Masters - Day 2

The second day I started with a game plan to play the lanes straighter, as most of the lefties had more success doing that on day 1. In practice I had trouble finding a look going straight that I was comfortable with until I tried my pin-ring Clash, which reacted beautifully to the pattern. I used this ball the entire block. Once I made the turn down, I had even better reaction and shot 214-258 in games 3&4. This left me right at the cut score, but the last pair was much tighter and I couldn't get the ball to roll up properly. On a pace to shoot 190 clean and not make the cut, I gambled a little and squared my line up a little more. On the left lane in the 8th frame this worked, but the ball released too soon on the right lane and I left a 4-6-10. I ended up +40 and 23 pins off the cut score, but I was very happy with my tactical play and my physical play in this block. Sometimes you make a lane move decision and it's not the right one, but I'd rather do that then not make the move and "what if" myself afterwards.

Masters - Day 1

The Masters is a sprint and a grind. It's a sprint in that you only have 5 games each day to position yourself to make the cut. It's a grind in that you have to be patient and keep filling frames and keep yourself in the tournament. I did that today for the first 3 games, but didn't react enough when the mid-lane got tighter in game 4, costing me 3 consecutive opens. I should have made an arrow move left after the first washout, but instead tried to make a 2-2 left move, which didn't help my reaction at all.

Tomorrow I'll be bowling on the late squad, after 5 games have been bowled on it. As quickly as the right-handers moved into 20-25 on the fresh squad, I'll need to move left to stay off their burn in the front of the lane a little bit. This was also the most successful strategy used by the left-handers today, and falls into my comfort zone, anyway. So, I'll move left, firm up my ball speed, and try to stay on my toes to get the best reactions.