Well this is going to be a long event summary! There were a lot of exciting matches, some great background stories as well as some very exciting achievements reached by the club this weekend. The event drew 125 entries, 32 cashers, a 1 in 3.9 cash ratio and paid out over $5,000.00 in main side event prizes. The players bowled on the 40ft singles & doubles national's pattern this weekend which played very difficult on the fresh, but really opened up nicely as the day went on. The outside part of the lane was fairly off limits though. The inside part of the lane was very touchy on the fresh but, as the day went on some styles could really move left and open up the inside part of the lane. Most bowlers still couldn't throw it further right then 10 or 11 or it would stay right and never come back.
I have to jump to an awesome stat fact about this event that I am super excited to announce. I hope that it spreads around the Arizona bowling community like a wild fire. This season, the membership and myself really strived to create a new rule structure that would allow a variety of skill levels to compete and win $1,000.00 first place prizes. Players in the 180-190 average range are the most common that come out to bowl the events. However, players below 180 tend to feel like they won't beat the higher averaged players that have experience on the tougher patterns. Additionally, the higher averaged players feel like they can't beat players with higher handicaps on the tougher conditions. It's ironic that these two demographics both feel like each has the advantage. Well, I am excited to announce that as a club we have really achieved our goal of "a new rule structure that would allow a variety of skill levels to compete and win $1,000.00 first place prizes". In 8 standard events we have had a 220 average, 210 average, 200 average, 190 average, 180 average and a bowler below 170 average take home $1,000.00. That is SIX different average range bowlers taking home $1,000 in 8 events! Those are incredible numbers!
There is no doubt that a stigma has grown around handicap bowling from previous years regarding sandbagging. The term and thought has accompanied this level of the sport forever. However, what hasn't accompanied the sport during those times was the technology and effort to provide 100% transparency and fairness when determining the tournament averages. I genuinely believe that the SFT AHT has eliminated effective sand bagging. It has been done with the resources of today's modern era and great ideas from the membership. Most importantly, that boast isn't based on pride. It is based on sheer stats and information. We have had over 75 standard events with a $1,000 first place prize. In those 75 events we have only had two players win three times and those players have bowled nearly every event. We have always had brand new bowlers in the quarter finals and continue to do so. It is blatantly clear that we have new winners, and new faces at every level of success at SFT AHT on a regular basis.
Ok, now to the actual event summary! As always we want to welcome some of the new members to the SFT AHT family! Mike Goodrich, Rich Kenny, Adam Davis, Alexander Wallace, Tai Nguyen, Bill Carpenter, and Mike Jones welcome to the SFT AHT family! We hope you all had a good time in your first SFT AHT event! We also want to congratulate Kim McKay, Vince Dorsey and Barry Gilitiuk Sr. on making it to their first ever SFT AHT quarter finals.
Now let's talk about the exciting semi-final matches we had. Once again, all of the number 1 seeds got to pick the pair they bowled on for the semi-final match. Once again, they all LOST! It might be a curse being number 1 seed. The B division semi-finals weren't too close with Jai Janoe winning his match by quite a bit to make it to his 2nd ever title match. The C division match was closer with Susan O'Hara needing a mark to win her match. She was able to accomplish that which put her in her first ever title match! The A division final match was the closest. Robbie Patterson and Russ Oviatt both started with the front 6 strikes! They both started to miss a little near the end, but both opened in the 9th. Robbie had a split and Russ sent the head pin around the 10 pin when shooting a wash out. This meant Robbie had to get a spare in the 10th to win. His shot went a little high but he was able to break them up and cover his spare to move on to the final match.
Now, before we get into the final match. I would like to give you all a background story. I am good friends with a lot of the club members, and have a lot of conversations with them outside tournament weekends. Less then a week before this event, I was talking with Robbie Patterson about his struggles with bowling handicap events as a higher averaged bowler. After a little bit of a conversation, he decided he was going to not focus on bowlers out side of his division, or things out of his control. He was just going to focus on staying positive and bowling as good as he could. Surely enough, in the quarter finals, I heard him sound like he had given up because he felt like his ball reaction just wasn't good enough to bowl 240. I thought he had given up, but boy was I wrong. He stayed strong just like he said and grinded out the last two games with 230 and 210 games. It was a good thing he did because he squeaked by the quarter finals by just 1 pin! Jacob Meyer was just 1 pin behind him, and Ben Spencer 2 pins away as well. Then he had that nail biter with Russ that I mentonied earlier that he got through.
The final match seemed to correlate a lot with the rest of Robbie's story. He just kept his nose to the grind stone and made as good as shots as he could, never looking for a reason to give up. He caught a couple big breaks in the final match with a brooklyn and a trip 4 pin to complete a 5 bagger. Jai was out of the match early on, but Susan kept the pressure on Robbie. She got up in the 10th needing a double to win. A strike, nine, spare gave her 2nd place by just 1 pin! Great bowling to him, Susan O'Hara and Jai Janoe!
Now some may say Robbie had luck on his side, but I think there is a good tip in this background story for new tournament bowlers. They say luck is when "preparation meets opportunity". The next time during compeition that you are feeling your mood turn to the dark side. You already have that reason lined up in your head as to why you didn't achieve what you wanted (carry, handicap, lane conditions). Ask yourself, are you mentally preparing for any opportunity?
We look forward to seeing you all at Let It Roll bowl in a couple weekends. This will be a one day fun event before our big memorial day weekend event! We will see you all there!
