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Sunday, March 19, 2007
( continued from Indy report…..) After our 4 ½ hour drive after the show, Sean, Schlem, Barnes and I finally arrived in Grand Rapids. We unloaded our stuff and went straight to the restaurant. If you remember from last year’s report, this place has incredible food so that was an easy choice for dinner. We sat and ate dinner with Rick Benoit and his two boys, then headed out to the lanes to practice for a while. Since I had basically just got done bowling a few hours ago, my physical game was still pretty decent. I used an array of Agents, Dominations and Shifts during practice. I had a pretty good look from in, so I decided to shut it down early and head to the hotel. We were staying a few miles away at a brand new Baymont ( Priceline.com ), so we went to the hotel, checked in and unloaded our stuff. Since I had to bowl at 8:00 am, I headed straight to bed.
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Monday, March 20, 2007
I woke up early this morning and headed to the bowl, stiff and sore. The long week last week took a toll on my back and I didn’t want to get out of bed. The best part about having this round first is the fact that when it’s over, I can relax for a day and a half. I had my normal breakfast ( banana and a cereal bar ), grabbed my equipment and headed to my starting pair. My cross for the week was DD and a regional player named Christopher Wood. I had a hard time getting loose in practice, like I figured I would. The approaches were pretty tacky, just like always at Spectrum. I decided to start with a Paradigm that I had brought for this particular pattern. I used this ball last year on the fresh and had my best look with it. The lanes didn’t hook as much downlane as they did in practice, so I started with my feet around 34 and was targeting around 16-17. The Paradigm was pretty smooth downlane and I was just trying to get by for a couple of games until the lanes opened up.
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| ROUND 1 |
211 |
189 |
205 |
189 |
211 |
257 |
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1262 |
50th |
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Monday, March 20, 2007 -- Qualifying Block 1
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Game 1 – 4 pin in the 1st, 10-pin in the 4th & 8th, 2-pin in the 9th, washout in the 10th. I got off to a decent start, but the lanes started to really carry down late in the game. I moved a little right in the 10th and threw it out the window…ruining a decent start to the event.
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Game 2 – 2-4-10 in the 2nd, 3-6-9-10 in the 3rd, 10-pin in the 5th, 4-7 in the 9th and a2-8-10 in the 10th. I was all over the place on this pair. I used a Paradigm, a Shift and an Agent. Nothing looked good and everybody around me was playing out. I debated jumping right, but stuck to my guns, much to no avail.
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Game 3 – 3-6 in the 1st, 2-pin in the 4th, 4-7 in the 5th, 10-pin in the 6th, 7-pin in the 8th, 4-pin in the 9th & 11th. I moved right in the 2nd ( 6-7 at the arrows ) and had a decent look, just not the right ball in my hands. I went with an Agent, but I needed something different ( although I had no clue as to what that was ).
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Game 4 – 3-10 in the 3rd, 4-pin in the 4th, 4-7 in the 5th, 10-pin in the 6th, 3-6 in the 8th, 2-pin in the 9th and a 3-6 in the 10th. I started with a Special Agent and though I had the right ball, but then I was all over the place again. I stayed out for the entire game, searching for a look….but couldn’t find anything.
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Game 5 – 10-pin in the 4th, 6-10 in the 5th, 7-pin in the 6th, 4-pin in the 7th, 10-pin in the 8th and 10th. I jumped back inside with an Agent and had a pretty good look, but I just couldn’t pick up a double after the 3rd frame. The good news was that I was finally close.
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Game 6 –
10-pin in the 2nd and 5th. I finally caught a pair that I got loose on and started striking. I ended up around 23-24 at the arrows and finally started to create a good angle to carry.
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I finished the block at +62, which was good for 50th place after the first day ( which happened to be the cut line ). I really didn’t bowl well physically or mentally. All I know is I was tired and I needed some rest. I went back to the hotel to chill out for a while, before heading to Buffalo Wild Wings for a late lunch. After lunch, we went to the mall to walk around and wasted a little time, then saw Ghost Rider at the theatre. Let me tell you that was an AWESOME movie !!! I had no idea what to expect, other than the previews looked pretty cool. I thought they did a great job with this movie and hopefully they will continue this franchise like they have with some of the other Marvel movies ( plus any movie that has Eva Mendes in it is must see !!! ). After the movie we headed back to the hotel and crashed.
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| ROUND 2 |
213 |
210 |
238 |
210 |
265 |
192 |
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1328 |
2590 |
26th |
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007 -- Qualifying Block 2
Since I didn’t bowl until the night block, I slept in and just hung around the room for a while. I finally headed out to grab some lunch at Applebees, then went to the bowl to watch for a while. I was bored hanging out at the bowl, so I headed back to the hotel to relax before I had to bowl. I headed back to the bowl around 5:00 or so, got my stuff ready and then hit the lanes. I started with an Agent this round, standing around 27 and targeting around 14-15 with very little direction change. My gameplan was like yesterday, be patient until the lanes open up and then attack the pattern from in.
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Game 1 – 4-pin in the 1st, 10-pin in the 4th, 3-6-10 in the 5th, 10-pin in the 6th, 2-8 in the 7th, 4-pin in the 9th. I was still having trouble with some timing issues, and on the fresh that was a huge problem. All of my mistakes were magnified, and even my good shots weren’t very crisp.
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Game 2 – 10-pin in the 4th and 6th, 2-pin in the 7th, 1-2-4-7 in the 10th. I bowled a better physical game on this pair, but I had a total mental lapse on both shots in the 10th. Its hard enough to compete with the best week in and week out, but you cant afford stupid mistakes like this in a major championship !
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Game 3 – 9-pin in the 2nd, 3-6-10 in the 4th, 9-pin in the 5th and a 7-pin in the 6th. I finally jumped left in the 5th and managed to finish strong from there. The lanes broke down a little faster during this round, so I was able to jump in a little sooner.
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Game 4 – 3-6-10 in the 2nd and 3rd, 4-6-7 in the 4th, 10-pin in the 7th, 7-pin in the 8th. This pair was hooking quite a bit more, so I ended up making a pretty good size move left. My physical game still wasn’t quite up to par. For some reason my mind was somewhere else and my shotmaking wasn’t very good, which isn’t good during a Major.
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Game 5 – 4-7-10 in the 10th. For some reason during the break between games 4 and 5 I got very, very dizzy. I hadn’t eaten anything for dinner, so I figured I was just getting tired and hungry. I sent a friend of mine after a bag of M & Ms, trying to get some sugar in me but that didn’t help. I have no clue how I managed to throw the front 9, but I certainly took it. I got a pinch slow in the 10th and the ball checked up a little too much. The good news was that I was back into the mix on the board !!!
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Game 6 –
10-pin in the 2nd, 7-pin in the 5th, 2-4-10 in the 6th, 10-pin in the 7th, 7-10 in the 8th. My dizziness persisted, but I bowled a bad physical game here. I missed a spare and left a couple of splits. Not what I was looking for to end the round.
I finished Round 2 at +128 and +190 overall. That moved me up to 26th place, which was 74 pins above the cut line. Scores slowed down a little on Day 2, which is pretty common during Majors. I felt pretty good about where I sat, considering my physical and mental games were garbage so far. After I got done I went into the bar/restaurant to have dinner with Pete and Tracy, then headed back to the hotel to go to bed. The last thing I was hoping for was to get sick again.
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| ROUND 3 |
214 |
214 |
201 |
228 |
212 |
192 |
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1261 |
3851 |
37th |
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Wednesday, March 22, 2007 -- Qualifying Round 3
I woke up Wednesday morning still not feeling well. I was still pretty light headed for some reason ( most people would say that I’m pretty dizzy all the time !!! ). I grabbed my usual breakfast and headed to the bowl to watch the morning squad. The lanes looked like they were holding up pretty well, but the scores weren’t really going up much at all. Finally I got to hit the lanes, hoping for a big round. I started with an Agent playing around 23-24. The lanes were a little tricky, but the way I was throwing it any house pattern was going to be tricky.
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Game 1 – 3-6-10 in the 2nd, 7-pin in the 3rd, 10-pin in the 8th and 10th. I made a lot of quality shots during this game, but a missed spare in the 2nd set a bad tone for the day.
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Game 2 – Super washout in the 1st, 10-pins in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th, 3-6-9-10 in the 8th. A couple of severe mental lapses ruined an otherwise decent game. This was a common theme for the week : make 4-5 good shots then throw one like a total hack !!!
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Game 3 – 3-6-10 in the 1st, 10-pin in the 2nd, 2-4-10 in the 5th, 10-pin in the 6th, 2-pin in the 9th. More of the same, plus another miss of the “toughest split in bowling” for me in the first !!! I swear they should paint the 3-6-10 Kryptonite green for me. I did switch to a T-Road at the end of the game to bail 208 out.
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Game 4 – 2-pin in the 2nd, 10-pin in the 4th, 7-pin in the 8th, 7-pin in the 9th. I went back to my Agent, since the low end had been tighter all week. This was probably my most solid game of the round, but I just couldn’t put any strikes together.
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Game 5 – 6-10 in the 1st, 3-4-6-7 in the 4th, 3-10 in the 5th, 10-pin in the 10th. This pair was on fire !!! I made another big move left and threw a late 4-bagger to salvage an ugly game. I just wished I could avoid digging myself early holes.
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Game 6 –
2-pin in the 1st, 4-pin in the 4th, big-4 in the 5th, 2-8 in the 7th, 7-pin in the 8th, 10-pin in the 10th. This was probably my most carelessly bowled game of the week. I sort of let-down near the end, knowing that I was in the cut number safely. Again, not very smart on my part.
I finished round 3 at +61 and +251 overall, putting me in 37th place after the 18 games of qualifying. The first cut number was +174, so I made it by plenty but I was 204 pins behind 8th place. Since this is a best 4 of 7 match play tournament, it didn’t really matter where I finish just as long as I’m in the Round of 40 ( the top 8 are automatically seeded into the Super 16 ). After I got done bowling I headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch, then went back to the hotel for a while to relax. I got bored pretty quick, so I headed back to the bowl and hung out with CJ, having dinner.
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Thursday, March 23, 2007 -- Casher's Qualifying Round
Another day, another qualifying round !!! Just like every other day in the last 10, I grabbed my normal breakfast, headed to the bowl and got ready for the cash round. Since I hadn’t drilled anything this week, I had no extra work to do so I had more time to just relax at the bowl. Since this was a 9 game round, I figured I would see a combination of everything that I saw all week long. I started with a T-Road Pearl, playing around 10-11 pretty straight. I was using a ball that was drilled to lay down a little, and the ball characteristics still allowed for some downlane movement.
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Game 1 – 6-pin in the 3rd, 10-pin in the 4th, 6-10 in the 5th, 2-pin in the 11th. I got off to a good start, but I was fighting timing issues for the entire game.
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Game 2 – 3-6-10 in the 1st and the 3rd, 3-4-6-10 in the 5th, 4-pin in the 8th, 10-pin in the 10th. The left lane was hooking at least 5 more than the right and it took me 4 shots to get lined up on that lane. By the way, the timing problems weren’t going away.
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Game 3 – 3-6-9-10 in the 1st and 2nd, 10-pin in the 10th. After 2 3-6-9-10s, I jumped left but stayed with the T-Road. I managed to pull a 7-bagger out to get myself going in the right direction.
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| 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
19-20
+ 319 |
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