WOW! What a weekend of records, firsts, and many memories! We had our first honor score on the tour, first youth bowler champion, first event with over 100 entries, record high pay out, two brothers winning titles, and a 9th and 10th frame roll off! This might be a long summary, but it still won’t sum up how amazing this weekend was. It’s always a lot fun, but this weekend felt like it was the start of something special for the Strike Force Tour.
I have to start off with our entries and pay out. We had 101 entries for the weekend! This is our first event with over 100 entries. This incredible turn out allowed us to pay even more money from first place to last cash. Our first place prize was $1,100.00, second was $550.00, and semi-finalists made $170.00. This is a huge milestone for the new SFT AHT, and it was truly enjoyable sharing it with all of our new and longtime members. This incredible payout still included our typical low cash ratio, which was 1 in 4 with 25 prize winners for the weekend.
Brian Waugh still continues to show his versatility and striking ability week after week. This weekend’s tournament took place on the 41ft Scorpion Pattern. This didn’t stop Brian in the least bit. In game 2 of the
quarter finals Brian bowled a perfect game of 300 with 12 great shots one after another. Brian has not only made more semi-finals than any other bowler, but is also our first bowler to record an honor score since the SFT AHT started back up. Congrats Brian! I hope success continues for you when bowling in Vegas next week at the True Amateur Tournament!
Our semi-final matches proved to be exciting once again! Our A division finals consisted of Charlie Light, Brian Waugh and Tina Stickney. Tina had a huge rooting section going up against the boys. She proved she wasn’t intimidated by them with a nice scratch score of 268! In the B division, we had Chuck Kremer, Daniel Varholdt and Hokey Begay facing off. It was a very close match all the way to the end. Chuck Kremer needed to make a spare in the fill of his 10th frame to win by 1. Chuck missed the spare and him and Daniel Varholdt went to a 9th and 10th frame sudden death roll off! The roll off didn’t go well for Chuck, and with two opens, Chuck lost to Daniel. Daniel and Tina squared off in the finals for a very exciting strike-a-thon. Daniel kept up the whole way with Tina, but in the 10th frame he opened to give Tina an opening. Tina needed the first strike in the 10th to win and the ball crept just a touch high leaving a 4 pin and giving Daniel Varholdt the tournament title.
Daniel’s victory meant that he is our first youth champion. He took home $1,100 worth of scholarship money. USBC has a great scholarship program called “SMART” that allows youth bowlers to bowl in adult singles tournaments strictly for scholarship money. If they win any money, the tournament sends it to USBC and USBC puts that money in that youth bowlers SMART account to be used on future academic endeavors. The other exciting thing about Daniel’s victory was that his older brother Chris Varholdt was the SFT AST Open Division Champion as well. The brothers both showed off their skills, and Dad was present to watch it all! I am very happy for the Varholdt family, and congrats to both Chris and Daniel on their tournament titles.
It was a very exciting weekend. I would like to thank Nancy Light Photography as well for taking the photos of the tournament. You can get in contact with Nancy to book her services by going to her Facebook page by clicking here. We hope to see you all at our next event at Brunswick Mesa Lanes on July 14th & 15th. We look forward to seeing any of you at the TAT this week and weekend. Tournament averages and season points will be updated a bit later than usual due to traveling and the USBC Open Championships. They will be updated as soon as possible though. Thanks again!
