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.