Obviously this was a special event, since the end result was my second PBA50 Tour Title. But along the way I fell, learned about the death of a friend, and got to enjoy the experience with my wife Elissa.
On practice day, I had a decent ball reaction, but decided that I could use one more aggressive ball to go along with my other selections for this tournament. I opted to drill a Roto Grip Hyper Cell with a strong layout so that it would reach the end of this 42' pattern and make a strong move to the pocket. This ball did not disappoint.
I was bowling both days of qualifying with fellow left-hander and part-time room mate Paul McCordic. Paul and I are generally able to "read" the lanes using both our ball reaction and each other's ball reaction. This tournament turned into the "blower 7-10 open" - if you made a mistake with too much speed and caught too much oil, you were likely to leave a 7-10. In fact, there were as many 7-10 splits left in this tournament as any I can remember.
Ready to compete, we bowled on the tournament condition in that night's Pro-Am. Since the lane condition itself was somewhat forgiving and had two squads previously bowled on it, I was able to shoot an 863 no-tap series and enjoy the conversations with the amateur bowlers. As usual, I enjoyed spending time with everyone.
The first 8-game block of competition was less fruitful than I would have liked the first two games, as I was shooting low 200 games and the scoring pace was much higher. I was getting used to the Hyper Cell and didn't use it to its full potential. I later was able to get this ball to work well and once the lanes started to hook more went to an aggressive medium ball (Roto Grip Defiant Soul), and finished at +211 for 8.
The second day I usually don't worry too much about the approaches if the first day was good. I had changed from a normal #4 sole to a #5 sole during practice, which was working well. Once I take 5 slides at the BACK of the approach I usually take 4 practice swings without a ball in my hand to loosen up my hip joints (a dynamic warm up). Well, lesson learned - I should have tested the approaches at the foul line. I completely stuck and fell onto my right knee and then my right shoulder about 4 feet out on the lane. I was able to recover from this, the approaches were repaired, and we began competition.
This time the Hyper Cell was great from the start. An opening 263 game (I missed a spare due to still being tentative on unfamiliar portions of the approach), I used that ball for 5 of the 8 games en route to a +338 block which brought me to +549 for 16 games and a 5th place finish for qualifying. My lane reading and anticipation of what to do was very good in that block. I kept my speed down and was more comfortable the second day targeting at the dots, which is about as close to the foul line as I can look. I was able to use smoother-reacting or less-reacting balls on specific pairs very quickly.
My 5th place finish allowed me a bye and a put me directly into the round of 16 for the bracketed match play. This was a best 3 of 5 games round. I thought my ball reaction was getting better, but my ability to carry the 7 pin on the left lane completely disappeared. I had started practice with a ball sanded to 1000 grit to help dry out the outer portion of the lane. In game 3 I was beaten before the 10th frame and opted to try this ball, and it worked well and carried on the left lane. Down 2-1 at this point, I chose to use this ball the rest of the match, realizing that if this was the wrong decision I would destroy the lane condition and likely not have another option and would have an early exit. I shot 226 and 230 the last two games for the win.
In the round of 8 I bowled against my friend and part-time room mate Ron Mohr. Ron is a tremendous competitor, and we had just come off a great match in Mooresville, NC where he shot a 300 game at me and defeated me in 4 games in the round of 16. This time I chose to start with the Mutant Cell, the ball I had sanded to 1000 from practice through the start of the match, as the lanes were hooking less with each match. By game 2 I was able to miss a little more and still strike and shot 288 in the second game to close out the match. I had doubled in the 10th the first game to win 237-228.
The semi-final and finals matches, both single game contests are, as Dale Eagle describes them, "crap shoots". I drew Harry Sullins in this match, and started out strong in the match. When you bowl a formidable competitor who is quite confident, as Harry is, you want to avoid the trap of trying to beat your opponent. Rather, you must have the confidence to know that you can bowl your game and that your opponent must beat you. As the higher seed in qualifyin, I was able to have Harry start the match and finish first. I mad a couple of small mistakes and failed to double in the 10th frame, but still shot 258, forcing Harry to strike out in the 10th to tie the match and force a roll off. Harry's second shot left a 9 pin on a shot that blew away the other nine pins and I prevailed 258-247.
This brought me to the championship match against PBA Hall of Famer Dale Eagle. I started with the first four strikes, then made a couple of mistakes in the second half of the match, but I was filling all frames. Dale missed a 10-pin in the second frame then stuck on the next 5 shots to pull within a few pins. However a 7-10 split in the 9th frame gave me a 15 pin lead going into the 9th and 10th frames. A spare and strike secured the title for me.
Over the weekend Colorado and Denver Hall of Famer and former PBA Senior competitor Tom Carbone passed away. I also had my friend Barry Gurney on my mind since he had passed in June 2013, and I dedicated the win to both of these great friends and competitors. Always honor those who came before you.
Best of all my wife Elissa was there the whole week to enjoy the experience with me. This will always make this win a special experience.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
