AMF McRay - 10/16/16

Location: 

Our event this weekend was at AMF McRay lanes and had a great turnout for a two squad event with 80 entries for the event which is about 40 bowlers per squad. The 80 entries had 23 total cashers, a 1 in 3.7 cash ratio and paid out over $4,000.00 in main and side event prize fund. The players bowled on the very difficult Kegel 40ft Red Square oil pattern. This is Kegels version of the original US Open pattern or the more commonly known PBA Bear oil pattern. It is a very flat oil pattern that leaves practically no room for era and puts a precedence on shot making and spare shooting. Since it’s not a extremely long or short oil pattern, players could play in many different places on the lane.

As always, we like welcoming our newest members to the SFT AHT family. Welcome Ernest Malapo, Patrick Grover, and Zach Beckett participated in their first ever SFT AHT this Sunday, and we hope to see them all again. Like in many instances with new bowlers, we had some do not so great, and some do well thanks to our entering average system. The new bowler that did well at this event was Ernesto Malapo who made it to the quarter finals of the event, but fell short of making it to the semi-final round.

The quarter finals was another clear illustration of how difficult the lanes were with very low scores. There were very few people bowling over average and no one bowling over +100. The average cut score took players to just bowl their average. We had Ron Gonzales coming out of the A division to bowl for his 7th SFT AHT title and to potentially take the lead in career SFT AHT titles over Lynn Arthur. Sean Kearney was the B division champion, and while it was going to be his first title match, he had been knocking on the door for some time. The C division, had a semi-final match first due to having more quarter finalists. Renee Sandoval, who has been on fire had to bowl fairly new comer Mike McWhorter, who was fire for the event. Renee also stood in the way of an all lefty final. The semi-final match started off somewhat close, but some open frames by Renee combined with Mike’s solid spare game quickly created a gap that Renee couldn’t make up, which allowed Mike to become the C division champion.

The final match was extremely low scoring but was also a nail biter. All three players were neck and neck going into the 9th and 10th frames. Ron finished his game with two opens which dropped him out of the match quickly. However, Mike and Shawn both marked in the 9th and Mike maintained a small lead going into the 10th frame. Shawn needed to double to force Mike to double. Shawn through the first shot pretty good, and tripped the six pin to get the first strike he needed. His next shot was a little soft and right of target which caused his ball to go high and left his only opportunity to win in Mike’s hands. Mike needed to convert his spare to take home his first title, and that isn’t always the easiest when the pressure is on. He was able to cover the spare and take home his first ever SFT AHT tile! Shawn came in 2nd and Ron Gonzales 3rd.

Thanks to everyone who came out and made this event a successful one! We hope you come out to support our tournament partner’s event, the ACBA on the 23rd at Brunswick Tri City, or we see you at our next event in Camp Verde, AZ at Cliff Castle Casino and Resort!

Final Match: 

SFT AHT AMF McRay 10/16/16