Pete Couture recently won the abbreviated Naples Senior PBA Open, which was interrupted by Hurricane Georges. The hurricane passed through the small southwest Florida community, south of Fort Myers and north of the Florida Keys. Evacuations occurred for the first time, as the tournament concluded one day earlier than scheduled.
The tournament’s four-way shootout and championship match of the top five finishers, which was to be televised on Fox Sports Net, was canceled as everyone prepared to evacuate or "batten down the hatches" by boarding up windows and doors. People were observed shopping for emergency items such as non-perishable food and beverages, batteries, and gasoline in case of prolonged isolation from power outages.
Residents and visitors to Naples alike needed to avoid large falling trees and extensive flooding as Georges approached the city with the force of heavy storm-surging floods, lightning storms, leading tornadoes, and its own winds of over 100 miles per hour.
According to PBA rules, in an emergency situation where the tour stop competition is abbreviated, a minimum of 24 games of the regular blocks must be bowled for the tournament to count as official and payments made to the winner and the other cashers.
Couture was the agate leader with plus-969 when the tournament was halted after 27 games, and he thus was declared the winner and handed the $8,000 check. Couture set a Senior Tour record with the Naples win, as he became the first bowler to win four senior PBA events in the same year.
Dave Soutar finished second (+948) for $4,200; Mike Durbin (+940) was third for $3,200; and Roy Buckley (+883) and Al Sanford each took home $2,300 after tying for fourth place.
The Naples Senior Open was the final stop for the PBA Senior Tour in Florida. The Fall Tour will conclude October 8 with the non-televised Jackson (Tenn.) Senior Open.
BWAA member Richard Kolb is a syndicated columnist who resides in Lutz, Florida.