PBA50 Dayton

Three strikes.  As it turns out, if I had struck out in the 10th frame, I would have made the top-4 stepladder by 3 pins over Mike Edwards, I would have been bowling Randy Pederson in the first match, and who knows what would have happened from there?  I had the best tournament of the year, not just in finish but by how I bowled.  I keyed on a more relaxed drop into the swing and on going "heel-toe" on my crossover step and bowled very well the first block, ending up 13th after the first 8 games.  I primarily used my Roto Grip Disturbed the 2nd-8th games of the block, after my Storm Pearl Marvel was just too early with a light 1000 surface on it and was running out of energy too quick.  The second block, which was on the "burn" squad (no re-oil between squads), I had the Pearl Marvel at 2000 and lightly polished.  This ball worked great for awhile (had a 266 game) but then started to run out of energy later in the block.  I don't normally guess at adjustments, but this time I did and pulled a 1000 sanded IQ Tour Pearl out of the bag and shot an "easy" 247 game.  I say easy because all of a sudden the lane seemed to open up with that ball, and I could "see" the hook area and had a little hold with this ball.  Moral of the story - if the ball in your hand and your target line is good for 9-counts, change balls or change lines!

In the match play, I started off slow, not shooting 200 the first two games.  It was raining outside and it was very humid, so the lanes were playing very tight down the lane.  Even at that, I was 2-0 after those two games.  I needed to get a reaction and quick if I was going to keep up with the leaders, so I went back to the paddock and get my Brunswick Aura Paranormal.  This ball allowed me to get some reaction at the back of the lane without it over-hooking, so I could just slow down and really roll it without being concerned that it would jump high on me.  I took off after this point, moving up to 13th from 16th at the start of the block and making the cut to the top 16.

At the start of the top 16 my first match was against Randy Pederson.  I started off very slowly, not doubling until the 5th frame after making a "super-washout" and staying clean.  On the washout I realized my hips were turning out on me a little bit at the release, and from then on I focused on keeping my left hip on my target line on the downswing/release.  I bowled GREAT from that point forward and made a huge run shooting 760 my first three games on route to moving into the top 10.  I had one bad game on 5-6 where I had no answer for the pair, then I was having hand/grip issues the next game against Walter Ray and only managed to shoot 204 and lost.  I then rebounded with at 258 to get to 7th.  I was about 93 out going into position round and in 7th, but I thought that with a big game I could at least have a say in the outcome.  Bowling Wayne Webb, I started with a 5-bagger then a 7-pin, then struck to the 9th.  In the 7th frame in the 3rd-4th match, Randy was on a 172 pace after 6 frames, so I had a chance.  My shot in the 10th drifted high (not a great shot) and I missed the spare to shoot 243 and lose, but my focus was really on trying to make the top 4.  Had I shot 279 instead of 243, I would have had 66 pins more and I finished 63 off the top 4.

All in all this was a great confidence boost going into the majors in Vegas.
 

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.