The Verhoeven Open is a three-cushion billiards tournament held in

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the ...

in the US state of New York. The event is sanctioned by the Union Mondiale de Billard and the

United States Billiard Association The United States Billiard Association or USBA is the governing body for all professional carom billiards tournaments in the United States, especially three-cushion billiards Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of ...

. The event was known as Sang Lee International Open between 2005 and 2008.

History

Verhoeven Open 2016-Venue -Poster SLIO 1

Sang Lee International Open

It was founded in 2005 as the Sang Lee International Open, named after

Sang Lee Sang Chun Lee ( ko, 이상천; January 15, 1954 – October 19, 2004), most commonly known simply as Sang Lee, was a Korean-born American professional three-cushion billiards player and world champion. Professional career Born and raised in Sou ...

, a

Korean American Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...

player whose goal was to spread his principles as a player and restore the popularity of carom billiards in the United States. One year after his death in 2004, his friend Ira Lee initiated the tournament in tribute to him. It was organized by the

(USBA) as a member of the world federation Union Mondiale de Billard. The venue for the tournament is the Carom Café, which was founded by Sang Lee (not Ira Lee who is not related to Sang) and his friend Michael Kang, who was also one of the best players in the United States at that time. Contrary to most other tournaments it was not played in the set system, but to a predetermined score. The structure of the tournament has been changed several times since 2005. The inaugural event (2005) was won by Sweden's

Torbjörn Blomdahl Torbjörn Blomdahl (born 26 October 1962 in Gothenburg) is a Swedish professional carom billiards (and to a lesser extent pool) player from Helsingborg, Sweden who plays for FC Porto. He is a seven time World Champion in three-cushion billiards, ...

. The 2006 and 2007 editions were both dominated by

Frédéric Caudron
on Kozoom.com Retrieved 2013-03-22 Fré ...

of Belgium. Roland Forthomme, also from Belgium, won it in 2008. The 2008 edition was the last time the event was named as Sang Lee International Open.

Verhoeven Open

After a four-year break, the tournament was relaunched in 2012 under the name Verhoeven Open Tournament (or short Verhoeven Open) by Cindy Lee,

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of billiards-event organizer

Dragon Promotions A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

. In 2012, 20 players participated at the tournament. Winner was the local hero

Pedro Piedrabuena Pedro Piedrabuena (born August 21, 1971 in Montevideo) is a Uruguayan-born American professional three-cushion billiards player. He now resides in San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Souther ...

, who beat

from Sweden with 40:37 in the final. After a long pause of playing tournaments, the 75-year-old Belgian "Mr. 100 "

Raymond Ceulemans Raymond, Knight Ceulemans (born 12 July 1937) is a Belgian billiards player who won 21 UMB three-cushion World Championship titles, more than any other player. Along with 48 Europea ...

was honors player of the tournament and could, after all, still occupy the seventh rank.

Prize money and ranking points

The following table shows prize money and ranking points (only for USBA-players).

Tournament statistic

The GA shows the general average (all points ÷ all innings).

Men

Women

In 2013 for the first time a competition for women was held. It took place from July 14 to 16, right before the men's competition. Winner was world number one

Therese Klompenhouwer Therese or Thérèse is a variant of the feminine given name Teresa. It may refer to: Persons Therese *Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1773–1839), member of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and a Duchess of Mecklenburg *Therese of Br ...

from the Netherlands. She beat the four-time world champion

Orie Hida Orie is a village of approximately 3,000 people, and located in the Isoko South local government area of Delta state, Nigeria. It is also called ''Orie-Irri'' because its inhabitants are generally believed to have originally migrated from Irri t ...

from Japan 25:16 in 17 innings in the final. However Hida played the best individual average with 1,562. Klompenhouwer succeeded with 9 points in the best high run. In 2015 the women's tournament was called Jennifer Shim International. The tournament was named in memory of the American elite player Jennifer Shim, who was shot on March 6, 2015, by her ex-boyfriend at the age of 41.

References

External links

Sang Lee International Tournament Official Site

Sang Lee International 2007 Photos

Sang Lee International 2008 Photos

Video Tribute to Sang Lee
{{Cue sports nav Three-cushion billiards competitions Recurring sporting events established in 2005 2005 establishments in New York City Flushing, Queens Cue sports in the United States