NEW YORK - The emigrated Dutchman Raymon Groot was almost a big sensation in the American three cushion championship. The 27-year-old, blonde 'Noord-Holland' player, married to the American Elly Zhang, played the final against Tae Kyu Lee last Sunday evening and lost 40-37 in 41 innings. In the semi-final against Miguel Torres, the Dutch player shone with the best match in the championship: 40-8 in 14 innings.
The USBA championship, with American top players like Hugo Patino, Mazin Shooni, Sonny Cho, Miguel Torres and Michael Kang, was played in the famous Carom Café. Raymon Groot lives just two kilometres away and works part-time in the billiard palace where the Verhoeven Open yearly is played. He said in a recent interview, that he also works as a taxi driver after he got married at the end of 2018 and moved to Flushing.
The Dutchman, who recently played in the Dutch league in the STZ Zundert team, came to the final rounds by beating in the quarter finals Young Kyu Lee 40-37 in 41 innings. Miguel Torres defeated Sonny Cho (40-37 in 42), Kang Lee beat Mazin Shooni (40-28 in 41) and Tae Kyu Lee won against Gilbert Najim 40-18 in 33. In the semi-final, Raymon Groot grew to his peak with the 40-8 victory in 14 against Miguel Torres (2,857 on average). Tae Lee Kyu beat Kang Lee 40-32 in 22 in the semis after he won the final against Groot.
It was the first time that Raymon Groot participated at the American championship, in which emigrated Koreans are among the top players for many years.
The final result:
1 Tae Kyu Lee 1.221-8
2 Raymon Groot 1.163-8
3 Kang Lee 1.369-8
4 Miguel Torres 1.008-11
5 Sonny Cho 1.050-6
6 Gilbert Najim 0.849-7
7 Young Kyu e 1.062-6
8 Mazin Shooni 0.815-5
9-16: Hugo Patino, Sang Jin Lee, Michael Kang, Edward Gomez, Julian Molina, Charles DeLorme, Song Lim, Jesus Quinonez.
Raymon Groot from the Netherlands with the champion Tae Kyu Lee
The proud new American champion Tae Kyu Lee