Wow! What a weekend of bowling! The majors are always an incredible amount of work, bowling, fun, payouts and exciting finishes! The event drew 226 total entries, had 62 cashers, a 1 in 3.6 cash ratio and paid out over $15,000.00 in main and side event prize fund. There is no question that the best way to measure the success of a tournament is on its payout. The amount paid out and the ratio of its payout. In terms of those metrics, this was one of our most successful tournaments ever. 1st was 20 times your entry fee, 2nd 10+ times your entry, last cash was 1.5 times your entry fee, we had a 1 in 3.6 cash ratio and paid out over $15,000.00! Absolutely incredible! Thanks to the amazing SFT AHT family for making these events such a huge success!
The players bowled on the 41ft Salute oil pattern that proved to really vary throughout the weekend and throughout the day. The only thing that did hold true throughout the three days is that the pattern really broke open and allowed for higher scoring on the very final squad. Other than that, day to day had varying scores, with it sometimes being high and other times being more medium. Also, there were players who played them straight, in the track or slow hooked the whole lane. It was a great pattern for a major and constantly reminded us, with its name, why the day was a special one, because of our service men and women. Hopefully, this pattern and all of you saluted them this Memorial Day!
One of the signatures of our majors was the side pots. Again, not only was it great again, but we had so many entries we could pay out 2nd place on almost all of the guaranteed side pot squads! We also had the three-day mega sweeper which had almost 100 entries just by itself! We had 19 cashers in that event with the low to cash taking +81 and the champion bowling +129 and taking home the $300 which was Matt Zweig! If that wasn’t enough side action, we had a bracket bonanza this weekend which even had a squad where our bracket software maxed out at 99 brackets! For the full results of the side pots and sweeper click here.
The quarter finals kicked off as a big one with 50 quarter finalists! You know it’s a big event when the quarter finalists of a tournament fill up the bowling center! They bowled 3 games and cut to the top 1 in 3 in each division which were the top 5! The A division standings after three games had Armando Viramontes, Joey Burruel, Eric Flick, Mike Ybanez and Sean Ashley moving on to bowl in the semi-finals. The B division had Ted McKay, Brian Gustafson, Lynn Arthur, Brooke Carroll, and Justin Singleton moving on. The C division had David Yitts, Troy Blickenstaff, Alex Souza, Patrick Sheridan and Bart Mullen.
The first round of semi-finals had all 5 players in each division bowling a one game match on one pair of lanes with the top 2 players moving on and BOY was it incredible! We normally have about one to two 9th and 10th frame roll offs a year. We had TWO, just in this tournament! The A division had Joey Burruell throwing a very clutch 6 bagger to finish the game and clinch the top spot, but had Eric Flick and Sean Ashley throwing strikes when they needed to tie each other and force a roll off. Eric shut Sean out by throwing all 4 strikes, and with more handicap shut Sean out.
The B division had ANOTHER roll off! Ted McKay clinched his spot with 211 with handicap. Lynn Arthur chopped a spare and Brian Gustafson marked and didn’t fill the frame to both finish at 208, and then Justin Singleton finished the match last and could spare strike to bowl 208 also! He spared and then got 9, but almost struck to bowl 207 and miss bowling in our first ever 3 people roll off! Incredible! Lynn was clutch and threw strikes he needed in the roll off to defeat Brian. The C division, while it didn’t have a roll off, was still very close with Alex Souza barely beating out Bart Mullen by only 4 pins to bowl Troy Blickenstaff in the C division finals.
The division final matches were also very good! The A division match had something happen I personally have never seen in my 22 years of bowling. I have seen some crazy pin carry to win matches, but nothing like this. Joey again, threw the last three to force Eric to also double in the 10th. Eric’s first shot was wide outside and left a wash out for a lefty, the 1-3-6-7. A pin rolled to “backdoor” the 1-3-6, which I have seen before, but then either the 3 or the 6 rolled toward the 7 and knocked it down too milliseconds before the rack came down! Myself and the spectators came out of our seats! It was a once in a lifetime sight! However, Eric still needed another strike after that to move on. You’d think it would be tough after all of that commotion to throw it good, but he threw it great, striking to move on and defeat Joey. The B division had two legends squaring off, with Ted McKay and Lynn Arthur. They went back and forth, but some 10 pins and splits put Ted just a little behind Lynn and allowed Lynn to move on to the finals.
The format for our Memorial Day final match is an eliminator format, which means that the finalists bowl one game, we drop the low player and the final match is bowled between the remaining two. Lynn got out to an early lead, and it was between Eric and Troy to stay alive. They went back and forth but some clutch shots in the end by Troy gave him the lead and another title match appearance. The final match started off with a back and forth and ended with Troy striking out in the 10th to force Lynn to mark and get good count. He threw a great shot and left a stone 7 pin. Then, while it may seem like a simple spare, hooked at it, but still made it. Then filled the frame to take home his 8th SFT AHT title and his first major! Lynn took home $1,500.00, Troy $800.00 and Eric $400.00.
Thanks to the 226 entries that came out to support this awesome event! We look forward to seeing you all at our next event at Brunswick Mesa on June 11th!
Game 1 Of Final Match
Final Game of Final Match
