MORGANTOWN — Troy Lint became the inaugural PBA50 Suburban Lanes Open champion Thursday night, defeating Tom Hess in the championship match at Suburban Lanes in Morgantown.
“It’s phenomenal,” Lint said after receiving the trophy and $7,500 winner’s check. “It’s been a tough day, Mike (Haggitt) beat me earlier in the day and I thought I was done but I snuck into the fifth spot. I thought I threw the ball pretty good and I struck when I had to strike.”
Lint won the hard way, coming back as the fifth and final seed in the championship round. In the ladder bracket, he defeated fourth-seeded Haggitt, three-seeded Dan Knowlton, second-seeded Jason Couch and finally top-seeded Hess in the championship.
“It’s incredibly hard,” Lint said of being the fifth seed. “Especially with the field. Mike and Dan and then Jason and Tom. The fields aren’t easy around here, that’s the scary part. Every time you’re in a finals it’s brutal, these guys are so good.”
Lint finished the championship round with nine consecutive strikes and a winning score of 269.
The win is Lint’s second of this PBA50 season, qualifying him for Player of the Year consideration. He previously won the 2023 PBA Senior US Open in June.
The Suburban Lanes Open is a PBA50 Tour national tournament, the first of its kind in Morgantown. Hosted at Suburban Lanes and sponsored by Pleasant Day Schools, the tournament began with 96 participants on Tuesday before being cut down to 32 to begin action Thursday. Those 32 were cut down to eight by mid-day and eventually the final five for the championship round.
Couch, a PBA hall-of-famer with 16 PBA Tour wins, was instrumental in helping Morgantown host the tournament when another location had to pull out of the schedule earlier this year.
After hosting its inaugural tournament, Suburban Lanes is now in the rotation to host a PBA50 national tournament annually.
Lint called it a phenomenal tournament and is sure he’ll be back.
“I had never been here before,” Lint said. “I’ve been to Morgantown before but never in this building. It was (a good first impression), I like it.”
