Just wondering if anybody here bowled this past Feb High Roller, TAT, or the Mini. I just bowled the TAT and and Mini this year and just was wondering how other people experiences went this year. The mini was well run although the scoring on opening day Thursday was higher than they wanted. The next couple of days the scoring pace came down about 20 to 30 pins (to the 650 to 7-0 range). Only negative from the Mini was that getting the free room nights at Southpoint didn't happen as you had to reserve the rooms through the room block that the Mini had set aside. When I tried getting the rooms via the website they said they were full on the Mini room block so I just got them through another online venue. But because I got the rooms that way I couldn't get the two nights room credit so that ended up being a $120 mistake. Southpoint though is pretty nice though, one of the better rooms I've stayed at in Vegas (no fridge though).
As far as the TAT goes it was run pretty well, squads were on time, and weren't terribly full, and they were getting 2x the entries from the looks of it compared to the Mini. The pattern seemed to get a little drier as the week went along, as they were pretty tight when we started.
My insight on the TAT this year. The tournament was well run, squads were on time, although I think a few changes might be helpful to the format. With entries being down i really don't think there is a need for 5 divisions, it's just too many considering there might be only 15 people bowling in your division. Other issue which other people have brought up over the last couple of years is the how the TAT calculate marathon entries. To me, 1:10 is 1:10.. not 1: in how many Marathon entries are bowling on your squad. Here's an example; the last squad of the tournament was listed as 1:8 bowlers make the cut, however doing the math it turned out that only 1:12 bowlers made the cut due to the marathon entries counting as .5 of a entry. It's pretty friggen hard to make the cut when it's 1:12; For example in the 'middle division' the cut was 776. A bowler could have shot the 2nd highest set bowled for the week, 775, and not made the finals on a "1:8 cut". This happened on the last day where the middle division had 17 bowlers. Only 1 bowler made the finals so the 1:8 turned out to be 1:17 due to the marathon entries counting as half an entry. The mini is 1:10 for finals, and still cash at 1:5, seems a little more fair than the up and down cut ratio's at the TAT. As far as the patterns at the TAT they were OK, not great, definitely a 20 to 30 pins harder than the mini pattern. The trick there is just bowl the squads you have a good look on otherwise it's just a waste. Pin carry is always freaky at the Orleans... you'll get the best break in world followed right up with worst break in the world so getting a decent block together is a bit more of a crap shoot; basically praying that you get bad breaks on fill balls. It has some of the weirdest pin carry of any center I've bowled in, I'm sure other people can relate if they have bowled there before.
Suggestions would be cut the divisions to 3; 205, 50 and over and a 50 and under. Have a marathon entry, but count a ME as full entry! 1:10 is 1:10 for gods sake! Not maybe 1:8 one time and 1:17 the next, that's bullcrap. You want the cut numbers to fall within a reasonable range, if you shoot X number you know you've got a good chance of making the finals.. not shooting X and still missing by 100 sticks. Wondering if anybody else bowled and had some suggestions to make the tournament better experience. I for one won't be bowling the TAT for awhile until they make some changes.
I watched the boot hill tournament at Red Rock. Beautiful center and looked like a great tournament. Was basically a mini PBA tournament based on the talent level that was bowling. Would be nice if the boot hill tournaments had a website to see the results.
I didn't get a chance to bowl the high roller other than a practice session to see what the patterns looked like. Would have liked to bowl the High Roller to but logistically it's to bowl more than two at at time unless you make the finals in your first couple of squads. Looking at the results from all the tournaments looked like most of the regulars were making the usually high % of the money, but I did see a few new faces this year as well. I'm sure I will be back in July or February to make my next donation.
