to a meeting with Mike Jenner, and won +25tp. The triple was a bit wild, but that can be forgiven in a player playing only his fourth game of tournament croquet.

Jenner made a run to the Process final by beating number four seed Kenster Rosenberry, number seven seed Mack Penwell, and Wayne Synan. Synan had beaten number five seed Brian Cumming and number two seed Jeff Soo. Soo, the two-time defending champion, also lost in the first round of the Draw, to Johnny Mitchell. In that game, Mitchell started his winning turn with a thirty-yard shot to score hoop 2 (from the boundary south of hoop 4). Mitchell later defeated Penwell while advancing to the Draw semi-finals.

At the end of Friday’s play, Louw and Cherry were still undefeated, while Cumming, Jenner, Mitchell and Synan each had one life remaining. On Saturday this field was reduced to three: Louw was the sole undefeated player, and on Sunday would face Cherry in the Draw final and then Jenner in the Process final. Cherry or Jenner would need to win two straight games to win the Championship, while Louw would need to win two out of three.

The Plate format was flexible Swiss, allowing each player to decide how much to play. Scoring was by net wins, with an unusual tie-breaker: results were entered into a spreadsheet which calculated each player’s “strength of schedule”. Rosenberry won all five of his Plate games to finish on +5 net wins for the tournament (including Main Event games). Roy Gee was the Plate runner-up, on +4.

Plate action continued through Sunday morning, while the Main Event finals were underway. First the Draw final, in which Cherry laid a Duffer tice on turn 2. Louw hit his partner ball on the east boundary and played a big roll stroke to attempt a break, but failed to get a rush to hoop 1. He set for a break. Cherry hit on turn 4 and went round to a diagonal spread. Louw missed the short lift shot and Cherry finished with a triple.

Now Cherry was in the Championship final, with Louw to play Jenner to determine the other finalist. No roquets in the first four turns of the Process final, which ended with three balls in or very near Corner II. Jenner made hoop 1 but then rolled out of bounds near partner. Louw hit and made nine hoops, but barely ran 3-back while trying to set a diagonal spread. He shot at the peg ball and missed, ending near Corner II. Jenner attempted an aggressive break pick-up, but missed a long return roquet after hoop 2. Louw joined with a rush to hoop 1. Jenner took a cross-court shot at what seemed to be a good double target, but somehow managed to find the gap between the two balls. Louw finished with a triple.

Cherry laid a long standard tice in the Championship final. Louw hit partner on turn 3 and arranged the balls for a break. Cherry missed on turn 4, and Louw made nine hoops on turn 5. Cherry missed the short lift shot, and Louw won the game and the Championship with yet another triple peel.

Soo won the Biscuit Barrel competition for the third straight year, with seven triple peels. (Oddly enough, he won only five games, as two of his triples were losing TPOs.) Louw had six triples, and Cherry had three. Cumming, Drake, Gee and Jenner had two each. Aden, Huneycutt, Penwell, Rosenberry and Short had one each. Conditions were certainly favorable for peeling, due to the superb condition of the Pinehurst lawns and the ease of running hoops on a sand-based court. Nonetheless, to have so many North American players doing triples at one event bodes well for the future of Association Croquet here.

Tournament Director’s notes:

A three-hour time limit was used for all games, with the players allowed to stop the clock for double-banking interference. There were 101 games played, averaging 2:06 in duration (average was 2:00 in the Main Event and 2:11 in the Plate). Fourteen games ended on time.

Jeff Soo was the Tournament Director. Eileen Kupstas Soo managed the Plate and all court assignments. Mack Penwell coordinated the local details.

Final standings

Last modified on 12 December 2004