Location:
Our first event in Flagstaff couldn’t have been any more of a success! We had 105 entries, 28 cashers, a 1 in 3.75 cash ratio and paid out over $5,000.00 in main and side event prizes. I can’t thank the locals enough for their support of the event. Their support far surpassed that of any other out of town area we have been so far. This was in due in large part to the bowling center’s proprietor, Ron Getto and his staff’s absolute commitment to the success of the event. If you combined the efforts of other centers that we have worked with in the past, it still wouldn’t come close to what Starlite lanes put forth to assist with the event. Because of the success of the event, and the incredible experience the club had there, we have already confirmed another event to be scheduled there in August of 2015. If you missed out on the beautiful weather and bowling fun this year, just mark your calendars for next year.
This event was a pretty special event when it comes to meeting new bowlers. We met a BUNCH of incredibly nice, and talented competitive bowlers from the Flagstaff area. We were also surprised to have new bowlers that were from Phoenix. We want to welcome a whopping 23 bowlers that bowled in their first ever event this weekend. Raymond Clerry, Barry Rust, Heidi Morrill, Gary Morrill, Bob Hiser, Shawn White, Mavis Fernandez, Michael Janis, Josh Barnhart, Josh Kuhn, Marissa Lucero, Danny Lowis, Mary Mobley, Tim Macias, Frank Mobley, Chris Stewart, Chad Clark, John Cross, Chase Clark, Gordon Barker, Anthony Smith, Brandon Maestas and Kenny Smith welcome to the SFT AHT family, and we hope you enjoyed your first event with us! Also congrats to Kenny on winning our Track bowling ball raffle too!
The players bowled on a Brunswick 36ft Phase 1 oil pattern. The pattern proved to play a little longer then 36ft, but was very playable for all styles. The shorter patterns tend to be the favorite of most of the participants. The cut scores however, are also consistently higher with the shorter patterns. The other consistent stat that has went with short patterns this season has been moderate lefty success. This weekend proved to keep that stat accurate as well with quite a few lefties having a good amount of success. As always, the quarter finals still consisted with such a large variety of styles and skill levels.
We want to congratulate a handful of bowlers for doing some pretty special stuff this weekend. First off, Anthony Surratt, Brandon Maestas, Chad Clark, Chris Stewart and Brian Wilkens deserve a big congrats on making it to their first ever SFT AHT quarter finals this weekend. We are always excited to see first time bowlers and new comers having success at our events. Chad actually was just a few spares away from bowling for the $1,000.00 as he lost in the “A” division final match. He took home a cool $160, but also bragging rights as high Flagstaff finisher. As always, we also like to congratulate our “Parlay Power Players”, in Hokey Begay and Joe Mascio. These gentlemen made it all the way to the quarter finals off of a small $25 investment into the economy parlay. Great bowling to all of you!
This leads us to our semi-finals and final match. The semi-final matches consisted of Kevin Enomoto and Chad Clark in the A division, Jason Turner and Rick Williams in the C division, and Jon Ferrell and Wes Marema in the B Division. The A division match was close in the beginning, but a couple opens in the middle of the game by Chad ended up giving Kevin the opening he needed to bowl in his 4th ever SFT AHT title match. The B division match was probably the closest for the longest amount of time. Jon had the opportunity to strike out to force Wes to double, but a spare allowed Wes to only need a mark to win. Wes threw a great shot and struck to lock himself into his 2nd SFT AHT title match.The C division match was back and forth with Rick eventually defeating Jason. Jason has slowly been getting closer and closer to a title match, and seems to be within striking distance of it. Rick would be bowling in his first ever title match.
The final match was a pretty good one with all of the players never being out of it. Near the end Wes had a pretty good lead, but an open in the 9th gave the other players a little bit of hope. However, neither of them were able to capitalize and Wes came away with the victory fairly easily and took home his first ever SFT AHT title and $1,000.00!
We really encourage all of you to come out to a special event on August 24th at Mesa East Bowl. Jerry Bernardo, a bowler that participated in our events and had a big impact on the bowling community on the east side of town tragically passed away a few weeks ago. We are planning on running a memorial event to generate some proceeds for his wife Rose. The event will feature a 3 game sweeper format with 3 squads of bowling. Most importantly, we will be running 50/50 raffles every squad, as well as some big prizes being up for grabs in more raffles. Even if you don’t want to bowl, come participate in the raffles and support a great cause for a great man. See you all there!
Final Match: