Pool shark Hogan becomes Borrisokane’s latest professional
By Shane Brophy
Borrisokane has another professional sportsman after David Hogan won the first Ultimate Pool Challenger Series event of 2023 in Blackpool recently, which has earned him a place on the professional tour next year.
He follows hot on the heels of Dylan Slevin who recently qualified for the professional darts circuit, and indeed Hogan’s wife Laura, is a first cousin of Dylan’s so there will be plenty of interest in Lower Ormond on their exploits going forward.
David Hogan is not a novice with a cue in his hands as he is a former high level snooker player with the New Institute club in Nenagh, playing internationally with Ireland but it is six years since he played competitively because of work and family commitments.
“I took up pool fourteen months ago and adjusted to it extremely quickly,” he revealed.
“It was nice to go over and compete, but I certainly didn’t think I would be winning.
“Going to England, I said, none of these lads know me so I am going to play very attacking pool, within reason, and see how it goes.”
The Challenger event is run in conjunction with the Ultimate Pool pro-series which is restricted to 80 players and with David’s win, he has already garnered enough ranking points to turn professional and join that pro-series in 2024, and with it comes with live television and online streaming coverage.
For now, there are four more challenger series events to take part in which will help David hone his skills for the tougher opponents to come.
“I would know some lads that have also converted from snooker to pool and are now on the pro-circuit,” he added.
“What I am on is the challenger event which is limited to 288 and I was lucky to get on it with my snooker background. The first tournament was only the weekend before last and to play in it was a new experience as I didn’t know what to expect. The level of play was ridiculous. It is frightening how good the English are. Compared to Ireland who have some very good pool players, but they have a bigger pool of players to pick from.”
With snooker and pool in the same family of sports, David always had an interest in the game and with work commitments easing and his two kids growing up, he decided to take up the cue again in December 2021 and, like riding a bike, hasn’t looked back since.
“I knew the pool circuit was growing but since Ultimate Pool has come about I have been watching some of that on tv and one night I decided to go to Tullamore (no team in Tipperary) and play pool and I hadn’t touched a cue in five years.
“It’s like hurling when you have played to such a level, you can pick it up again. I got on fairly well and the lads said I was good enough and asked me to play in some Offaly ranking events and I won one or two of them before we played in the All-Irelands in May and Offaly won the intermediate section and I was on that team.
“From there, I got winning straight away and I got the buzz back like with the snooker and when you are winning you like competing and stay doing it and practise a bit more. I got my own pool table and put in a lot more hours and started improving quickly and I am going fairly well at it and enjoying it.”
All professional and challenger events take place in Blackpool in England so it is not a cheap sport to compete in, but the rewards are good as David won £7,000 in the challenger event last week, and that increases to £10,000 for a pro-series event win.
However, by turning professional come 2024, there will be more travel to the UK and entry fees for events are higher so David is looking for sponsorship to help with his quest and certainly with the growth of the game of pool and the coverage it gets online and through Sky Channel 437, it might be a nice investment for a local business to be involved in.