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.