The players bowled on a customer SFT oil pattern called the Rattler at this weekend' event at AMF Chandler Lanes. The pattern was 38ft and had plenty of hook to it, but changed quite a bit through out the day and "bit" some of the players from time to time. Most of the players that did well, did hook it a little bit and didn't play it like the traditional short pattern. However, there were some players who were able to play close to the gutter and do well, but this time they were the exception. The scores were much higher then usual though, with the average cut score in each division being around +125.
The event drew a total of 75 entries (48 qualifying entries & 27 economy parlay entries), had 18 cashers, a 1 in 4.1 cash ratio and paid out over $3,000.00 in main and side event prizes. While the there was huge increase in the number of economy parlay entries, there wasn't a huge increase in qualifying entries compared to our minor events. The turn out however, was still pretty good and we appreciate everyone who spent their holiday weekend on the lanes with us!
We did have a new bowler at the event, who also bowled pretty well in Marcus Boner. He snuck into the quarter finals as the last spot before the insurance, then won his division and found himself bowling for the title in his very first SFT AHT event. This has only been done two other times, and both by women! Jennifer Dovers in Tucson and Penny Brackett in Avondale. So nice bowling to Marcus. Also congrats to Ron Schloss, Chris Hawkins, and James Roethle on advancing to the quarter finals through the economy parlay. They were all very close to converting $25 into $1,000.00. Nice bowling guys!
The quarter finals was, for the most part, three guys performing pretty well ahead of their competition. In A, it was Joe Mascio, who bowled incredible with two huge 250+ games to start the quarter finals almost guaranteeing him a spot in the finals. In the B Division, it was Ron Gonzales bowling the highest set of the quarter finals at +155 to set up a potential lead change in the player of the year race. In the C division, it was new comer Marcus Boner who was bowling scores higher than his league scores on this fairly tough rattler pattern.
The final match was close, but for 2nd and 3rd. It was clear that Ron showed he knows how to win and how to be clutch when he needs to. He started off with the front 5 strikes and never really looked back. He had a couple opens in the middle, but wasn't nearly enough to allow Joe or Marcus to close the gap. Getting up in the 10th, Joe needed to mark and get count to insure a 2nd place finish. He threw a great shot but, rang a ten pin in the 10th. He was able to convert the spare and strike in the fill to get 2nd place.
This has possibly set up one of the most exciting finishes of the tour has ever seen in the player of the year race. Ron has either barely ever or never been in the lead for the entire season and takes the lead from Jason Satterlee who has held the lead quite a bit with one event to go. It also gives Ron a little bit of cushion, as he would need to miss the cut at the next event and Jason would have to win for him to lose. It's not over with yet, but for Ron, who drives from Tucson for all of our events, to win Player of the Year in this manner during our 50+ event season would be pretty impressive. However, there are a lot of spectacular sides to Jason winning as well. We will see!
Thanks to everyone for coming out this weekend, and we look forward to seeing you next Sunday for our final Minor event of the 2015 season at Flipside lanes!
