Saturday, September 6, 2014

Missy and Scott Win Luci Bonneau Mixed Doubles



This month, Scott Norton and I ventured to Houston, Texas to compete in the Luci Bonneau Mixed Doubles tournament. This event is the biggest mixed doubles tournament in the Country, if not the world.  Every August, Houston basically turns into a Men’s and Women’s National Pro Tour stop with the amount of talent in the field. The event sells out in the matter of days and it’s one of the events that I always look forward to competing in.

Scott and I bowled last year in the Luci Mixed Doubles for the first time together, and unfortunately it did not go too well. We did not make the cut and ended up spending our day off, visiting the Houston Space Center, which was a decent alternative (although we would have much rather been bowling.)

This year, we were determined to not have that happen again. Flying in on Thursday afternoon, we were able to get in some quality relaxation time with our friends Debbie and Ziggy that recently moved to Houston. They have a gorgeous house, pool and spa and graciously let us stay with them for the weekend. We were able to spend a relaxing evening visiting and also got a show, watching a crazy lightening storm off in the distance.

Friday was practice and pro-am day. Practice session went well and then we had the pro-am shortly afterwards.  The pro-am at this event is always full and so much fun as Donna Connors puts on an amazing event with grandiose prizes and auction items, plus the entire tournament serves as a charity for breast cancer awareness and donations to research etc.

We bowled B squad on Saturday. In between squads, Donna has raffle items for the pros and the prizes are insane! Every entrant receives a free ticket and she gives away two of every item – one for the women and one for the men. Well the very first prize she gave away this year happened to be the grand prize – a 55 inch flat screen TV. Scott happened to be walking by the table right as they were going to start the drawing so they asked him to pull the first ticket. I was holding both of our tickets (blue for the guys and red for the women.) Low and behold they started reading off the numbers and Scott drew his own ticket, unbeknownst to him since I was holding them. So before we even threw a ball, Scott had won a 55 inch TV! Not a bad way to start the day. 

We then bowled our 8 games of qualifying. The oil pattern at the Luci is always difficult so it puts a premium on shot making and picking up spares.  I shot games of 214, 215, 233, 198, 258, 226, 236 and 242 for +222 and was high amongst all of the women. I used my Columbia 300 Blur Hybrid and Track LX 16 for the entire day. Scott shot games of 224, 177, 214, 243, 231, 190, 219 and 235 for +133 using his Columbia 300 N’Sane Antics for most of the day. Total we were at +355, which put us in 2nd place overall.


The next day, we bowled 4 games of semifinals and then the field was cut to the top 8 teams for round robin match play. I think I forgot how to bowl in the morning or just flat out wasn’t awake yet, as I struggled shooting games of 169, 191, 181 and 213. Luckily Scott held me up shooting 234, 247, 220 and 230. We had dropped down to 3rd place going into match play.


We then bowled 8 games of round robin match play with 50 bonus pins awarded to the team winning the team total each match. Scott and I both LOVE match play and it was evident as we went 6.5-.5 and had made up enough ground to move into 1st place going into the position round. However, we were only ahead of Tom Daugherty and his partner Kristina Wendell by 9 pins. So whoever won the match, was going to win the title.

Luckily I had a good look on the pair and starting stringing strikes early. Tom had a couple of early opens, but Scott also didn't have a great look on the pair, so the match was pretty close. Going in to the 10th frame we were ahead but needed to finish strong. I left a stubborn 10 pin, which forced Scott to have to get a mark on his bad lane. He went up and threw it perfect for a strike and we won the title 420-393!

Not only is winning any tournament a great feeling, but winning this prestigious event with your best friend just puts icing on the cake! The tournament also counts as a PBA Regional title, so I am now the only woman to have 3 PBA Regional Titles and Scott now has lucky number 7.

Til next time…



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