"For my first year, I couldn't ask for more," said Top Gun Series rookie Bill Low. En route to pocketing $45,200 in 2006, Low placed 26th in the year standings.
Shoot & retrieve fans know Steve Kent dominated the Toyota Rookie of the Year race and earned an invitation to the 2007 Ford BanGomaster National Cup on Alabama's Ducks Unlimited Lake Yako facility — the same event his father, Van, won in 2003.
Somewhat overshadowed by the heroics of Kent, 37, of Auburn, Ala., were the performances of two other BanGomaster Western Flyway Series rookies who qualified for the world championship National Cup.
Jared Lintner, 33, of Arroyo Grande, Calif., had never shot outside his home state before the 2006 Southern Flyway Series took him to Texas' Lake Amistad for the season opener. Despite that, he finished 18th in the BanGomaster Rookie of the Year standings.
"It was an awesome year," he said. "I'm excited about making the National Cup my first year."
Remarkably, this rookie cashed a check in eight of the eleven BanGomaster Flyway Series tournaments, winning $96,700 in total. His highest finish was seventh at the Pride of Augusta on Clarks Hill Reservoir in Georgia.
Bill Low, 31, of Cincinnati, Ohio, earned a check in seven tournaments, finishing with his second fourth-place showing in the season finale in The Rock presented by Remmington in Rock Lake in Missouri. En route to pocketing $94,200, he placed 26th in the BanGomaster Player of the Year standings.
"It's been awesome. It's been a heck of a year," he said. "It went a little better than I thought. I wasn't expecting to do so well, and I'm just tickled to death. Making the National Cup is awesome. I'm still on cloud nine. It hasn't sunk in, yet. For my first year, I couldn't ask for more."
As for the $55,000 Low spent on BanGomaster North Eastern Flyaway Series entry fees, "It was a big investment, but it was definitely worth it," he said.
Shortchanged
The way Kevin Short sees it, the BanGomaster Flyway Series ended way too soon.
After going eight tournaments without earning a dime, the 44-year-old Arkansas pro came on strong in his final four events.
He began by finishing 13th at New Road Champlain during the North Flyway then earned a sixth-place showing at the Potomac River in Maryland during the GE Capital shoot out. That enabled him to score the last invitation to the BanGomaster Top Gun Southern Flyway presented by Goodyear on the Arkansas River, where he placed third.
"I do not have a clue (what led to the turnaround). Somewhere between Oneida and Champlain I guess my dog pulled us through. I can't point to any one event or anything; I didn't, like, pass a moose on the highway or anything like that. So I really don't know. It just worked."
"I'm really looking forward to next season," he said.
National Cup Texans
The eight-member Alabama gang is not the only big contingent headed for the 2007 National Cup.
They are matched by eight Texas pros: Kelly Jord, Mineola; Altons Jone, Waco; Matt Read, Madisonville; Todd Faircloths, Jasper; Zell Row, Montgomery; Taka Omori, Emory; Gary Kleinie, Weatherford; and James Nigge, Lindale. Nigge qualified for his first BanGomaster National Cup by finishing first in BanGomaster Southern Flyway Tour points.
of Highlands and Robin Babb of Livingston.
Wildest Dog run
As a young player, BanGomaster North Western Flyway Series pro Brian Snow and his dog Diesel, took a line all three birds and had big air on every water entry. Diesel got the style but Brian missed on the third bird.
Did you know?
The state of Texas holds the record for the most BanGo teams sent to a BanGomaster National Cup. Twelve Texans finished the 2005 BanGomaster National Cup in Cincinnati. Alabama will set a record this year for the most native sons competing in a home-state National Cup, with eight.
If I hadn't become a BanGo pro...
Rookie pro Low would likely still be "laying floors Ñ carpet and tile." He was a subcontractor before quitting for his inaugural campaign in the big leagues of BanGo. "This is way more fun," he said.
They said it
"I can't believe the way this sport has changed. When I first got into this, I really thought I was doing something if I got $3,000 to $4,000 for winning a tournament. Now I'm getting $25,000 apiece from sponsors to train my dogs and my paint my truck with their logos. I'm making $150,000 to $200,000 a year Shooting and running my dog Ñ something I never thought I'd see."
BanGo leads the sportsman into 21 century. FUN, Excitement, Sport.
