Lavoie wins NM Open at Tenpins ... again

RIO RANCHO — The 20th annual New Mexico Open bowling tournament at Tenpins & More concluded Aug. 18 after three days, and Wichita bowler Francois Lavoie came out victorious once again.

“This is one of my favorite tournaments,” Lavoie told the Observer. “I’ve won it twice, but I’ve also finished second in it twice, so I really enjoy coming here. I do well in this building, so that’s a big confidence booster.”

Lavoie defeated Jakob Butturff, 238-199 in the second game of a best-of-three series to claim his second NM Open title in a row and walk away with the $13,500 grand prize.

The tournament began with 166 bowlers, from around the country, entering a match-play round on Aug. 16. At the end of match-play, the top seeds entered the championship rounds.

“Three of our top four seeds were open tournament winners on the national tour,” said Tenpins & More owner and tournament organizer, Steve Mackey after the tournament. “That’s pretty unusual, especially for Rio Rancho.”

Rio Rancho bowler DeeRonn Booker (3 seed), along with Butturff (1) and Lavoie (2) have all won Open tournaments in the past.

When the final round began, Lavoie and Butturff were set to face each other, adding another chapter to a growing rivalry. It was Butturff who gave Lavoie his last NM Open championship defeat, taking the title and relegating Lavoie to “runner-up” status in 2015.

The high-intensity final round of the Open was a display in contrasting, but equally matched styles.

On one side, Jakob Butturff paced the lanes like a predator between rolls, his bright, flame-covered shirt standing out against his long black slacks. Stepping up to the lane, Butturff held his ball low, his wrist and hand coiled around it like a spring, ready to release. And then his roll: a running start, a stuttering step, a violent release, but the ball was a whisper down the lane before the pins exploded with a crash. Butturff was all fire.

On the other side, defending NM Open champion Francois Lavoie in icy black with pink trim, stood calm, expressionless, almost unmoving by the back tables in between rolls. When his turn came, he smoothly lifted his ball and cradled it near his chest. The release came with surprising speed, Lavoie moved with well-rehearsed precision, smooth and cool as ice.

The first game went to Lavoie. Butturff had to win the second to stay in the fight.

The second game did not start well for Butturff, who left two open frames in his first four. A quick ball change before the fifth frame brought him screaming back and, for a moment, it looked like he may mount a comeback.

But Lavoie was calm and collected until the final pin fell and the defending champion became the two-time defending champion.

“It was getting closer and [Butturff] found a good look,” Lavoie said after the game. “In the end, he didn’t strike the second shot in the tenth [frame], which essentially gave me the win.”

After a moment of thought, Lavoie added, “But if he had, I would’ve had to perform.”

Lavoie credits the win to the strong mental game he developed while attending college at the University of Wichita.

“I owe them a lot,” he said. “I work pretty hard on my mental game. I try to stay in the moment and not ‘win’ before it’s mathematically done. I owe a lot of that to them.”

With this win, Lavoie has now won three scratch tournaments in three days in three different states, but this is his largest grand prize of this recent run.

According to Mackey, after 20 years, the NM Open has paid out over $924,000 in prize money.

Lavoie said he doesn’t know what next year will bring, but he has every intention of returning in 2025 to become the first three-time champion in NM Open history.

“I’ll definitely be back,” he said. “I’m a shot-maker. I’m not the most powerful guy, so I rely on accuracy. When the lane conditions are hard, like they are here, it really plays well to my strengths.”

For now, Lavoie is heading to Reno, Nevada to help assistant coach Team Canada before hitting the circuit again. Though he lives in Wichita, Lavoie was born and raised in Canada and was a member of Team Canada Bowling for 10 years.