We presented plaque's to our newest $20,000.00 Club Member's Mick Hodge & Willie Manning, Jr., while Huyen & Thang Duc Thai are the 9th & 10th Member's of the $30,000.00 Club!

Mick, Willie, Huyen & Thang

Huyen was also presented with a plaque for most 2018 cashes while Reuben Pedro & Matt Buchholz were honored for being a couple of our Top Rookie's with Matt also being our 'Best Cash Ratio' honoree! Brett Schaaf was the 2018 'Rookie of the Year' Winner as well as the Tour's 'Most Improved' bowler. 

Thang Duc Thai, Earl Kleist, Ashley Kochel, Reuben Pedro, Willie Mannin, Jr., Matt Buchholz & Brett Schaaf

9-Tap Floor Director's Leon Bemis, Donnie Roberts, Jon Schneider & Dan Watts

Due to an illness in the family, our 2018 Hall of Fame inductee was unable to attend nor bowl this week, but we were proud to announce that Cal Fisher is our newest Hall of Fame Member!  Cal joined the Tour in 2005 and has over $28,000.00 in career earnings. Over the years, he's had 29 Top 5 finishes, with FOUR wins and also a win on the 'Elite Tour'.  Cal's shot 23 300 games with us, including five in an 8-game span a few years back!  With Cal not on hand to receive his pennant, we presented it to his Pal's John Nissen, Lynn & David Kim. Congratulations, Cal!

Cal Fisher (L) John Nissen, Lynn & David Kim (R)

After the awards ceremony, we had some bowling to do as 89 bowlers threw three games to see who would move on to the Finals. We took the Top bowler from each pair (eleven in all), moving them directly to the stepladder finals and along the way, Jeremy Truitt wound up being the YEC Top Qualifier which earned him a Storm Ball as well as the 'Top Qualifier' jacket!  All eleven of the 2nd Place bowlers on each pair along with the top four scores overall moved on to the first playoff round, vying for the FIVE remaining bracket spots.  Even though they didn't finish in that top five, Wes Puishis & Tim Fierro still managed to cash as we added two spots to the Cash List.  

 

Moving on to the Bracket Finals, our 'Sweet 16' was quite the enthusiastic group with the Ladies well represented by Christina Miller, Karol Knight & Pearl Sedeno as they joined the likes of  Phil Bevacqua, Paul Mann, James Pippen & Jeff Armour. In the Sweet 16 matches, Pearl & Christina had big scores as they victimized Jeremy & Phil while Dale Coleman's 250 start was tough to overcome for Paul.

The 'Elite 8' pitted some tough matches as up and comer Daniel Leewas too much for Pearl while the only remaining 'Lefty' Brian Petershandled his match with Christina. David Kim bested a tiring Pete Woodwhile Dex DeCastro ended Dale's day.  As we moved into the 'Final 4', it was very evident that David & Daniel were on a collision course as it didn't seem to matter how well their opponents were bowling, they were going to put up some big scores! Daniel's 299 game was insurmountable for Brian as Dex's day came to an end with David's huge 264.

The Final match was a great one!  Back and forth the whole time,  strike for strike whether it was a flush pocket hit or a 'Brooklyn', it didn't matter, both refused to let up...In the end, the match finished 267-265 scratch as Daniel had just slightly more magic on this day.  The title for Daniel is his first on Tour after joining just about one year ago today.  In 2018 Daniel had six Top 9 finishes as he's steadily improved his game as he shown on Saturday!  $2,238.00 is by far his best pay day on Tour and he says he'll use it holiday gifts for family & friends. Daniel said that his girlfriend, Doris was cheering him on and is responsible for his taking the game up about four years ago.  "I wouldn't have been here if not for Doris.", Daniel said and he added "I was lucky to get 1st place on my pair of lanes and after winning the 'Sweet 16' match, barely, I started to feel more confidence in repeating the same shot."  Congratulations, Daniel...Well Done!