February 13th, 2011 – Another exciting week of megabuck bowling competition at The Orleans in Las Vegas has concluded!  The 2011 TAT Amateur Nationals Champion is 50-year-old Bob Belmont, a Vegas local with undoubtedly the best story in TAT history!

According to the opinions of 2 specialists, Belmont shouldn’t have lived longer than a year after his 1997 diagnosis of inoperable brain cancer.  But all of a sudden it was January of 2003 and there he was in the Winner’s Circle of a High Roller holding the champ’s trophy and a very large prize check!

One week later, he collapsed in the Showboat Pro Shop.

His friend was a physician at John Hopkins and offered to see him so he made the trip to Maryland.  It was this 3rd opinion that told him to have the operation.  They did in a South Florida hospital. Bob had brought clothes for a 2-week stay and ended up with 52 weeks of post-op care and radiation before he could come home to Las Vegas.

Flash forward to 2011 and anyone who watched the finals knows that Bob Belmont is alive and well – and now richer!

He took home $25,000 for 1st Place!  Tied for 2nd Place were Russ Davies and Brett Sheperd who each cashed for $11,250.  4th Place was Bryant Brandt for $7,500, while Steve Brown from Anchorage, Alaska finished 5th for $5,000.

This year’s 2011 TAT Amateur Nationals was just short of 3,000 entries with almost 500 bowlers from all over the globe.  The knowledgeable Brunswick staff was again on hand all week and gave out over 1,000 Brunswick bowling balls!  All TAT competitors received at least 2 Brunswick Balls just for entering the tournament with over 50% of TAT competitors taking home 3 Balls or more, including 2 High Performance Balls.  Although the entries were slightly lower than last year, the TAT still paid out all of its prize funds in full as we always do.

This year’s TAT Amateur Nationals featured 3 Free Chance Tournaments which each paid out $5,000 in Cash & Prizes and TAT competitors got up to 4 free squads just for entering along with up to 3 Brunswick Balls for free.   Each Chance tournament paid $500 for 1st and all Orleans guests received another free squad just for staying at The Orleans.  We also gave out 15 KR Strikeforce Double Tote Bags and 8 KR Strikeforce Triple Ball Rollers non-cashers by random drawings.  All together the Brunswick staff gave out over 100 KR Strikeforce bags and 44 Triple Ball Rollers.

The always-exciting Brunswick Challenge had 140 competitors, which paid 23 cash spots.  All entrants received a brand new Brunswick C System Alpha Max.  All TAT Marathon entrants were automatically in the Brunswick Finals and received the Alpha Max for free with their package.  In the end Bryson Rogers from North Carolina was the only bowler to get 3 strikes and took home the trophy and $5,000 for his efforts.  The Top 4 all received at least $1,000 in the Brunswick No tap Event.

We would like to thank all of our amazing sponsors: Brunswick, The Orleans, The High Roller, KR Strikeforce, and OnTheBallBowling.com for making the TAT Amateur bowling events possible.  Our TAT bowlers were more than pleased with the guidance and expertise that were given by the Brunswick staff and even PBA Hall of Famer Johnny Petraglia helped out TAT bowlers on the Brunswick Practice Range!

Thanks to all of our bowlers and supporters for making this the greatest Amateur bowling tournament in the world!  For results on The 2011 TAT Amateur Nationals please visit our website www.tatbowl.com.  For questions about this event or our next event in July call our toll free number 1-888-828-2695 or e-mail us at tatbowl@hotmail.com.

Next up is the summer TAT June 28 to July 4th. See you there!