Our event this Sunday was at Brunswick Tri City Lanes and was a 2 squad event. Although the event was located a bit far away for most, that didn't stop the amazing SFT AHT family from coming out in a big way! There was nearly 40 bowlers per squad, which resulted in 76 total entries (44 qualifying entries and 32 economy parlay), 22 cashers and a 1 in 3.5 cash ratio that paid out over $3,000.00 in main and side event prizefund. The players bowled on a 43ft Shark Oil pattern that forced most players to play the middle of the lane due to the outside having a lot of oil and it being difficult to get the ball to return from the outside part of the lane. The cut scores were also very low through out the whole day in most cases not even requiring players to bowl their average to make it to the quarter finals.
As always, we like to welcome any new bowlers to the SFT AHT family. We have had a huge year with new members, due to the members making the entering average rule change for new members. In prior years, they came in at a house shot average, and it had a clear impact on how often we had new bowlers have success in the events. After looking at the data, the members concluded that the new bowlers were at a huge disadvantage, and this year make the correction. It is clear that they have done the right thing, as we have had tons of new bowlers and had new bowlers achieve a moderate a fair amount of success. Let's welcome Thomas Jackson, Vincent Colbert, Anthony Aubuchon, Jeffrey Willbanks, and Fred Sells to the SFT AHT family.
Also congrats to Mike Ybanez and Chad Clapp on being the players at this event that qualified to the quarter finals for the very first time. Also congrats to Chad Clapp and Rene Sandoval on being this events Parlay Power Players, which means they took the $25 economy parlay option and turned it into a nice quarter finals check. Even better Chad and Rene really took it a step further! I will explain more.
The quarter finals was even lower scoring then qualifying, as the Shark pattern tends to dry out and force players very far left. For many amateurs they get to a certain point, where they can't comfortably move further left (for right handers), which causes scores to go lower for those kinds of players. To improve on the longer oil patterns, getting more comfortable laying your ball down left of 4th and 5th arrow can be a huge assistance in scoring better as the lanes breakdown.
After the quarter finals, the A division champion was Jason Satterlee, B Division Armando Viramontes, and C division.... well, you are going to want to hear that story. The C division, due to having quite a bit more entries ended up having more quarter finalists, which caused a semi-final match between two players. Those two players were the parlay power players mentioned above and boy was their match one of the most interesting ones we have seen in awhile. Both players are lower averaged players in the low 130's. The difference in handicap was only 1 pin, going to Chad Clapp. Chad started off the match with some big breaks and a three bagger. Both players don't throw strings of strikes often, so it looked like Chad already had it in the bag. However, Rene took advantage of several open frames by Chad to put himself back in the match. Another open by Chad in the 10th, allowed Rene to only need a spare and 5 pins to win the match. Rene got up, throw a decent shot to hit the head pin and leave a 5 pin. He covered the spare nicely and looked lke he was on his way to win the match. On his fill frame, his shot was far to the left and only knocked down 3 pins, which gave Chad the win by only 1 pin! To add to it, these guys are good friends that dry all the way from Casa Grande together to bowl the event. Let's just say, that must have been a quite ride home! Still nice bowling guys! Both from the economy parlay too!
The final match had Armando and Jason really struggling to bowl average, with several opens and very little strings. The lack of pressure allowed Chad to make his spares and bowl one of his highest scores of the entire tournament. Chad took home $600 and his first SFT AHT title, Jason 2nd and $375, Armando 3rd and $250. Nice bowling to everyone! We look forward to seeing you all at our next event at Mesa East Bowl next Sunday!
