What an amazing weekend! New records, new members, new features, and much more! Our Labor Day event ended up having 175 total tournament entries, 43 prize winners, a 1 in 4 cash ratio, and paid out over $6,600.00 in our main tournament prizefund. Our sweepers had over 30 entries, and with the side pots paid out an additional $1,000. It was a record turnout and record high pay out. Needless to say it was a pretty incredible weekend! Not to mention the exciting $100 per game side pot squad that had nearly 40 bowlers on the floor at once!
The lane conditions ended up being tougher than what we were shooting for, but it was fitting for such a premier and prestigious event. It definitely created an environment that put a premium on spare shooting. Those that could make their spares, made the cut, those that couldn’t suffered tremendously. Our cut scores all weekend stayed in the low pluses. We had a few bowlers that were more than a hundred over but most bowlers were in the +20 to +60 range. Congrats to those that really grinded, and our future events won’t have quite as grueling conditions.
We also released our Membership Rewards Card this event, and are excited for members to be able to earn rewards back for the things they already do. We got a tremendous amount of positive feedback about the cards, and it will give all of the members some great rewards for entering tournaments and referring new members as the winter season picks up. If you would like more info on this, click here. Make sure to get yours so you can get rewards for bringing your friends to bowl this winter.
I would like to congratulate some of the members that made their very first quarter finals appearance! Congrats to Ryan Staudinger, Kyle Wakefield, Dave Niles, Chad Miyashiro, Mandy Etem, Randy Cote, Jacob Bryan, Steve Convirs, and Robert De Prater. I hope I got everyone! It isn’t easy to make the quarter finals, and it can be a sigh of relief when you make your first one!
We had quite a few parlay success stories this event. There were more than the average event which we are always happy to see! There were 4 bowlers that all had a chance to turn $25 into $1500! Three of them were Lisa Henderson, Chuck Kremer, and Ben Dewberry. All of these bowlers made the finals for a mere $25 and had a chance at the BIG CHECK! Lisa was the only bowler who showed the “Power of the Parlay” on Saturday by winning a free entry with progressive pot and advancing on the very next squad. Lisa has made 2 quarter finals in two tries, and both on pretty tough conditions. Congrats Lisa.
Chuck and Ben both showed the “Power” on Sunday and both qualified with ease with scores higher than +50. The real story line is the birth of even more parlay royalty. As most of you know, Ron Gonzales is the “Parlay King”. He has made numerous finals off of the Economy Parlay and has the current record of return on his money from the parlay. Ron won at Brunswick Via Linda lanes and turned $25 into $1000.00. Well, Michele Large has bowled two events, two economy parlay squads, and made it all the way to the semi-finals TWICE! That is easily the second most impressive parlay story that we have seen. Therefore, the SFT family has deemed her the “Parlay Queen”! Congrats to all of you for your parlay success stories.
The semifinals were an exciting event to follow. We had 6 bowlers in each division bowling in the match play round. There were 3 on a pair with the top score on each pair advancing to the 2nd round of the semi-finals. After the 1st round of the semi-finals, it left us with our division finals. In the A Division we had Lordan Ferguson squaring off against Brian Roever, and in the B Division we had Dwayne Ehrman vs Kevin Enomoto. The A division match was a bit of a runaway with Lordan defeating Brian 223 to 179. The B division match was more of a nail biter but it involved each player bowling their lowest game of the tournament! Kevin defeated Dwayne 203 to 184.
This put Kevin Enomoto up against Lordan Ferguson for the championship prize and bragging rights to be the first SFT AHT Labor Day Champion. This was Kevin’s first event and return from retirement. Although he was a competitive bowler the last time he bowled, the problem was that he just started again after a 14 year retirement! Kevin showed that “rust” was a state of mind and made it all the way to the finals. Lordan Ferguson was our runner up finisher at Glenfair Lanes and he was on fire going in to the final match. He had games of 264 and 223 in the matches prior to the finals. It was clear that he was the favorite going into the final match. Lordan showed his poise and redeemed his performance at Brunswick Mesa by striking out to shut out Kevin and taking home his first SFT AHT title! Congrats Lordan!
I have to say thanks to the SFT family for making this weekend such a success. We are really looking forward to see what the winter season holds and hope that the support and word of mouth continues. We hope to see all of you at our next event at AMF McRay lanes on September 15th and 16th. This event will also have $100.00 PER GAME SIDE POTS FOR THE LAST SQUAD OF THE TOURNAMENT! This was a huge success this weekend, and we want to keep it going! Remember you can bowl for these pots whether you have made the quarter finals or not! Any questions call Craig at 480-686-5704. Thanks again to everyone and we hope to see you at our next event!
