A 7th place finish at the end-of-year Strike Force Tour (SFT: www.strikeforcetour.com) event capped off a decent year for my tournament year. While I typically do not participate in handicap events outside of the city and state tournaments, I occasionally make an exception with SFT because they sponsor scratch events and organizations in the area. If you live in Arizona and have debated maybe trying to win a little money or just enjoy tournament bowling, the SFT may be your best bet, regardless of your score level or average.

This was your classic score-fest on a wide-open house condition. I struggled with poor mechanics in my first qualifying block, only shooting 540, but made a mental adjustment and qualified third with a 729 in my second block. This is not something easily done and something I personally have struggled with in the past. Typically, if I have bad mechanics, they last all day. Kudos to my coaches over the last couple of years for helping me learn to diagnose and treat my mechanical ailments.

The quarter finals were challenging with a cut-pace of just shy of 240. I managed to post my first 300 in game 2 which effectively got me through to the semi-finals.

If you don't know Brett Wolfe and Larry Hoffman, let me tell you, they are two of the best amateur tournament bowlers in the country. USBC wrote in their quarter magazine that Brett is "the first bowler to win their city, state, and national masters tournaments". Larry has made hundreds of thousands of dollars (maybe even more) over his lifetime in tournament bowling. Young talent Landyn Carnate and I rounded out the field of four in our divisional semi-final. We bowled one game with the top two advancing to divisional finals match play to determine who would go to the tournament finals.

Going in, I knew it was probably going to take 279 to make it through and I only missed my guess by 10 pins. With the condition as open as it was, Brett and Larry are simply not going to miss. If I remember correctly, Brett shot 269 and Larry shot 279. My shot was breaking down so quickly at that point, it was very difficult to keep up with the transition. After throwing the first 4, I got a little slow with a shot and the transition took care of the rest. Beak, 3-6-7-10.

Hats off to the rest of the bowlers. It was a fun tournament with plenty of good scores.

I'll need to take a look to see what others are doing with their blog space here.  I'm sure there are some insights and tips to help aspiring tournament bowlers.  After all, it isn't that others necessarily know more, but they always know something different.