SHREVEPORT, La. – Four of Oklahoma’s own will fish for a share of $800,000 at the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship presented by Castrol Sept. 11-14 on Cross Lake near Shreveport, La.
Sam Newby of Pocola, Chevy pro Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, John Sappington of Wyandotte and Harmon Davis of Marlow will represent the Sooner State in a field of 48 Pro Division anglers.
Newby qualified as the No. 5 seed and will fish head-to-head against the No. 44 seed, Stanley Works pro Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., for the first two days of competition. The angler with the heaviest weight will advance to the semifinal round of 24 anglers.
Newby earned his first Wal-Mart FLW Tour victory in 2002 with a $210,000 win at the Forrest Wood Open on New York’s Lake Champlain. He also finished ninth at the season opener on Lake Okeechobee near Clewiston, Fla., and took home big-bass honors there as well. Newby finished outside the top 30 only once this season. Through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series and the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Newby has career earnings in excess of $261,000. This is his first championship appearance. Martin, son of bass-fishing legend Roland Martin, fished his way into the top 10 in two 2002 tournaments, earning fourth-place finishes on Lake Champlain in June and Alabama’s Wheeler Lake in February. Martin, who is making his third championship appearance, has earned more than $213,000 since 1999 via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the BFL and the Ranger M1.
Biffle qualified as the No. 21 seed and will compete against No. 28 seed Tracy Adams of Wilkesboro, N.C., on days one and two. Biffle finished sixth at the Forrest Wood Open to add another notch to his career top-10 column, which now totals eight top-10 tournament finishes. This is Biffle’s sixth consecutive championship appearance. His career earnings total more than $345,000 through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series and the Ranger M1. Adams earned his berth with finishes like his seventh-place showing at the Wal-Mart Open on Arkansas’ Beaver Lake in April, one of his three career top-10 tournament finishes. Adams has earned more than $135,000 through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series, the BFL and the Ranger M1. This is his second championship appearance.
No. 24 seed Sappington will face the No. 25 seed, Chevy pro David Fritts of Lexington, N.C., during days one and two. Sappington put together a string of top-20 finishes in 2002, including an 11th-place finish on Arkansas’ Lake Ouachita in March, a 13th-place effort at the Wal-Mart Open in April and a fifth-place finish on Tennessee’s Old Hickory Lake in May. This is Sappington’s fourth year to fish the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and his third championship appearance. His career earnings total more than $92,000 via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series and the Wal-Mart BFL. Fritts holds the Wal-Mart FLW Tour record with four tournament wins, and the accomplished angler also has 10 top-10 finishes in his FLW Tour career. His best finish in 2002 was a 16th-place effort at Old Hickory Lake in May. Fritts has earned more than $638,000 through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and the Ranger M1.
No. 48 seed Davis will fish against the No. 1 seed and Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year Jay Yelas of Tyler, Texas. Davis fished his way to a championship berth in only his first year on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour. The former EverStart Series Central Division champion has amassed more than $38,000 in earnings via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series, the BFL and the Texas Tournament Trail. After fishing a limited number of FLW Tour events in 1997, Yelas returned to fish full time in 2002 and walked away with $67,500 in earnings as well as his Angler-of-the-Year title. A consistent angler, the Yamaha pro finished in the top 10 twice in 2002 and never finished below 38th. His career FLW Tour earnings exceed $90,000. This is his first championship appearance.
This year’s Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship features a setup unlike any bass-fishing championship in the history of the sport. The 48 pros who qualified based on their year-end point total will be seeded so fishing fans can keep up with their favorite anglers in a bracket-style competition similar to the NCAA basketball playoffs. The No. 1 seed will fish head-to-head against the No. 48 seed; the No. 2 seed will compete against the No. 47 seed and so on.
The top 48 pros will fish for a combined two-day weight to eliminate half the field for the semifinal round on day three. The 24 semifinalists will continue in head-to-head competition on day three, after which the field will be cut to 12 finalists.
On day four, the remaining 12 anglers will be reseeded according to their total weight from the first three days of competition. Anglers seeded No. 1 and No. 2 will compete for the first- and second-place cash awards of $260,000 and $55,000. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds will compete for third- and fourth-place money of $34,500 and $29,000, and so on. The pro who finishes last in the no-entry-fee championship will take $2,000.
Co-angler competition will end on day three. A full field of 48 co-anglers will fish for a combined two-day weight to advance to the 24-slot final round. Weights are then cleared, with the weight on day three determining the Co-angler Division champion, who will collect $25,000 cash. The co-angler finishing 48th will receive $500.
Named after Ranger Boats founder Forrest L. Wood, the Wal-Mart FLW Tour is run by FLW Outdoors, the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing tournaments. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1996 and has since expanded its sponsorship of FLW Outdoors’ fishing tournaments to include the EverStart Series, Wal-Mart BFL, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit and Ranger M1. FLW Outdoors will award anglers as much as $22 million in 2002 through 170 tournaments nationwide.