World Championship TV Show Recap
Hi everybody, here is a recap of the championship round of the World Championship. The day of the show, you have to keep an open mind, and expect that anything can happen. I was able to play the lanes a couple of different ways during the week, so I was trying to look at all my options.
This was my first tournament on tour since I signed a staff deal with 900Global. They also have the license to sell the AMF product line as well. What makes this deal so good in my opinion is that both brands are available to me to use in all parts of the tournament. I have had good success in the past with the 900Global line in the summer, and I’m looking forward to a great season. I really feel that both brands are equally strong, and they actually do a great job in blending together. For every 900Global ball that I can throw, I also have the AMF balls that fit in between all the reactions creating a very balanced arsenal that I feel is versatile. When I change balls, they actually react different.
Now for a little insight as to how the show day works. In the past, we used to get almost an hour of practice on the pair before we bowled. With all of the strategy involving trying to carve shots out of the pattern with ridiculously dull equipment, the PBA has changed the practice time to just under 30 minutes total. Now, the bowlers in the second match get the pair at 11:30, and bowl alone for about 7-8 minutes. After that, the two bowlers in the opening match join in and the 4 bowlers are together for around 10 minutes. The first two bowlers then leave the opening match bowlers to finish the practice time until air time.
There are also practice pairs off to the side to stay loose on. You rarely see anything on this pair that’s close to the TV pair. The atmosphere of the show, along with the lights, and crowd create an environment that can’t be duplicated on the practice pair.
Once I qualified for the show, the first thing I did was try to come up with a game plan for Sunday, and try to anticipate what I might see. Obviously, I was hoping to be able to use the same stuff that I used all week. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn’t. I used a combination of two different Bounties, along with a break, a code, and an Nkryption Code throughout the week. Since this was the first week the Bounty was cleared, I really wanted to try to use this ball. It matched up well early in the week, and I was hoping to get a look with it. I drilled two new ones for the show. One of them was similar to the code I used the night before to make the show. The other one was a “just in case†ball with the pin over my middle finger, and a negative mass bias placement. This proved to not be a good layout for me, and I think I hit all the holes when I threw it.
I warmed up on the practice pair, and headed over to the TV pair to start practice. The first shots we threw showed that there was going to be a lot more friction on the lane than we saw all week. Especially up front. I was able to line up with most of the balls that I brought down, but the lanes change so fast that I needed to find a ball that would save up its energy longer. Once Sean and Norm got on the pair, it seemed like they had different things in mind. Sean spent a good amount of time with a fairly dull ball playing closer to where Norm wanted to play. Norm was throwing some duller stuff in the middle closer to where Sean played during the week. This left myself and Chris in the middle waiting to see where the transition was going. During the time I practiced, I think I went through both product lines looking for both the best angle, but also for the ball that wouldn’t be six through the middle if I missed.
The time on the practice pair was spent talking with Mike Haugen, and Dave Smart who was in town during the tournament. We discussed several options, and spent some time changing some surfaces. I had everything from the strong stuff down to Creatures and Links going down the lane.
Once the first match was over, we had about 9 minutes to warm up before we started the match. Knowing that this time goes very fast, I had to try to narrow down the balls I thought I had the best chance with. There was too much friction for any of the Bounties. I had a pretty good look with the Break s75 for a while, but it only took about 4 shots for the lane to start blowing up again. Any shot a little off was going through the middle for six. I was tossed up between the Code, and a Creature right before the match. I ultimately chose the ball that got me to the show, since I was close to where I played the night before. I thought this ball would give me the best length, but come off the spot hard enough to carry. Unfortunately, my look wasn’t as good as I hoped, but Chris’ wasn’t stellar either. Our match went to the tenth, and given the one mistake I made on the right lane, I thought I still had a chance to win the match. Chris did a great job at the end, and make good shots to shut me out.
You have to congratulate Norm on his performance on the show. He is one of the best at what he does, and he deserved the win.
Hopefully this is a sign of a great season with 900Global, and AMF. I look forward to having continued success with all the products.
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900 Global/AMF Sales Manager
