Bowling Industry Magazine
With care and planning, the Some Strings Attached Invitational was hosted at HeadPinz Entertainment Center in Naples, FL, July 25– 26, 2020. It was the first tournament featuring a combination of string and freefall machines and the first major tournament in the coronavirus era. Following proper procedures made spectators and guests feel safe. Custommade masks and temperature checks were mandatory for entry. New hand sanitizer stations were placed throughout the whole facility. Additionally, the tournament was bowled socially distanced across 16 lanes split evenly between eight free-fall machines and eight EDGE String machines.
HeadPinz general manager Mike Cannington was a bit nervous about this first pandemic tournament. “I’ve got to be honest, operating an event of this magnitude in the coronavirus-era presented some challenges. We had to greatly limit the number of spectators in the area and make sure those not competing were wearing masks. I was thrilled with the acceptance of these rules by everyone. We had zero complaints on the safety front.”
The winner of Saturday’s Invitational was Kenny Ryan; the winner of the Open tournament on Sunday was Jason Couch.
“I was very impressed with EDGE String. I think these machines are a step in the right direction for bowling,” said Couch, 16-time PBA tour champion and PBA and USBC Hall of Famer. The results showed very little scoring difference between EDGE String and the free-fall machines. The overall results for both days was a score of 204.76 on string and 203.43 on the free-fall machines —only a 1.3 pin difference.