This was our first every invitational and boy was it a good one. The bowlers bowled a 1 game bracket match play format all the way until a champion was determined. It is double elimination so each player can lose twice before they are out. If you want more info on how this tournament works and how each person was invited you can click here. The players bowled on a 44ft modified house pattern that was pretty difficult. The scores all day were fairly low. The players that could stay out of trouble by making their spares normally faired the best.
The first thing that was entertaining was adding the lower point players in to fill the spots. The way this worked was if there were any players that were invited, that could not attend we would fill those empty spots with other players. The season points determined filling those empty spots. If you were higher up, then you got first priority on the first empty spot. The players that were added at first were all fairly close. Ryan Burt was 29th, Danny Del Llano was 31st, Steve Hamlett 38th, Christina Sullivan 45th, Wes Marema 49th. Then it was a little crazy when it fell too Billy Pretlove at 76th. However, this still put us at 23 players. At 23 players someone would get a bye in the first round since there was no 24th seed. Then at the very last minute Aubree Mckay, who was there to watch her Dad, Ted McKay, realized that she would be eligible and had her equipment with her. So Aubree, who was tied for 224th place in the season points, bowled as the 24th seed in the 2012 PMI. Absolutely incredible, but would be even more amazing if she ran the ladder!
Well it was clear from the start that the seeding didn’t mean much as the higher seeds went 4 – 4 in the first round of the bracket. If you would like to see the bracket structure, you can view it by clicking here. However, 3 of the players that were added in won their match and moved on in the winner’s bracket. Aubree, however, didn’t and got sent to the loser’s bracket. She would win her next match against Steve Hamlett but then lose the next one against Roger Sensing.
The rounds progressed and the players with byes were added in during the 3rd round. In this round, it didn’t appear that the byes gave the players an advantage as the 4 players with byes went 2 – 2. However, as the day progressed it was clear that the guys that were trying to win from the start were running out of gas. They were bowling their 8th game at this point and for some that was a lot. Ted McKay was the last of the players without byes and he got taken out in the 8th round of the tournament. He lost to Ben Spencer in the loser’s bracket.
David Kurlan had won three matches after receiving three byes and waited as our champion of the winner’s bracket. He got to watch Ben Spencer and Chuck Kremer square off to see who would bowl him. The ironic part about this was that David was the one that knocked both of them out of the winner’s bracket. He defeated Ben Spencer first, and defeated Chuck in the final match of the winner’s bracket. Chuck would defeat Ben by a large margin 240 to 178.
This meant our final match would be a rematch between Chuck and David. The match was never too dramatic. Kurlan got an early lead and held it long enough for it to grow. He defeated Chuck 225 to 190 to be the 2012 PMI Champion and take home 4 event exemptions. Chuck took home 2 event exemptions and the next 6 players cashed for a minimum of $60.
I want to thank everyone for bowling this season, and creating enough success to have an event like the PMI. We will have another invitational next year, so make sure you are getting your points this season! Check out the final payouts and completed brackets below!
1st - David Kurlan - 4 Event Exemptions
2nd - Chuck Kremer - 2 Event Exemptions
3rd - Ben Spencer - $110.00
4th - Ted McKay - $100.00
5th - Ben Dewberry - $70.00
6th - Tim Bryden - $70.00
7th - Chalie Light - $60.00
8th - Wes Marema - $60.00
