Dick Weber Open Recap
Hello everyone,
This week we are in Fountain Valley, Ca. for the Dick Weber Open. We’ve been coming here for the past 8 years or so starting with the US Open. The pattern this week is slightly flatter than usual, and the volume seems to be fairly low. The format for this tournament is close to what we used to bowl out here, with a little twist. A squad bowls five games followed immediately by B squad to bowl on the leftover burn. The lanes are then reconditioned, and B squad gets the fresh, and A gets the burn. The next morning, B bowls first, and then the lanes are re-oiled for A to bowl on the fresh. All in all, everyone will get a morning fresh, a burn squad, and an afternoon fresh. Believe me, there is a difference in the morning fresh, and the re-oil fresh in the way the lanes start, and transition.
I was able to use most of my less aggressive cores, with some polish for the practice session. I started out using a Villain, and a Heist, and had a really good look from most parts of the lane. Part of this may have been due to myself, Dave Traber, and Walter Ray practicing in a similar part of the lane. I thought the lanes were really nice, but after watching where everyone else was trying to play, I moved to another pair since I thought we may have burned up the outside where we were. I was right. The next pair that I bowled on was a lot different, so my plan was to try to start farther out, and keep edging to the left as long as I could.
I was on B squad for this week, which meant that I had to bowl on the burn first. I remember from last year that there was no oil on the lane by the end of this squad, so I brought in some really straight stuff. I had two looks in practice that I could try. One of them was to use my Orbit Xtreme, and play around 5-6, and keep it in play, or to move way in with a little stronger ball, and play the angle through the front. I opted for the inside, since most of the traffic was already there, and I thought that I might have a little more room to throw it to. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I started out with a 192 game, which really wasn’t all that bad since the scores were a lot lower this week. When I moved down to the low end, things went from bad to worse. I started struggling with the heads, and I had to force the angle in the front. This caused me to feel like I had to really whip it through. I bowled a game in the 170s, and unfortunately, that was going to be the theme for the rest of the block. I got myself trapped into trying too many things too quickly, and went into a tailspin of a combination of bad ball reaction, and shots that were even worse. I can’t remember the last time I had bowled a hundred under in any block in a long time. The problem that I was having was that there seemed like there was no oil at all in the lay down area. This made me feel like I had to be firmer through the shot. My instinct was to try to have a faster tempo, and this caused my to pull the swing down from the top, rather that wait for it to drop on its own. It was being inpatient. This set off a chain of events that would make the ball hook more, so next shot, would pull down harder, and on, and on. It doesn’t take too many shots of not really knowing what your ball is going to do to tighten your swing up, so I was looking forward to the break to try to regroup.
Unfortunately, the break wasn’t long. There was a re-oil, and we had to bowl right away. Our first block started over a half hour late, and the next block started on time, so that gave us about an hour and a half to eat, and be ready to go again.
I was looking forward to the fresh since I had such a good look in the practice session. Unfortunately, my luck didn’t change much at the beginning. I started with another 170 game, which brought my score to more than 140 under. I was still looking for the right reaction that didn’t give me full penalty on every bad shot. The next game, I pulled out a black Break, and moved closer to the track area. I tried to cut the angle through the heads a little quicker, and this seemed to help with the early hook. The rest of the block, my reaction got a little better, and so did my scores. I bowled a 250 in game three, and slowly but surely, I was cutting into my deficit. I ended the block around 40 under, and left with a little hope that I could still salvage the tournament.
The next morning, we had to be back at 8:00 am to finish our qualifying. This time I went in with the mindset to try the same strategy from the later part of the fresh from the night before. I started with the same Break, and tried to cut the heads again. This time, I was able to start with a solid 218 game, and get closer to even for my score. The next two games were much better, and I managed to put together a 267, and a 240 game to get close to 80 over for the tournament. The scoring pace was definitely lower, and I actually got to within a few pins of what I thought was going to be the cash number. After bowling a pretty solid 204 game, I was in position to try to finish off the small rally with a check. I finished strong in the 9th and 10th with a 222 game, and I now had to wait and see. After we bowled, a lot of the players were thinking plus 90 would be a good number to cash. I was sitting at plus 102. The number really didn’t move much during the next block, but it did go higher than I thought. I went from last cash at 52nd place to 49th, and back to 51st with a game to go. There were so many players close, that it was hard to keep track of. In the end, enough players got around me to put me in 53rd place, and first out of a check by three pins. It was pretty frustrating after the start that I had, but I felt good because I kept grinding, and almost pulled it out.
I spent the next day working on getting my swing loose in preparation for the Masters the next week. Hopefully I can have a strong week, and get through some matches and avoid the losers bracket as much as possible.
Thanks,
Steve
--------------------
900 Global/AMF Sales Manager
