The Sounder Lanes staff and the Main Gate personnel were tremendous hosts, with the large turnout flowing very smoothly all day.  Our Members were totally complimentary of our Hosts, and in turn the staff was quite impressed with their first exposure to the Tour.  The new Record for a 3-Squad Tournament of 157 Entries topped the one-week old record set at Skyway (149), which topped the previous Tournament record set at Secoma (148).  It took a RECORD 71 entries in the 2:30 squad to reach that total, which also helped to push the total paid-out to a whooping $10,156.00, including some HUGE 1st & 2nd Place checks.  The scores were excellent all day with totals over 1000 coming from every squad.  The 9-Tap Jackpot onslaught continued with several near misses, especially in the middle of games.  For instance, Chris Pierce who had 5 in-a-row before getting a real strike, then Todd Roney strung 6 in-a-row until an 8 count stopped him, then Sang Park got 6 in-a-row in the 2nd to 7th frames, a 7 count in the 8th, then 4 more Taps to finish the game with a total of 10 Taps... but no string that qualified.  That left the Consolation to go to Carl Nichols and Bill Fowler who both had the first 4 Taps, to take $150.00 each from the Pot.  All this allowed the Jackpot to grow to another New Record of $9,191.00 for HiLine next week.

 

Our first visit to Sounder Lanes appropriately saw a first time Champion crowned.  The 2nd lady in a row to win a Title, Hye 'Sonny' Kim (no relation to last weeks winner) pulled out the win with a tough clutch shot in her last frame.  The 160 average (league) bowler, needed to convert a challenging 3-pin spare in her 10th frame to pull out a narrow 5-pin victory.  She shot a blazing 1077 which shattered her personal best, and once she got in a groove, she seemed to feed on the adrenaline rush.  The win came on a re-entry that she wasn't even planning on bowling.  She and husband Kyung car pooled with Sang Park, who wanted to bowl again.  Sonny had never tried re-entering before, but after struggling in her first 3 games she'd finished with a nice game, so she decided to go ahead and give it another try.  That turned out to be a VERY profitable decision, worth a HUGE $2,748.00 winner's share.  Sonny said that part of the winnings will be shared by her twin 9 year-old boys, who will get rewarded with some new bounty, along with some shopping of her own.  The ball she used was an Ebonite Gyro drilled by Dave Hanson at Pacific Lanes, where Sonny and her husband also bowl league.  Sonny and Kyung own a Convenience Store in University Place, which takes up a lot of their time, so they really enjoy taking a break for bowling.  CONGRATS Sonny on win #1!

 

The early leader Eric Pham thought his 1072 might hold up, but one shot came back to haunt him.  The one that got away ended up in the channel (naturally on a spare) and that cost him enough pins to leave him in 2nd place.  But it was pretty BIG runner-up money, worth $1,209.00.  In 3rd, Bernie Smith shot the high scratch score of the day, which worked out to a ONE PIN margin over 4th Place finisher Mick Hodge.  Having $10 in the Progressive Pot cost Bernie some cash, but the $140 he won in the Scratch Pot helped to balance that out.