Kyle Douglas calls 54,000 USD win in championship open at Vegas Shoot ‘crazy’

Twenty-two-year-old Kyle Douglas beat 22 other men in the championship open shootdown in Vegas to win the tournament’s biggest prize of 54,000 USD.

The relatively unknown archer out of Utah had previously won the young adult championship at the Vegas Shoot. This was his first time making the last line in the main event.

“It’s insane, nothing like it, nothing like it for sure. It’s such a rush,” said Kyle, taking a deep breath. “I was super nervous but pretty confident and pretty solid, I was shooting pretty well.”

Kyle scored 900 83X to book his place in the Vegas shootdown.

The competition is unique. Compound archers in the open category need to shoot perfect scores – three days of 300 – to qualify for a sudden-death elimination where the last man standing wins the top prize.

Miss the middle and you’re out.

It took five ends for the field to thin from 23 archers – 22 perfect shooters plus the lucky dog – to just five. And when the other four all missed a 10, Kyle’s 30 was good for gold.

“The first one went off pretty solid, went off quick, went off good. The second one went fairly smooth and I started hearing the crowd kinda mumble and stuff,” he said. 

“I looked and it seemed that some guys had a miss, so I knew I just had to sink the last one to have a chance. I knew I’d be sitting pretty good if I could sink that last one.”

Jesse Broadwater finished second and Chris Perkins third.

Both archers are previous Vegas Shoot champions. They were top seeds and, throughout this year’s shootdown, looked like the men to beat. Kyle pulled it off.

“It’s just crazy, I never thought I’d win Vegas before. There’s nothing like it, for sure,” said Kyle.

Paige Pearce, Cole Frederick, Keith Trail, Brady Ellison, Michelle Kroppen, Josef Scarboro and Richard Stark won the other championship categories at the Vegas Shoot in 2020.

Pearce became only the sixth woman to shoot a perfect 900 at the event, joining Mary Hamm, Sarah Lance, Tanja Jensen, Sara Lopez and So Chaewon.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And I’ve shot a lot of formats so for me to say that, I think, carries some weight,” said Pearce.

Ellison made history as the first recurve archer to post a clean round.

The reigning world number one, World Archery Champion and world record holder hadn’t shot one perfect day in Vegas before – let alone three in a row.

“The first day, it went the way I wanted. I got that first one and I thought, you know, let’s just roll through it,” he said.

“This is probably the biggest accomplishment of my career. To shoot a perfect score. No-one’s ever shot a 600, World Archery or here, and then to do it three days in a row and shoot a perfect 900… I don’t think it’s something anyone thought we could do with a recurve.”

The Vegas Shoot broke a new record for participation in 2020 with over 3800 archers taking part.

It was announced during the weekend that the event has extended its agreement with the South Point Hotel and Casino and with World Archery to host the Indoor Archery World Series Finals for another three years.

The 54th Vegas Shoot took place on 7-9 February 2020 in the South Point Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, USA.