In what has basically become routine at this point, yet another complaint marred an LIGBT Tournament yesterday.
During the LIGBT Labor Day Major at AMF Garden City Lanes, Adam Swenson of Levittown, NY led the 2PM qualifying squad, shooting games of 204, 244 and 279 for a 727 scratch series (811 with handicap). With that series, Swenson earned a first round bye directly into the finals. And that's when things took a turn for the worse.
A few minutes before the finals were set to begin, Tournament Director Steve Sanders made an announcement that all bowlers with less than 10 games bowled in an LIGBT event would be rerated. And being as Swenson hadn't bowled in 2 full years while recovering from ankle surgery, he knew this announcement was directly made to adversely affect him.
Sure enough, Sanders told Swenson he was being rerated from 185 to 231 as the finals were set to begin, lowering his handicap from 28 to 0. Having no other choice, Swenson bowled with the 0 handicap and was eliminated in the first round, missing the cut by 9 pins.
As someone who personally knows Swenson, I can attest that he has indeed sat out the last 2 years while nursing the injury and prior to the injury, he never averaged higher than 200.
Swenson went on to say that, "never again will I bowl anything of his." Sanders was unavailable for comment.
