Skyway Park Bowl & Casino lived up to it's recent history of high scores, with 13 Members cracking 1000, on Saturday. One of the 13, was Paul Marcello, who threw his FIRST career natural '300' game, which will earn him the coveted 'Ring' from USBC. CONGRATULATIONS Paul, that's the ultimate BIG DEAL for any bowler! It was the 3rd (Mike Kravitz-Mitch Vernon) natural 300 game shot on the Tour in the last 2 years and two of them were career firsts. The high scores also led to one of the closest finishes in 9-Tap Tour history, with only THREE pins separating 1st place from 3rd. 112 entries produced another healthy 'Cash List', with a total of $7,000.00 paid out for the Tournament.

The Skyway Park Champion is Tong Nguyen, taking down his first Title in 2009, but his 7th career win. That ties him with Mitch Vernon for the most wins and this is also Tong's 3rd win at Skyway Park Bowl. It's very interesting to see how powerful confidence can be! Tong has seldom missed a Tournament in the last seven years and usually enters more than once. Yet, 3 of his 7 wins have been in the same Center, where he has the most confidence. After a SEVERE slump, where he's had few cashes over his last 70+ entries, Tong got "Hot" starting last week, taking 2nd at Tower. After he was edged out of 1st last week, he said, "That's okay... Skyway next week, I win there!" HE DID... BY ONLY ONE PIN with his 1076!! Other similar examples of confidence are Mitch with 4 of his 7 Titles coming at Tower lanes, or Mike Ducay's 2 Titles at Acme Lanes and we've only had three Tournaments there. That's not the only example of confidence from Tong. As I mentioned last week, he had been complaining for some time that he had "LOST HIS MOJO" and we told him to get a haircut and he'd get his Mojo back. He tried a ponytail and that didn't work. We told him, Paul Marcello shaved his head then won (now also a 300)... Bob Rouse shaved his head and then broke a 5 year drought (I'm NOT suggesting this for anyone else!). Now Tong finally relented and has a 2nd and a 1st in two weeks... scary. Unlike most of us, Tong has stayed with the same ball for ALL seven of his Championships, an old HAMMER "PBA Offset", (more good Mojo I guess). We can't seem to talk him into using some of his $1,963.00 in winnings for a new ball though! CONGRATS Tong on #7!

Christina Miller took an awesome shot at her 1st win, missing by a heartbreaking ONE pin, with her 1075. She had the lead before being edged by Tong in the 2nd squad. Despite being 2nd in the standings, she tried again and stayed in that "Zone", having a shot to win it before falling off in the last game, ending with another excellent score of 1044. Her best finish was worth $885.00. Then Dax Colwell had a shot in the last squad, in the end, just missing with a 1073, good for 3rd and $493.00. John Nissen also shot some GREAT sets, taking $255.00 from the Scratch Pots.

NEXT WEEK: ROXBURY LANES - 12:00 & 2:00 re-oil 4:30 & 6:30

RESULTS

OTHER PAYOUTS

NEW PROGRESSIVE POT TOTAL: $1,844.00
NEW 9-TAP JACKPOT TOTAL: $1,943.00

STRIKEPOT CONSOLATION WINNER:
5 No-Taps - Mholee Divina ($100.00)

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION