Chameleon Championship Recap
Hello again,
     This week we bowled on the chameleon pattern.  We just got done bowling the ultimate scoring tournament, so everyone was expecting lower scores.  Mark Sabatini, the lane man for the tour ran some pairs to practice on in between the ultimate scoring tournament.  Next to that pattern, the first few shots felt like the US Open shot.  Once I got my swing a little straighter, I tried a few different balls to see what we might be up against.  I had my best look with a Break s75 with the pin above my fingers.  My Maniac looked pretty good as well.  I was pretty tired from the last few days of bowling, so I didn’t throw too many.
     The next day was the TQR, and the scores were much lower.  It still looked like the best thing to do was have pretty good hand and speed.  I was able to find a little something on the gutter in practice, so I wanted to keep an open mind.  The next day in the tournament, there was a little bit out around 5-6.  I started with a Break s75, and tried to roll up the back.  I started good with games in the 230s and 220s.  I bowled a 190 in game three with two blower 7-10s.  Remember, Taylor is split, and now we were off to the tighter side.  
     This was one of the most unusual games I’ve ever bowled on tour.  I started with a light 2 pin.  I made a little move for the next shot.  The next ball I threw got only the 10 pin.  That’s right-one count.  On a spare no less.  I don’t know how, but somehow I made the spare.  The next two shots, I tried to make sure to not give the pocket away, and doubled.  As the game went on, I stayed clean.  In the tenth, I tried a different ball for the fill shot.  That went right through the nose for six.  My game ended up being 189.  That was clean, with a double.  
     The next few games were a nightmare.  I was caught between the out of bounds that was partially created by the hook guys playing in, and pushing more oil to the right, and the fronts hooking at my foot when I tried to move in.  I made some really bad choices, and paid for every one of them.  In the end, I ended up minus 44.  That was the first block I’ve bowled under in quite some time.  
     The next round was more of trying to just end on a positive.  I tried to start with weaker balls and really go up and at the pocket.  I started with a creature, and a link, but halfway through the game, everything let go down lane.  I then went to a Heist, and started trying to cut the heads a liitle more.  The next few games were much better, and I fought my way back up to around 40 over.  Over the course of the day, I probably missed enough in spares alone to maybe make a reasonable run at the number.  However, I couldn’t get it done, but my week was.  Now, I just wait until Saturday, and bowl the pro-am.
     The next tournament is in Vernon Hills, after a week off, and hopefully some better scores.  The surface there is very rough, and there will be friction no matter what.  I’ll update at the end of that tournament, and let you know how things went.

                                                         Steve

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