April 3–6, Pinehurst Resort & Country Club

Kenster Rosenberry is the 2003 North Carolina Open champion. Two years ago he finished tenth out of the sixteen players in the top division. Last year he moved up to fourth. This year Rosenberry, a computer systems professional at Penn State University, prevailed against the strongest field this tournament has ever seen.

Rosenberry started with a Round 1 win over Andy Short, losing the middle game but closing out the match with a triple. In the quarterfinals he beat Brian Cumming in straight games, winning the second after having his forward ball tripled out by Cumming. Defending champion and top seed Wy Louw won the first game in their semi-final match, but Rosenberry came through with two steady games to advance to the final. There he beat ’00 and ’01 champion Jeff Soo, by a match score of 25, -12tpo, 17.

Carl Uhlman, initially ranked fifteenth out of the twenty-two players in the tournament, also had a breakthrough perfomance, winning the “Best of the Rest” plate competition to claim fifth place overall. Uhlman was knocked out of the main event in the quarterfinals, but then won five successive games in the plate.

Soo retained the Biscuit Barrel, his fourth straight win in the competition for most prolific peeler at the tournament. He edged Curtis Drake by one point—both players had seven triples, but Soo’s tally included two TPOs, worth an extra point each (Drake also had a double, worth one point). Drake lobbied for extra points for his two straight triples, but to no avail—the scoring system had been publicly posted at the start of the tournament.

The NC Open has grown slowly but steadily over the past several years, but this year there was a surge of interest from top American players. The obvious reason was the upcoming MacRobertson Shield. As one of only two remaining International Rules events before the Team USA selection deadline, the NC Open became a must-attend event for players hoping to impress the selection committee. Ten of the top thirteen players on the American ranking list were in the field, joined by two of the top four Canadian players. Three weeks after the entry announcement, the tournament was full.

After an experiment with Draw & Process last year, the tournament returned to its usual format: straight knockout, best of three games. No blocks. Players losing before the semi-final stage may enter the flexible Swiss plate competition. There were plenty of games available for those who wanted them, and several players managed to fit in twelve or thirteen games over the three and a half days of play.

The upsets started in the “play-in” round. Wayne Synan played well above his lowly ranking (grade in the 1600s at the start of the tournament) in beating Louis Nel in two games. Danny Huneycutt, just beginning his second year of tournament play, overcame Paul Bennett in three.

The biggest upset of the tournament occured in the round of 16. Carl Uhlman was ready to play from the start of the match, and number two seed Curtis Drake wasn’t. Uhlman took full advantage of Drake’s errors in the first game, winning +23. Drake woke up for the second, winning +26tp. But in the third game Uhlman simply outshot Drake to win +17.

Uhlman stayed hot through the first game of his quarterfinal match with Jeff Soo. Once Uhlman got the innings he never gave them up, winning +16. Soo buckled down to win the next two, +14, +25tp.

Doug Grimsley, seeded sixth, pulled off a minor quarterfinal upset against Bob Cherry, seeded third. The match required all but about ten minutes of the seven and a half hour time limit, the second game ending on time. In near darkness at the end of the match, Grimsley spent quite a long time making sure he had his peg-out lined up correctly, even though he was only two yards from the peg.

In the top half of the draw, it was top seed Wy Louw over ninth seed Rory Kelley, and fourth seed Kenster Rosenberry over fifth seed Brian Cumming. Cumming felt he had gained the upper hand in the second game when he triple peeled Rosenberry’s forward ball out of the game. But Rosenberry, who had warmed up for the tournament with game after game of one-ball, performed a succession of long hit-ins, long roll-ups, and improbable hoop shots to put the match away.

For Rosenberry, this was beginning to look like a case of “deja vu all over again”. A quarterfinal matchup with Cumming followed by a semifinal match against Louw recalled the 2002 USCA International Rules Championships, held on these lawns eight months earlier.

Meanwhile, some would say the real tournament action was down in the plate competition—that’s where most of the players and most of the games were. Assistant TDs Eileen Kupstas Soo and Danny Huneycutt served up games for those who wanted them, as most everyone did. Most of the plate players opted for four or five games on Saturday.

As they say about professional golf tournaments, Saturday is “moving day”. Thirteen players started the day with a realistic chance to move into position to win the plate in Sunday’s final rounds. By the end of the day it was a two-horse race: Uhlman and Drake. Uhlman won four straight games on Saturday, while Drake won four of five. This left them tied at +4 net wins for the tournament. Four other players were still “mathematically” in contention at +2.

Louis Nel took an unusual route to end up in the middle of the pack. Following his first-round upset loss to Synan, he lost his first three plate games to drop to -5 net wins. Then, starting with his final game on Friday, he won six successive games to climb back to a respectable +1 for the tournament.

Back in the main draw, Saturday’s semifinals started through what can only be described as a pollen storm. Pine and oak pollen is usually a minor annoyance of early spring in central North Carolina, but after several dry and windy days the yellow-green grit hung in the air like smoke, with new clouds of the stuff visibly exploding from the trees with each wind gust. First-time visitors were amazed. Mid-morning rain showers finally gave relief, clearing the air and leading to a brilliant afternoon.

Soo won the first game against Grimsley +21tp. Soo’s failed attempt at a straight triple in the second gave Grimsley the innings, which he never relinquished in winning the game +6. Soo took advantage of a Grimsley error early in the third game to take control and eventually close out the match, +24tp. The finish looked in doubt when some mediocre strokes after 3-back forced Soo to score 4-back off his partner ball, still for penult. His solution included three cannons: two rush cannons to set up the penult peel, and a croquet cannon to set up the rover peel.

Double banking with Soo and Grimsley, the Louw/Rosenberry semifinal started similarly. Louw opened the match with a routine triple, executed in his usual meticulous style. Rosenberry took control in the second game, winning +17. Louw’s shooting stayed cold in the third, as Rosenberry struggled through three scrappy breaks to win again by +17. The defending champion was out, Rosenberry was in his first NC Open final, while Soo was back in the final for the fifth time since this tournament became an open in ’98.

Drake finished his Sunday morning round in short order, posting yet another triple peel finish. This left him the current leader in both the plate and the peeling competition, and in a dilemma. There was still time to start a final plate round, and doing so would give him a chance to solidify his lead in both events. On the other hand, sitting tight might win him both events, with no risk of losing a game. Uhlman was in trouble in his game, and Soo, Drake’s main competition for the Biscuit Barrel, was struggling. With time to decide running down, and Rosenberry helpfully providing a rendition of the “Jeopardy” theme, Drake chose to sit out the last round.

It turned out to be the wrong choice. Uhlman won his game, and then won the plate on the “strength of schedule” tiebreak. And Soo’s TPO in the middle game of the final put him ahead of Drake in the peeling competition, by one point.

Rosenberry had all the early play in game 1 of the final, advancing to peg and rover before making a careless mistake that gave Soo his first innings. Soo failed to make progress, and on the next turn missed a three-yarder to give Rosenberry a chance to finish. Rosenberry scored rover but then missed a long peg-out attempt, pegging out one ball. Soo scored one hoop before breaking down, and on his last turn of the game missed a seven-yarder at Rosenberry’s ball on the sideline. +25 to Rosenberry.

Rosenberry had the first break in game 2, advancing a clip to 4-back. Soo hit the lift and tripled peeled Rosenberry’s ball out of the game, leaving balls in corner II and on the east boundary near 4. Taking his contact from the ball on the east boundary, Rosenberry rolled to severely angled position at 1, slammed through the hoop, then missed the rush. Soo retreated to corner I, and Rosenberry shot and missed the corner II ball. Soo set a trap behind 1, which Rosenberry shot at and hit. He failed to score, and a few turns later Soo set another trap behind 1. This time Rosenberry played to the west boundary near 2, and Soo used the “load and hold” play at 2 to pick up his three ball break. +12tpo to Soo.

Soo had the first break in the final game. Rosenberry hit the lift and also played a break to 4-back. Soo missed, and here the game turned ugly, with numerous errors and exchanges of the innings. Ultimately it was Rosenberry who hit more roquets and made fewer errors, winning the game +17 to claim the match and the championship.

Scores from main event shown below.

Jeff Soo directed the tournament, with assistance from Danny Huneycutt and Eileen Kupstas Soo.

Tournament Director’s notes

Surprisingly, the plate games were faster (average 1:48) than the main event games (average 1:57). This was due as much to the high level of play in the plate as to some slow play in the main event. Very few games went to time. Time limits were 2.5 hours in the plate and 7.5 hours in the main event (cumulative time limits of 3, 5.5 and 7.5 hours for the three games). In the past we have dispensed with time limits with no problems, and next year we might return to that practice.

Order of Finish

Last modified on 12 December 2004