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!