This week 9-Tap Tour stopped at Bowlero-Acme at Southcenter, and we found out again how AMAZING our Tour bowlers really are.  During warmups for the first squad on Sunday, we discovered that the oil machine was laying down very little oil.  Efforts to fix and re-oil the lanes failed, but it left us starting an hour late.  So, we adjusted, changing to a 3-Game format, which got us caught up by the final squad.  

Under the most challenging lane conditions bowlers have ever faced on the Tour, several bowlers actually stepped up and shot their Personal Best scores, while most struggled.  Although there were more 2-digit scores than we've ever seen, the vast majority of Members maintained a very positive attitude, which we appreciated (as always!).  We have dealt with the rare instances of wrong patterns or House Shots several times over the years, which those mistakes pushed scores through the roof.  In this instance, we had the lowest scoring ever on the Tour.  Score were SO LOW, that we had a RECORD low Cut-Line of just 615.  After all of that, we still had 142 entries compete in the tournament, with 28 bowlers making the Cash List. 

The 9-Tap Jackpot held strong this week, even though a couple of bowlers tried their best to do some damage to it.  Zac Clute and Paul Rosengren both hit 6 out of 7 9-Taps which came with what could have been if they didn't throw a natural strike in the middle.  At the end of the day the Front 3 9-Taps paid out to Malou Aninion, Cody Angeney, and Thang Duc Thai.  The 9-Tap Jackpot will be at $6,077.00 next week which will activate a new rule to the pot (check Wednesday's newsletter for info). 

As one of the bowlers said during the tournament, whoever wins this one is going to earn it, well Lee Conerly did just that for his 1st Tour Championship, since joining the Tour in 2021.  Lee's best finish was an 8th place in March, when he averaged 196, Sunday, Lee improved on that performance averaging his Personal Best 225 scratch, and with handicap 817.  Lee stepped on the lanes with his Dexter C9 Color Shift shoes, while rolling his Radical, drilled by Robert Kelly of Secoma Lanes.  Lee wanted to thank his friends, Willie Manning, Jay Burdine, and Jeff Price for all of their support.  Lee said he will be using a portion of his $2,108.00 winnings paying off some bills.  Congratulations Lee! 

Finding the 2nd place slot this week was Kathy Matthews coming with 7 pins of her Career High with a score of 795.  Kathy shot her All-Time high set back in October when she also took 2nd place.  Kathy earned a crisp $943.00 for her great shooting. 

3rd place this week was newcomer, Cody Angeney, who was determined to some good games together, and on a re-entry shot 757.  Because this was Cody's first tournament, he could only put $10 into the progressive pot, earning $381.00.  This will make the progressive pot just a little bit bigger for next week's tournament.