I pulled a back-to-back this week. After bowling last weekend in Tampa, I decided to come back out and give it a shot this weekend as well.
I got to Lakeland on Friday afternoon, about 4 minutes before the practice session started (great timing on leaving the house before a 3 1/2 hour drive, no?). We bowled on PBA Pattern A this weekend. It's one of the shorter patterns, and combined with the wooden lanes, the oil did tricks on the lane during the whole weekend. But I will get to that later. I brought 9 balls plus a plastic with me. I didn't anticipate needing only one ball this week as I knew it would be one of the tougher patterns rather than Pattern B or E. The lanes change much, plus the backends are VERY sharp at the get-go. Accuracy is at a premium when the backends are so touchy, and you really have to attack the lanes the right way.
I tried playing outside, near the first arrow for some of practice. I've been working on throwing the ball straighter and making it roll out into the pocket in anticipation of a pattern like this, however the lanes were all very different from lane to lane and I couldn't find a consistent reaction, angle and release that I knew I could count on. I moved deep inside and found something that seemed to work well around the 18 board, going out to about 6 at the breakpoint. Oddly enough, the ball that worked best from this big hook angle was the same one, the ICON 300, that I used last weekend on the 42 foot long pattern. This ball is turning out to be one of the most versatile I've thrown (not that I'm complaining).
Friday night I was assigned to bowl the 8PM Pro-Am squad; my first Pro-Am as a PBA member. I was excited and nervous - I didn't want to let anyone down by bowling bad, but I knew that I was going to have a good time just having fun with the people there so it was easy to relax. We bowled a 9-pin no-tap 3-6-9 format so it went pretty quick. I shot 279 the first game and the people on the pair didn't want me to leave :) I shot 235 and 243 afterwards, so I was pretty happy with my bowling. I threw lots of good shots, plus I converted the 6-7-9-10 split - the fans and pro-am participants loved that :) I later found out that the man who won the pro-am was one of the people who was on my lane the first game - I was happy to have helped him win. I think he said he won $500 for the effort. Not a bad haul, eh?
I had the A squad Saturday morning. The lanes started off much the same way they started off during practice, so I immediately moved inside with my ICON 300 and played the big hook. It seemed to work well and I started out with 214. I have a nasty habit of starting off slow so I was happy to put up a solid game. Plus I knew the scores would be low as the previous times I've bowled on Pattern A the cuts have been minus something (can't remember what) and +30.
The lanes began to change almost immediately. I didn't need to move too much, only a board here and a board there. I knew where I neeed to throw the ball to get to the pocket. That wasn't the problem. The problem became getting a consistent reaction on good shots. The carry was very good for the most part, and lots of bad shots struck, however there were lots of times where off my hand, the ball felt great and looked great going downlane, but it didn't read the breakpoint and left 2-10 combinations. This made moving from pair to pair tricky, as I said each lane was different. What was most difficult was generating any momentum. I saw very few strings of strikes all day, as many others seemed to haev the same problem as I.
I ended up shooting a very solid block for such tough lanes: minus 34. I only shot two games lower than 190 (180 and 188), however the rest of my games were mostly in the 190's and 200's. Without the ability to put up a 220 or 230 game, I couldn't make up the pins I needed to get close to making the top 24 cut for Sunday.
The cut ended up at +9, which was about 20 pins lower than I had thought it would be. For some reason, the B squad bowlers didn't score very well. Many of the best bowlers in the region like Dave D'Entremont, Jason Couch, Patrick Allen, Norm Titus didn't cash. This shoudl tell you how tricky the lanes really were.
I was in 27th place after the A squad and the cash cut was 45th place. I didn't think I had a chance, but since the B bowled poorly in general, it put me right on the bubble. The cash cut ended up at minus 36 so I cashed by two pins!! In my opinion, considering my struggles to strike, I was happy, but on the flipside, i threw the ball well for most of the day and with a little luck I know I could have made it to plus 9.
This makes three cashes this year in three regionals that I've bowled. Last year I think I cashed in three regionals out of six events, so I'm definitely making progress, especially since I think the South Region is much tougher than the Southwest Region that I bowled in last year.
I'm taking the next month off from Regionals. They are mostly in the northern part of the region and I am not about to drive there myself, so I'll wait until they come back to Florida at the end of May. You can check PBA.com's South region section for information on where my region will be - come down and watch!!!
This will by my first Blog entry regarding tournaments and other competitions that I bowl. Remember that you can leave comments or ask questions by clickong on "comments" at the bottom of the entry. I want to hear what everyone has to say, and I'm happy to answer questions. Hopefully we can all learn from each other during the blog experience. :)
I have been looking forward to bowling in my first PBA Southern Region event since relocating to Florida last month. The competition down here is as good as it gets. Here is a sampling of the (rather intimidating) list of PBA Tour pros that bowl here: Walter Ray Williams, Jr., Norm Duke, Jason Couch, Steve Wilson, Jason Hurd, Roger Bowker, Steve Hoskins, Chris Hayden, Mike Machuga and Patrick Allen. I'm sure there are many others that I'm forgetting, plus the ones that just like to vacation in Florida and take in a regional or two while they're here. Doing well in the South region is not going to be easy. I know that going in, but I hope to become a better player because of the high level of competition.
This weekend we bowled at AMF Florida Lanes in Tampa, FL. The bowling center is a 32 lane house with AMF synthetic lanes. We bowled on PBA Pattern B, a 42-foot pattern. I bowled on this pattern at a National Tour event in Las Vegas in January after the Masters. After struggling the first 4 games there, I shot +150 for the last 5 games. It is a long oil pattern and the outside boards are usually out of bounds unless you have a lot of hand, slow ball speed, a dull ball, or some useful combination of the three. Sometimes, depending on the lane surface, there might be a nice shot up the first board or two but usually the scores come from playing the inside of the lane without too much swing room. I figured I could use the same ball I used for the last 5 games in Vegas and play close to the same line to the pocket. I got my Columbia ICON 300 ready for action
We bowled an 8-game qualifier - I knew scores were going to be high, plus I bowled the B squad so I got to see the A squad results before I shoed up. Because of this, I wanted to get off to a good start, as I didn't think I could afford a bad game. First game: 173. Oh well, so much for that. It was a strange game because I started feelign a bit dizzy and sick in the middle part of the game. Once the feeling passed, I was able to get locked in ans get out of the minus-27 hole I put myself in. Games of 244-265-232 got me to +114 after 4. After a 184 game, I put up 257-221-219 to finish my block at +195 - good for 11th place! I am very happy with the effort and was feeling confident going into Sunday.
The most impressive part in my opinion was that I didnt' have to change balls all day. My trusty ICON 300 gave me the perfect reaction all day long. I started out standing on board 27 and looking at board 16 at the arrows. I think part of the reason I struggled the first game was because that brought the ball too close to the flooded outside boards. I moved in to board 29 on the approach and looked at board 18 at the arrows and starting "whacking 'em."
The field was cut to the top 24 for 5 more games of qualifying, after which it's cut to the top 16 for a best 2-out-of-3 bracket format like on the National Tour. Again, I wanted to get off to a fast start. Again, I was hopeless out of the gate, this time to the tune of 189-176. I thought the same shot would work as Saturday, but the backends seemed to hook just enough more to throw me off. After two games, I made my first ball change of the tournament, putting my ICON 300 back in the bag. I wanted a bit more control at the breakpoint to manage the hooking backends, but I didn't want to sacrifice any hitting power. I decided on the original ICON. It doesn't flare as much and I can play straighter with it. When I don't try to cover too many boards, my ICON hits like a tank. That was just what I was looking for. I moved about 4 boards right and started throwing the ball a bit harder. BINGO! 211 and 228 the next two games to push me back up to +199. I'm now in 16th place, right on the bubble. 17th is +176. I figured if I put up a good game, around 220 or so, that would put a lot of pressure on the guy behind me (who is a great player and a past regional champion). Unfortunately, I left a couple of splits when they weren't welcome and I could only manage 180. I thought for sure it was the end of a great tournament, but as it turns out, the guy behind me still needed three strikes in the 10th frame to tie me at +179. He got the first two strikes, but left an 8-pin on the last shot, putting me into the finals by one lone pin.
I was happy I had new life, but on the other hand, I had to bowl the tournament leader, 2-time Team USA member Shawn Evans in the first round. Shawn is a friend of mine and I know how talented he is when he gets going. Luckily for me, he got off to a slow start and I was able to take the first game 227-196. The second game was a different story. Shawn started strikign so I knew I had to keep going as long as I could. I got some good breaks, and it came down to the tenth frame with me needing a mark and a good count for the win. Unfortunately, the ball slipped off my hand at the VERY wrong time and I left a 1-2-6-10 washout. I knew I had to make it to stay alive for that game, so I gave it my best shot and put the ball in the perfect place. It bounced off the 1 into the 6 and I converted it! Now I only need 9 pins for the win. Off my hand the shot felt great. It looked great all the way down the lane, and even into the pins. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up because even though the ball hit extremely hard, I managed to leave the dreaded 7-10 split. We tied at 234. We had a one-ball sudden death roll-off. Shawn got up first and struck. I needed to match him and threw another great shot, but was victimized again as I buried a 9-pin. Two great pocket shots, nothing to show for it. Oh well, still one more game to go....well that thought was put to rest quickly as Shawn never gave me a chance, throwing the front 9 strikes for 279 against me.
So I was eliminated in the Round of 16. Part of me is happy I did well, but another part of me is disappointed that I was so close to going to the round of 8. I made $500 for my troubles, and I took consolation in the fact that PBA Champions Jason Couch and Chris Hayden were also eliminated that round, so I made it as far as two of the best in the world.
I hope to build on this tournament. Next week is another Regional in Lakeland, Florida. The lanes should be tougher because the South region has used Patterns E and B the last two weeks (the two easier ones). A and C are the low scoring ones, so I expect one of those two next weekend. I should be on top of my game after this weekend.
Tune in next weekend for an update from the PBA South Region Lakeland Open, taking place at Orange Bowl in Lakeland, FL.
Peace out -
Jeff