THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 18, 1994 TAG: 9409180174
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Linda McWhirt remembers the days when women weren't even allowed in pool halls, and Vicki Paski recalls when she couldn't even plan a vacation for fear she'd miss out on a hastily planned billiards tournament.
``Twenty years ago, women didn't even have a game,'' said Paski, president of the Women's Professional Billiards Association. ``We played in the men's shadow for so many years. Finally, now, we have something of our own.''
Paski, seeded 14th in the U.S. Open Women's 9-Ball Championships, which end today at the Holiday Inn in Greenbrier, revels in the progress women have made in billiards in just a few years.
Of the 44 million people who play pool, one-third are women, Paski said. For the last two years, women have had their own sanctioned tour with a set calendar of events, and sponsorship is growing. This year, Gordon's Gin and Vodka became the first corporate sponsor outside of the billiards industry to seek a long-term relationship with the professional tour. And Gordon's chose the women's tour.
``The gap is narrowing,'' said Loree Jon Jones, the top-ranked women's player and the 1989 U.S. Open champion. ``We're not there yet, but we will be soon.''
Jones, who is coached by her husband, said men still have the strategy edge. ``Men have just played the game so much longer,'' she said. ``When my husband is coaching me, I'll see how different we think.''
``We haven't been eating, sleeping, drinking pool as much,'' said Dawn Meurin, whose fiance, Allen Hopkins, competes on the men's tour. ``A lot of it is the consistency. We may miss more balls than the men, but that has to do with percentages. There's a smaller percentage of women playing in this country.''
In other sports, overall strength and size make men-vs.-women competition impossible. But pool is more a game of finesse and skill. Meurin said women compete, and often win, against men in billiards.
``Women players are spread out,'' she said. ``I might be the only woman that's a competitive player in pool in the state.''
``When I'm back home,'' said McWhirt of Fredericksburg, Va., ``no other woman is at my level. If I don't play with men, I don't play.''
Sometimes, Paski said, women's strokes are more tentative, not as deliberate as men's, but she said that stems from the mental side.
Women are allowed to compete on the men's tour - three-time U.S. Open champion Jean Balukus did six years ago - but Paski stressed that most women are comfortable playing in their own events.
``Our top four or five players would compete very well,'' Paski said. ``Both of the tours offer the same things - TV hours and sponsorships - but we're going about it differently. It's a difference in marketing and philosophy.''
The disparity in prize money is also narrowing. More women are able to make a living at billiards, something unheard of a few years ago. Shari Stauch, owner of Pool and Billiards Magazine, called billiards ``the last bastion of male dominance.'' But lately, she said, ``I see less and less of a difference.''
The purse for this year's Open is $30,000 for the women. Next week's U.S. Open Men's 9-Ball Championships, also in Chesapeake, carries a purse of $70,000. ``That's the last time you'll see that,'' Paski promised. ``Now we've got some of our own media stars. We have a separate product. We're proud of it. And we're marketing it.''
Defending champion Robin Bell stopped Julie Nogic, 11-9, in a featured match Saturday. Also advancing were Jones, an 11-6 winner over Julie Haywood; Ewa Mataya, who beat Nesli O'Hare, 11-3; McWhirt, who topped Michelle Coykendall, 11-6; Grace Nakamura, an 11-10 victor over Lisa Madden; Kelly Oyama, who defeated Peg Ledman, 11-3; and Laura Smith, who bested Neurin, 11-10.
Match times for Sunday are 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., with the semifinals at 7 p.m. and the final at 9. The Holiday Inn is at 725 Woodland Drive, off Greenbrier Parkway north of I-64. by CNB