PBA Senior Tour - Brentwood

This was an eventful stop.  I started out in practice with a decent idea of how the lanes would play, but decided to drill a ball in case the lanes got tighter.  In the first round, that ball didn't react very well, so I went with the ball that I used to lead the first round of the Senior US Open, because it gave me a very smooth shape with kept the ball from going left and leaving 3-7s.  I bowled well the first block, and the afternoon squad generally did much better than the morning squad.  I found out why the next morning as the "double stripped" morning pattern hooked earlier in the front of the lane.  I struggled badly the first 4 games, including a 170 in game 4, then stepped over to watch another player who had a good reaction.  My change was 2 feet more loft and slight move to the right, and I shot 220-250-240-220 (ish) to finish the block strong and qualify in 12th position.  I drilled another ball to handle more over-reaction I anticipated the next day.

In match play I caught Tom Baker the first match, but his carry wasn't good and I won the match 3-1.  My next match was against Dale Traber on a pair oiled only 5 minutes before.  In this situation, the lanes are very tight and very tough early, and I lost the first game 213-207, but got better reaction later, using the newest ball to close the match out 3-1.  I then had to wait and come back  to bowl the round of 8 (best 2 of 3) against a local favorite.  I shot 300 the first game and won the match 2-0.  In the round of 4 I bowled Walter Ray.  I had a chance going into the 8th if I could keep striking, but I pinched the shot off a bit and left an 8-pin.  Walter Ray bowled a perfect match on a tough pair, figuring out the left lane on the 3rd shot and shooting 259.  He then went on to win the tournament.

This was a real confidence-building week, and one I'll use as a springboard to the rest of the summer.

Senior Masters

Wow, this was a great week!  I was pretty steady and relaxed through qualifying, with 5-game blocks of +159, +104 and +164 for an 8th place qualifying position.  I drilled one new ball which helped through the 3rd qualifying block.  In the first two matches I was very comfortable and had a great ball reaction, shooting 769 and 714 the first two matches.  This led to yet another match against Ron Mohr, and we had another close, back and forth kind of match.  I got a break in the 9th of the 3rd game and capitalized on it with a good shot in the 10th to close out the match 696-688.  The final match of the day against Hugh Miller was on the easiest pair either of us had seen the entire tournament.  After starting with the front-9, I had a lapse in concentration and missed a spare in the 10th.  We were at 268-266 after the first game, but I started to lose the front part of the lane early in the 2nd game and Hugh was able to maintain ball reaction.  Short story is that it's hard to beat an 803!  In the final match on Friday morning against Amleto, I just bowled horribly the first game plus, then realized that I was trying to beat him instead of just bowling my game and making him beat me.  I did that through the last half of this match, but still made a couple of bad shots that ultimately cost me the match.  So, a 9th-12th place finish is still good, and I'll move forward to the last stop on this swing.  I've now bowled 121 games of competition in 3 weeks, plus practice.  Looking forward to a day off!

Senior US Open 2012

Great week - finished 8th overall after leading the first squad, including a 300 2nd game.  I bowled well the first block, getting to +288 for the first 6 games (248 average), then struggled the next two blocks, qualifying 30th.  I moved up to 15th after the cash round, as I was much more relaxed once I was in the cash.  The first round of match play also went well.  I went 5-3 in match play with all my games between 228 and 248.  The last day was not as good, as I shot a lot of low 200s and ultimately slipped from 6th to 8th.  I was never able to get past 6th or make a serious run at the top 4, but it was still a pretty good week, and I feel like I learned a lot about myself that will help me win that next tournament.

However, I bowled 40 games between the two Senior regionals last week and 51 games this week, for a total of 91 games in two weeks.  Needless to say, I'm taking a day off from bowling before the Senior Masters starts tomorrow!

Getting Ready (Healthy) for the Majors

It really sucks to get sick right before a 4-week road trip.  I haven't been able to exercise and I really am glad I had my son Alex to help out with the drive from Denver to Flagstaff.  That being said, it's time to get ready to go down to Sun City, AZ for the first of two Senior Regionals that should make for a good tune up before the Senior US Open next week in Las Vegas.  I'm looking forward to a fun week with Alex and getting to see my sister Cathy and her husband Bob while down in Phoenix.  Oh, and a good finish to start the trip would also be nice!

PBA Senior Tour - Dayton

Dayton is always one of my favorite stops.  Mike Irwin, Shannon Pluhowsky and staff always do a great job, I love the center, and I always feel like I'm going to bowl well there.

The Carmen Salvino pattern tends to be high scoring, and I started this tournament off with a 300 game.  I continued to bowl well through the first block and ended up at +305 for the first 8 game block.  The second block was another story.  I didn't bowl that well the first two games on the high end of the center, then bowled ok on 1-2, then shot back-to-back 180 games on lanes 5-6 and 9-10.  I then had to recover to get back into the number for the finals, which I did in games 5-6-7, highlighted with a 290 in game 6 of the block.

The format for this tournament was a cut to the top 32, the 8 more games of match play with a 30-pin bonus for a win.  Of course my first match is against Walter Ray Williams, Jr.  I really created my own transition on the pair and only shot 227, while WRW pounded out a 279 game against me.  As it turns out, I went 5-3 on the morning and bowled well enough to move up from 17th to 14th, which meant I moved on to the afternoon match play block of the top 16.

At the start of this block, some of my physical game issues re-surfaced, and I didn't bowl well the first 3 games, while my opponents bowled 278-279-268!  So, after an 0-3 start to the block, I bowled much better the last 5 games, but I could not catch up and stayed in 14th.

This was a better week and will hopefully be a springboard into the majors in June.

PBA Sr Tour - Winter Garden

Ouch!  That kind of sums things up after missing cash by ONE pin and finals by 11.  This was a 3-squad tournament with no re-oiling in between.  On "C" squad I started on the "burn" and got off to a horrible start, shooting 169 on lanes 13-14.  Followed up by a 182, I was off to a -50 start, then shot 246 to get me going again, and I finished the block at +28.  The second block wasn't very good.  I had a lot of trouble with the ball hooking early and I missed some shots to the inside - just couldn't get anything going and dropped to -8.  The third squad was on the "fresh" and I set up my first pair beautifully, starting with the front 7 to shoot 259.  However, I struggled to get a clean reaction on my next 3 pairs, and I was at +15 with two games to go.  Making a "what the hell" move, I switched to a lightly polished medium pearl and shot 258.  I tried this same ball on the next pair and it was way too much length for the pair.  I switched back to the stronger solid ball, got a 3-bagger, but then the next two shots went flat-7, flat-7.  I struck in the 10th but left a 6-8 in the 11th.  I prettty much knew the two flat 7s and the non strike in the 11th were going to be my undoing.  Like any tournament, I missed a couple of spares and gave a couple pins in count away on a couple of splits.  Lesson learned again - don't give any count away if you can help, stay present on every shot and keep grinding!  I'm proud of myself that I kept grinding and almost got back to a check, but it's time to figure out what went wrong mechanically this week, so I'm off to Kegel to get a quick lesson with Del Warren.

PBA Sr. Tour Villages

This is a somewhat belated post from the PBA Sr. Tour stop at The Villages last week.  This was constested on Senior Pattern #5 (Senior Cheetah) on a Heddon surface.  In the practice session, I felt like I could swing the gutter a little and get a good reaction.  But with one more strip and oil, the hook was much earlier and too strong out on the left, and every time the ball got left of 3 anywhere down the lane it overhooked too much.  The first day was very high scoring, and all I could get to was +183 for 8, which was the 52nd spot - the last cash spot.  So, I came into the 2nd block about 30 out of the cash.  I started the block with a plan to use equipment that would not over-read the dry portion of the lane, but after a 204 start when I could have shot 227 the first game, I tried a couple of different balls in game 3, only to shoot 181.  The third game I made another ball change and shot 224, but then went to the low end of the center.  I had to make another ball change immediately as this ball still over-reacted to the first pair at the low end.  Going back to the ball I started with, I got a reaction I could work with.  I went from +192 after game 11 to +292 after game 14.  I still needed two big games to get to the finals, and at least one big game to get a check.  I shot 300 game 15 to get to +392, but needed to gather myself to get one more big game.  I had a good initial reaction on the pair but couldn't follow the move on the right lane and only shot 225 which left me 37 pins short of match play, but with a check for 40th place plus a $100 bonus for the 300 game.

PBA Tournament of Champions

First, no matter what the format is, the PBA Tournament of Champions (TOC) is a great event. I am honored to be able to participate in this event as a PBA Senior Champion, and I completely understand the views of those who feel that neither I nor anyone else who has not won a regular PBA tour title should be allowed into the field. However, the eligibility rules allowed me to participate, and I was not disappointed!

I was REALLY pressing during the Champions first qualifying round. I didn’t make it out of this round last year and I was NOT about to let that happen again this year. I managed to reset my mental framework during the break between blocks and bowl well the second block to get into the elite field.

I had a really nice reaction through the elite qualifying rounds and mostly used a Roto Grip Outlaw. This allowed me to get the ball through the front part of the lane and still “read” the mid-lane well and not over-hook at the back. There were a couple of times when the fronts hooked too much and I need to go to a pearl, but not too often. At the Red Rock, the low end of the center hooks earlier and stronger than the high end of the center, so I compensated with speed and hand position changes.

At the end of the first 5 games, I was in good position in 23^rd. I dropped to 33^rd after the second round as I was not as sharp mentally and didn’t make shots as consistently as I should have. I up a little after the 3^rd round and stayed around the cut number all the way through. After 19 games, I was at +488, and there were 4-5 people around me that were within 20 pins of me. I knew I had to beat at least two of them to get into the round of 36 and get a check (with last cash at $3,600). I had stayed relaxed all the way through this part of the tournament because I had achieved my primary goal, but I was by no means satisfied with just making it to this point and being competitive. I wanted a check! I stayed relaxed through the last game and bowled one of the best games of my career, shooting 267 to get a check and move on.

The round of 36 was a new chapter, with no pinfall carryover and the addition of the 11 current season champions. Most of these 11 players were the highest rev-rate players on tour, and this caused the lanes to break down a lot differently. This caused the left side to also play much differently, and I missed the quick transition that left my ball choice only being good for knocking down 9 pins. Dropping immediately to 36^th was a blessing in disguise because it forced me to be bold in my choice of ball and line. I went to a weak hybrid and cut the hook down more and increased forward roll, speed and loft to combat the hook in the front part of the lane. This allowed me to recover from -32 to +146 by the end of the block and leave me 50 out of the cut to the top 18. In the 2^nd round I moved to within 9 of the cut score, but then hit the “death pair” which had knocked both Mike Scroggins and Patrick Allen out of contention and it got me as well. I struggled with the reaction during this block as well as physically struggling with my grip on the ball due to the sheer number of games (52 this week + practice = about 60-65 games). I was not able to figure out how to handle the low part of the center until the last game. That was enough to move me up a couple of spots at the end and bring my check up to $4150, so that was satisfying.

Overall, the opportunity to bowl against a tremendous field of PBA champions was very, very satisfying, and one that I will remember. I was able to hold my own at age 55 against the best in the world. I also had a LOT of fun! Who could ask for more!

USBC Open

In the USBC Open I got a chance to practice on the Showcase lanes for an hour. There were differing opinions on how useful this practice was, but in my opinion this practice was INVALUABLE and probably made a 100 pin difference in my all-events total. Our team has 3 left-handers and 7 right-handers. We tried specifically breaking down the right lane by taking the ball up the boards from 5-6-7 to about 6-7-8 at the break point, and letting everyone do whatever they wanted to do on the left lane. The right lane broke down better, but the “hang spot” down the lane does not go away. The best description I’ve heard of the pattern is that it plays like a short version of chameleon.

The characteristics of the pattern are that the mid-lane hooks, the end of the pattern is pretty tight due to the amount of buff at the end of the pattern, and the back ends are really hooking on the fresh. This is exaggerated on the Showcase lanes, since these lanes have far less play than the lanes that are in play. New lanes have a LOT of friction where the oil is light or non-existent and smooth out as you get more and more play.

So, why is the pattern so different this year? Yes, the USBC did shorten and flatten the pattern a little this year in an attempt to slow down teams from just burning a spot and opening up the lane. However, most of the difference is that these lanes are NEW. The lanes in the stadium (where it seems like we have been bowling for an eternity) have a LOT of play. You could put last year’s pattern down in the lanes in Baton Rouge and they would play tougher (although not as tough as this year’s pattern).

My recommendations for this pattern are to start with a medium solid with surface to smooth out the pattern until the pattern blends out. If your team gets left of 15 before the first game is over, you’re dead because the hang spot comes into play too much and you can’t control the pocket with anything. If your team stays right of 12 (right side) for the first game and migrates more slowly by bumping to slightly weaker equipment you have a good change of minimizing the effects of the hang at the end of the pattern.

On the left you can stay with some surface and stay between 5 and 10 for most of team event. Again moving in too quickly will cause the hang spot to get too much in play and make it difficult to control the pocket. In my case I used a Roto Grip Dagger (weaker symmetric hybrid) with a 1000 surface to control the pocket and smooth out the lane.

In doubles and singles it really, really depends on who you follow. In most cases you will need to move inside quickly on the right as the medium volume pattern dissipates quickly. This will call for smoothly sanded to polished weaker equipment). On the left you will want to go to weaker equipment with a lightly sanded surface and try to stay left if at all possible.