As a result of the incredible strength of the field in Coldwater, 32 bowlers qualified to bowl on Sunday. Of course, when the field has over 40 PBA Regional champions, 21 current or former exempt players, and 13 National tour champions, 32 to the finals seems reasonable.
The format favored those who qualified well, as pins carried over. We bowled 4 games, cutting the bottom eight followed by three cutting the bottom eight, two cutting the bottom eight, and two cutting the bottom four. Going into Sunday I was in 10th despite leading my squad because the bowlers on C squad broke the pattern down wisely and capitalized on the mistakes of previous squads. This meant I just needed to bowl smart to make the first two cuts.
During the first squad I used a pin up sigma with more surface than Saturday. As the pattern was run more, the areas that hooked began to hook more while the areas where there was hang hooked less. This created a pronounced cliff between the hang and the hook. I typically combat this with smooth rolling balls and surface. Such a ball blends the severe wet dry far better than anything else. However, I used a pin up ball to give a fast response as the backends were very tight. I shot a four game total of 798 and maintained the same position through the first four game squad.
The biggest curveball of the day was that the lanes were not being re-oiled until the top four stepladder. As a result, I chose to reset the surface on my equipment between rounds. Everything was taken one step shinier than it had been. For example, the ball that was 500 went to 1000, the ball at 1000 went to 1500, and the ball at 1500 went to 2000 between rounds.
The next round was three games. During the practice session I tried a pin down Sigma Tour. While it did not recover as well as its pin up counterpart, the pin down allowed me to play straighter and keep the ball in play. On low scoring patterns, the most important task is simply keeping the ball in play. This three game block went incredibly well with a 202, 227, and 267. I moved up from tenth place to third.
Bowling is a fickle game, though, and a good look can go away in the blink of an eye. This is exactly what happened to me. The first game of the third round I bowled on a pair that (somehow) Rhino and I had not touched yet. It was completely fresh and I had no read on it. Unfortunately, I never figured out this pair. If I tried to square up on the lane, the ball read early and split. If I tried to go around it, the ball never got started. In hind sight, I should have switched from the Sigma to the Raptor. While it would have been hard to keep on line, at least it would have hooked every time I threw it. This game was my only really terrible game of the weekend and was in the 150’s.
Going into the final game of the round of 16, I knew that I had to shoot around 200 to make the next cut. Unfortunately, I was back on the dreaded end pair (where I started the tournament). I was clean for the first nine frames, and was pacing a decent 200 game. Then, I missed a 2-4 in the tenth. It was incredibly embarrassing and frustrating. My spares had been so good all weekend and I had been clutch every time I needed a strike all to get to this point and miss an incredibly easy spare.
Ultimately, however, I was pleased with the weekend. Even easy spares were made difficult on this pattern. A ninth place finish had to suffice. This weekend was a barometer of how my off-season work has gone. It seems, based on this performance on a pattern that has consistently befuddled me that things are progressing nicely.
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