Our event this weekend was at the beautiful Lakeview Lanes in Sun City. Many competitive bowlers in the valley have never bowled at this center because of it being located further away and in a retirement community. Also because the nature of this center is to be an amenity for the retired community, the prices are low, food is great and service is top notch. The establishment is well-kept and well-staffed. We had an okay turnout with 59 total entries for only two squads, which is almost 30 bowlers per squad. Of the 59 entries, there were 41 qualifying entries and we had 21 cashers, which is a 1 in 2.8 cash ratio. We paid out over $3,000 in main and side event prize funds!
The players bowled on a very difficult 37ft Melbourne oil pattern that played different pair to pair. This pattern forced bowlers to repeat shots and pick their spares. There was a lot of friction at the beginning of the event, but as the pattern was bowled on more, it created less and less movement down the lane. The scores were pretty low all day with cut scores averaging in the +30 to +50 range which meant players had to bowl 5-10 over average per game. It appeared that the pattern played similar to a US open like pattern that is very flat and required a high level of shot making. Most of the players either played straighter around 2nd arrow or they were inside swinging it quite a bit, but not too many bowlers had success left of the 2nd arrow unless they were really pointing the ball.
We also want to welcome some new bowlers to the SFT AHT Family from this weekend. Richard Rees, Nathan Kryn, Michael Yarbrough and Robert Behrendt all bowled in their first tournament this weekend! We hope you all enjoyed yourself, and we hope to see you again soon! We couple of parlay power players this weekend in Justin Song and Michael Killgore. Justin was able to get to the Finals, turning his $25.00 investment into $625.00. We also want to congratulate everyone who made it to their first quarterfinals or their first quarterfinals in quite a while. Congrats to Jon Berg, Leon Sabelka and Brooke Carroll! Shawn Kearney was your winner of the free Track plastic bowling ball with an option to upgrade to any high performance Track ball for $85.00!
The quarterfinals were still low scoring even though they weren't on fresh conditions. Normally the quarterfinals are on fresh conditions, but they weren't this time because the event was just a two squad event. Also in the quarterfinals due to the fact that there were 5 bowlers in the A and C division, the 1 in 3 cut ratio to the semi-finals only advanced 1 bowler for the divisions. The division champions were Justin Song in the A Division, who had shot a nice +108, and Logan Spencer in the C Division at +84. They would have to wait because the B Division had enough bowlers to have a semi-final match. We would cut to the top two bowlers with Leon Sabelka emerging as your #1 seed at +38. He would have to face Brian Roever (+12) for a top in the Finals.
The B Division semi-final match would start off with each bowler trying to find a line to play. Leon had a couple of opens, chopping a spare in the first and third frames. Brian got lined up quickly and struck in the first and third frames to jump out to a quick lead. Midway through the match Brian missed a ten pin to give Leon a shot to get back into the match, but Brian then struck in the sixth, seventh and eight frames to seal up the win and a spot in the Finals.
Going into the Final match the favorite would have to be Justin Song, who had been red hot all day, and was looking at showing the power of the parlay to try and win his first AHT SFT title. Brian Roever was looking at going back to back weekends with a win as he had just won the last event at Mesa East Bowl. Logan, a previous Rookie of the Year winner, had also been bowling well and was looking for his fourth AHT SFT title. Justin started off the match quickly with powerful strikes in the first and second frames. Logan and Brian started off trying to get lined up to catch up to Justin. Unfortunately Logan was unable to get lined up quickly and struggled with splits. Brian was able to stay clean until midway through the match where he missed a 5-7 spare and then left a weird 1-5-7-8-9 split in the seventh. Justin also ran into a bit of transition leaving a 3-10 split, which he converted, and the Greek Church, which he wasn’t able to convert. Justin struck in the seventh and eighth frames and it looked like it was his match to win. Then he got unlucky in the ninth with a pocket 7-10 split and it left him needing to double in the tenth to force Brian to strike out in the tenth. Brian was able to strike in the eighth and then 9-spared the ninth. Justin was up first and was able to strike on his first ball. Now he needed a double to force Brian to strike out to catch up. Justin calmly got up and confidently drilled the pocket finish at 213. Brian would strike and fill out his frame to finish at 205, while Logan would finish with a 163 game. This win gave Justin his first AHT SFT title and $625.00! Congrats to Brian Roever on making back to back Final matches and 2nd Place and also Logan Spencer for 3rd Place!
Thanks to everyone for coming out this weekend for our last event of the Summer Circuit and supporting the event. We look forward to seeing you all next Sunday for our Standard Event at Brunswick Tri-City to kick off the 2018 Fall Circuit!
