Being a amateur bowler who travels for bowling tournaments, I simply book as if I'm going to make the finals on Sunday, and usually leave the city I'm in the Monday after. I would rather have a guaranteed flight much later then my exodus from the tournament than have to panic and not be able to get a flight back home.

Seeing as I live in Reno, (I can see the runway at KRNO from my house) it is almost impossible to get a direct flight into town. Last time I took a trip, I ended up going RNO-DFW-DAY-ORD-RNO on AA just to get home.

Next tournament for me is driving distance (Vegas) so I don't have to worry too much.

It would be nice to be able to get a jump on the next stop after I get eliminated, but seeing as the PBAis dwindling to barely any stops, there's always downtime at home between events. I'm guessing that tennis players have constant events, so they head on over to their next tournament/tour stop early if they get beat early on in the tournament.