Brackets. They're a big deal. Go to almost any tournament and there will be side brackets pitting 8 players against each other over three games. Some tournaments will have 5, 10 or 50 or even 150 side brackets.
Bowlers love brackets. Maybe it's the head-to-head action. Or the feeling of March Madness in basketball. Whatever the reason, brackets are part of bowling action.
Bowlway Lanes has picked up on this idea by offering its first-ever bracket tournament: the Bowlway Bracket Blast. The concept is simple: You get at least 16 bowlers. They bowl two games of qualifying. You take their total pins and rank them from the highest seed to the lowest. Then you place them in brackets based on their seed positions. Each bowler bowls single-game elimination matches. If you win, you move on to the next round. If you lose, you're out. Each player will bowl at least 3 games. The bowler that wins it all will shoot 6 games. Not bad for an evening and fast too.
This is a modest proposal. We only need 16 bowlers to make it work. With the sponsorship support of Bowlway Lanes, Carmelo's Auto Sales, madwill creative and bowlelgin.com, the payout for the tournament is quite good at $325 for first. 1 in 4 bowlers will cash and there will be side action available for the first three games. Of course, if we get 32 bowlers, everything gets better and the payouts and spots go up.
Yes, this will be a handicap tournament, but it will be capped to a certain degree at 70% of a 200 average. That's fair for everyone, especially at Bowlway Lanes, where scoring can sometimes be tricky with stubborn 10 pins, 4 pins, and the occasional 7-10 standing.
For more information, call Bowlway Lanes at 847-741-0155 or email shargadon69@yahoo.com.
