Well it’s finally here, the start of the 2006-2007 Denny’s PBA Tour season. I guess you can say that I’ve been anxiously waiting for this week to get here, just not the Masters. My Masters resume isn’t very good at all. As a matter of fact the Masters is usually the week each year that I’d like to forget the most. My first Masters was in 2000, in Albuquerque, NM. I was 4th after the first day of qualifying, then fell all the way out of the match play number over the next 2 rounds. The next year in Reno was the most forgettable week of my life. Shortly after the practice round, I found out that one of my closest friends in the world passed away from cancer. I’m sure by now most of you have read about my relationship with Mary Teubner, and this is when it happened. I withdrew from the Masters and started the next day at the airport at 5:00 am trying to get home. Finally I arrived at my best friend Kenny’s house at 11:00 pm on what was probably the longest day of my life. 2003 and 2004 also saw the Masters in Reno at the National Bowling Stadium, a place that I’ve never bowled well. The last 2 years have been in Milwaukee, but so far I haven’t had much success here either. To make a long story short, since my first Masters I’m 0-fer as far as cashing in the Masters. Last year I bowled really well in Round 1, then gave it all away in Round 2. I generally struggle on the fresh during the Masters, so this years strategy was to bowl on the fresh first and get it out of the way early, then try and make up ground on the “burn” squad.

Parts of my report include what may be some unpopular opinions to some, but keep an open mind to some of this. There are a few issues with this tournament ( and the US Open ) that a lot of people would love to see resolved. There has been a lot of discussion about these things this week, so these opinions are strictly all mine.

Sunday October 22nd

There was an optional practice session today at the bowl at 10:00 am, so I left Moline, IL ( where we were bowling the regional ) at 5:45 am to make the 3+ hour drive. I pulled into the bowl right at 9:00 and got my truck unloaded. I took in a wide assortment of balls, ranging from Agents and Dominations, to Trifectas and Thunderstrucks. Derek Sapp and I practiced for the whole 2 hours, striking quite a bit. The pattern seemed to play a lot easier than normal, but we all expected that to change for the official practice session. It was nice anyway to get to bowl for a while and get a feel for the approaches and the center in general. After we bowled for a while Schlem, Sapp, Robert Smith, his buddy Carl and myself headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and to watch some football. The Steelers game was very frustrating to watch, since we pretty much dominated Atlanta for most of the game and kept giving them opportunities. The big worry is about Big Ben of course. That’s 2 concussions in less than 6 months and you always have to worry about a person’s long-term health when concussions are concerned. To be honest, I wouldn’t be opposed to see them sit him down for a while. With a 2-4 record, this season isn’t looking to good the way it is. We sat there for several hours watching football, then I headed to the hotel to check in. I’m at a Homestead Suites this week and since I have a kitchen, I headed out to buy a few groceries to have on hand here for the week. After I got checked in and got my truck unloaded it was time for Game 2 of the World Series. I met Schlem and our buddy Scott down at TGI Fridays for a salad and a beer ( I know, good combination there ). I only hung out for a little while because I was totally wiped from getting up at 5 am. After I left there I headed back to the room, watched the rest of the game and went to bed.

Monday October 23rd

I had the early practice session since I was on A squad this morning. We bowled for an hour and ten minutes and they played pretty much the same as yesterday. I played in for the majority of the practice, but I also threw plenty of shots from out. Looks like there are lots of options, but again I can’t see it being like this for the tournament. I can’t believe that for a Major Championship they have such difficulty making the practice sessions play anything like what the pattern will play like during the tournament. In my opinion that is poor lane maintenance. That’s like having Tiger practice for the British Open on a par 3 course. It just doesn’t make any sense to me at all. After I finished with my practice session, I hung around to watch B Squad practice for a while. Then Schlem and I headed back to Buffalo Wild Wings to grab some lunch. After lunch I watched a little bit of C Squad practice, then headed back to the room to chill out for the rest of the night. Since it was an off night for the World Series, I thought I would catch up on some movies that I had brought with me. I started with “Fast and the Furious : Tokyo Drift” and I’d really like to have those 2 hours of my life back. That movie flat out sucked !!! I didn’t think that Lucas Black was a very good actor in “Friday Night Lights” and he certainly didn’t spend any money on acting lessons since then. The race scenes were pretty cool, but overall that was a total waste. After that I watch “Click” and really enjoyed that one. I’ve always been an Adam Sandler fan and this movie didn’t disappoint at all. It certainly had plenty of sad parts, but was a very good movie overall. By the time it was over, it was time for bed since I had an 8:30 am start the next day

Tuesday October 24th

During the 10 minutes of practice I tried several different things. Just like I predicted, the hold that we had seen for the last 2 days was no longer there. I know, shocker !!! I tried to play out with a Trifecta, but it didn’t look very good. I decided to start inside with an Agent and try to feed it through the midlane hook, but that didn’t work at all. I started with a 6-10, 3-4-6, 3-6-10, strike, 3-4-6-7, and a 6-10. So for the first six shots, everything was left off of my hand and I was lost. My swing was so locked up because I was trying to force the ball through an unplayable spot, which was bad decision making on my part. I moved back right with the Trifecta just in time to go strike, solid 9, strike, solid 9, strike. I ended up with 169, but with a couple of hits at the end it could have been a lot better. We went to the other side of the building for Game 2 and that side is always tighter. The game plan was to hook it on the high side ( which obviously didn’t work ) and play straight on the low side. I stayed out for the start of Game 2 with my Trifecta, but still wasn’t comfortable with my shot-making at all. I started with a double, 3-6, strike, but another 3-4-6-7 in the 5th really frustrated me. I managed to double for the next two shots, but left yet another 3-4-6-7 in the 8th ( but this time I actually made it !!! ). I left a 3-6-10 in the 9th, then went blower 7, 4-pin in the tenth to finish with 193. Again, with a break in the tenth it could have been a little better. This is where I got stupid. I decided to stick with my game plan for Game 3 ( back on the other side of the building ) and jump back inside. Another bad decision on my part. First of all, everybody was talking about 31-32 being like glass on the approaches during the practice sessions. They weren’t lying, because I felt like a newborn calf or a drunken sailor ( take your pick there ). I couldn’t get my footing at all and that just made the bad decision look even worse. I started with a Thunderstruck Solid and went 3-6-7, strike, 4 pin, strike. Then all of a sudden the right lane seemed to tighten up. I left a 2-pin in the 6th, then a 4-7 in the 7th. Back on the right lane I left a 2-8-10 which totally confused me. I struck in the 9th, setting myself up for a possible bail finish, but another bad break in the tenth in the form of a blower 7 cost me some more pins. I finished with 170, putting me at -68 after 3 games and really with no relief in sight. I stayed where I was for the start of Game 4, but after a 3-6-9-10 start I jumped back out but stayed with the Thunderstruck this time. I was now piping it through 9-10 and went strike, 4 pin, triple, ring 10, solid 9, strike, ring 10, ring 10 for 213. That was a very frustrating game because after I made the big move right I really felt like I made ten great shots and didn’t get rewarded very much. At least that stopped the bleeding and got me heading back north a little bit. I stayed out of course for the start of Game 5, but the midlane was hooking quite a bit on that pair so I took a gamble and jumped in to around 18-20 with the T-Struck. Finally I made a good decision because I went 4 pin, 5-bagger. I finally had some momentum, but a ring 10 in the tenth took care of that. I finished the game with 235, putting me at -20 for the block. I wasn’t very happy with the way I bowled, but on the bright side -20 might be my best block ever on the fresh for the Masters. We decided against drilling anything for Round 2 because I knew I’d be in curving it and I was pretty happy with what I already had for that. I watched B Squad bowl, since that would be the squad I would have next and it looked like they started pretty deep and just kept moving left. Well at least I had my game plan for Round 2 now. During the break Schlem, Tim Mack and I ran to Applebee’s for lunch then to Coldstone for some ice cream before we headed back to the bowl. I watched most of C Squad bowl before I headed back to the room to watch Game 3 of the World Series ( or at least I thought. I laid down to watch the ball game and I pretty much fell asleep in the 4th inning. Chris Carpenter just wasn’t making things very interesting I guess. These long formats are tough because we spend so much time at the bowl and it’s easy to just get tired and run down. I woke up to see the 8th and 9th, then gave up and went back to sleep.

Wednesday October 25th

There wasn’t much strategy involved in this block. Today was basically stand left, throw right and repeat. The key was catching good pairs and pairs that you could get a read on quick. The problem is you don’t know who bowled on those pairs during the early shift, so you are at their mercy as to how each pair will play ( more on that topic later ). I started standing on around 40 and going through about 22-23 or so with a Thunderstruck Solid. Again I got off to a shaky start with a 3-4-6-7-10 right out of the gate. I struck non-stop in practice, then make a horrible shot to start with. I’m the type of person that really needs a good shot to start with to get my swing free, and that certainly didn’t help. Things got considerably better from there, but my luck sure didn’t. I doubled after the opening split, but then rang back to back 10-pins. After a strike in the 6th I left a 4-pin in front of another double. I rang a 10 in the tenth again to finish with 206. Just another hard luck game. I’m watching guys all around me throw 3-4 brooklyns a game ( and slapping them off ), but I cant seem to get my ball to go through the pins the right way to strike. Things were getting very frustrating for me. We moved back down to the low side ( for 2 games this time ) and I had that feeling in the back of my mind that they would be tighter like always. I couldn’t tell you if I was right or not because the pair that we went to was so chopped up that there really wasn’t a defined place to play. I struggled the entire game with ball reaction going high-light-high-light for 189, dropping me back to -25 with 3 games to go. The cut number is usually in the 20s-30s so I needed something to get me going. That something came in the form of 21-22. It was like nobody got deeper than 22 on that pair because there was a ton of push. I had switched to an Agent the previous game, so I decided to stick with it for Game 3. The only problem I had with the pair was the approaches were very slick. For the first time ever I used a shoe brush and when I did so much dirt and dust was flying off my slide sole that it was like the approaches hadn’t been cleaned in months. By now I was taking 7 steps, walking around the ball return on the right lane and standing on the super divider on the left lane. I was crossing around 28-30 at the arrows and just wheeling it right. I started on the right lane and opened with a strike. I struck on the left lane, but when I went back to the right lane I lost my footing a little and left a 2-8. It was then that I started brushing my shoe to get it cleaned a little better ( something I should probably do a little more anyway ). After that I just kept striking, finishing with 278 and putting me up to +58 with 2 games to go. We went back to the high side for the last 2 games and we couldn’t have hit a worse pair for Game 4. The right lane was totally impossible and was on fire. It was like somebody started at 25 with surface and just burned up the entire middle part of the lane ( which they probably did ). I struck every time on the left lane, but never hit the right side of the head pin on the right lane. I managed to throw my first ( and only ) brooklyn of the tournament in the 8th to make a triple, but when I stepped up in the 10th disaster struck. I had an opportunity to pull a 220 out of my a$@, so I decided to move right a little and pipe the ball through around 22 pretty firmly. The shot looked good for about 45 feet, then it duck-hooked, leaving me with a  4-6-7 and 191 for the game. That dropped me back to +44 with one game to go and in danger of not cashing again unless I pulled out a decent last game. Luckily I caught a pretty clean pair for Game 5 going ring 10, 4-7, solid 9, 4-bagger. Then I rang another 10 pin in the 8th breaking the momentum. I struck in the 9th setting myself up for a big finish on the left lane. I stepped up and thought I threw a pretty good shot, but it picked up a little too strong in the midlane and I left yet another 4-6-7 in the tenth. So far for the 10 games of qualifying I’ve paid the maximum penalty for every shot that missed the pocket. Its pretty frustrating knowing that you are close, but you have to dig yourself out of a hole every game. I finished the block at +78 ( thanks to the 278 game ) and +58 after qualifying. After we got done we headed over to Boulder Junction to grab a sandwich, then headed back to the bowl to watch C & D bowl. The scores didn’t really move a whole lot though through the course of the night, and with 2 games to go I went back to the hotel to get some sleep. The cut number ended up being +35 for the top 124 bowlers.

This is the part that may ruffle some feathers. I certainly in no way am belittling anybody, but there needs to be something done to strengthen the fields for the Masters and the US Open. As it stands now, pretty much anybody can come out and shoe up for 2 of the Major Championships. In my opinion that is just totally wrong. According to the rules, your USBC dues entitles you the chance to pay your entry fee and cross with Pete Weber, Chris Barnes, Walter Ray Williams Jr., etc…..Now, I’m a big golf fan and I enjoy playing when time allows. I’m not very good, maybe playing in the 90’s at best, but I love playing and watching golf ( especially Tiger ). There is no chance in hell that I would ever be able to play with him, let alone the guys on the Nationwide Tour. It doesn’t matter if I’m a USGA member or not, I’m just not going to be allowed to compete with those guys. I can pay a huge amount of money to play in a pro-am with them, but certainly not play in the tournament proper. So why is it in bowling that anybody can come to Milwaukee and bowl in the Masters ??? These are the things that are truly wrong with our sport. Now, I’m not going to knock anybody for coming out and trying their hand at tougher conditions and against tougher competition; as a matter of fact I admire it. But there needs to be some way to modify this process. Some of us were talking last night about maybe having Masters and US Open qualifiers in the 7 PBA regions, with a certain amount of bowlers advancing from each region. That way people get the opportunity to bowl, but the cream of the crop will join the PBA players in Milwaukee for the actual Masters. The field size would be smaller and would be much more competitive. Also the problem with guys not having the experience of bowling on these patterns wont affect the other bowlers as much. The conditions in Major Championships are tough enough, without having to continually guess what to do from pair to pair. Like I said, I’m not belittling anybody, but it just doesn’t make sense to let anybody and everybody bowl. There really needs to be a qualifying process to make the tournament prestigious again. Just my .02

Thursday October 26th

Today was kind of a “go for broke” kind of day. Entering today the match play cut number was +106. I figured it would take around +130 to make it, so I needed to pick up about 70-80 pins to make the next round. Most importantly, I really needed a good start for a change. Schlem and I took a Vertigo and a Screaming Banshee and hit them with 2000 grit Abralon pads, to give me something to play out with that wouldn’t change directions very hard. I was crossing with Eugene McCune, Bruce Falcon and Brian Waliczek, so for a change I had some guys to match up with. We only get 10 minutes of practice before each round, so I had a hard time getting loose and getting lined up fast enough. The out didn’t look very good and Bruce and Brian were striking from in, so I decided to start in with a Thunderstruck Solid. I started around 32 or so with my feet, crossing around 16-17 at the arrows. I actually had a pretty good look, but if you even touched the finger holes the ball would go sideways off the back of the pattern. I started the day with a ring 10, strike, then a 3-6-9-10 ( which I chopped – the first missed spare of the tournament ). I rebounded with a double, but left a 6-9-10 in the 6th. I wanted to make sure I rolled through the next shot and it never picked up, leaving a 2-10 split. Again, maximum penalty for every missed pocket shot. In the 9th I left a 4-pin, then stuck so bad on the spare I almost ended up in the gutter. Totally disastrous start! Then to make things worse I went blower 10, blower 10 in the 10th finishing with 167. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but with 4 games left I certainly wasn’t totally out of it. The next pair we went to featured a nice little surprise, the right lane bounced about a foot in the air on every shot. This was especially bad with all of us going so left to right. I actually started with a  4-bagger, but a “bad-bounce” on the right lane left me with a 2-8-10. I recovered with a  triple, but I 4-9’d in the ninth ( which I converted ). Then I went blower 10, blower 10 in the 10th for the second game in a row, finishing with 231 which put me at +56. Game 3 was a momentum killer for me going 189 with a couple of splits and a back breaking ring 10 in the 9th, with strikes on both sides of it. That put me at +45 with only 2 games to go. We made the turn to go back to the low end, and again my mindset was that they would be tighter down there. For a change the pair we went to was pretty fresh downlane and I got off to a good start with a triple. Then I made what I thought was a good shot, but left a 4-10 in the 4th. After yet another ring 10, I went strike then 4 pin before I struck out for 236 keeping some hope alive. That was until we got to our last pair. Let me say that I think that 171 was high on our last pair. It was brutal !!! The ball never read the lane at all. If I hit the pocket I left a 10 pin, if I didn’t I left a 2-10 combination split. The pair just didn’t allow us any freedom. I ended up with 161 that game, dropping me back down to +42 for the tournament and ending my week earlier than I wanted. After I was done, Schlem and I headed to Hooters for lunch and to discuss the week in general. The negatives were that I made some really bad decisions on Day 1 and that I was just to hesitant over the course of the 3 rounds to make changes. We also kind of doubted our decision not to try a Thunderstruck Pearl that I had that is pretty rolly, which might have given me a better look going through the pins. The positives were that I finally cashed at the Masters again, for the most part my physical game was pretty solid and my spare game was near perfect all week. I’m pretty disappointed not to make match play because I really felt like I was close enough all week to have scored much higher, but with my history at this tournament I’ll certainly take a check as a step in the right direction.

After lunch I dropped Schlem back off at the bowl and I headed back to the hotel. I just felt like being alone tonight and doing absolutely nothing. I got back to the room and watched “Lucky Number Slevin”. What a great movie. I love Bruce Willis and he’s excellent in this movie. Great cast and a great overall movie. Since I’m bored until my pro-ams on Saturday, I’m sure I’m going to catch up on some more movies tonight and tomorrow. I’ve got 2 pro-ams on Saturday, then I’m heading home for a couple of days. I’m going to spend all day/night with my kids on Sunday, then work most of the day on Monday. My plan is to leave for Detroit on Monday night and then practice at Taylor Lanes all day Tuesday. Next week is on the Cheetah pattern, so I need to get myself prepared. That pretty much concludes the longest report in history, so until next week “Bowl Up a Storm” !!!