This weeks “road rant” is coming to you a few days late, do to the fact that my internet service has been down since Sunday night. Its probably a good thing, since what I had intended to write wasn’t very pretty. After a long, frustrating weekend I was probably just going to vent, but I’ve had time to cool down ( literally !!! ). I still have some opinions that I’m going to share with you, but it wont be nearly as bad as what it was going to be.  As far as the tournament goes, we were in Madison, WI last weekend and it was HOT !!!

Thursday July 13th

I drove up to Madison Thursday night because I had a photo shoot to do for Storm and their Storm Watch magazine. I was chosen to be the feature / cover for the next issue and it’s a huge honor for me, since the last 2 issues featured Pete and Robert. So I left right after I got done with some lessons at King Pin and headed north. I got out of town around 8 PM and it was about a 3 ½ hour drive, or at least it usually is. Unfortunately I hit construction around the toll booth on the IL / WI border that slowed me down almost an hour. I didn’t get to my hotel until around 12:30 and since I was staying at an Extended Stay, the desk was already closed. I had to wait almost a half hour for the night attendant and by the time I got settled into my room it was 1:30 AM. Nice start to the weekend, huh ???

Friday July 14th

I got to the bowl around 11:00 AM and met with Lou Wemmett and the photographers to get started. We did the photo shoot, the cover shots and the interview in about an hour and a half. Shortly after we wrapped that up, it was time for the practice session. The temperature outside was around 95 and the temp inside was almost the same. They were having issues with the air units and it was hot ! We were bowling on Pattern 1 again, and we were using the middle volume ( 45 mils ). It didn’t really matter because there was a ton of friction on the lane. Not as much as last weekend ( due to the fact that we were on Pro-Anvilane ), but it still hooked quite a bit. Just like the last trip to Madison, the pattern in practice played pretty easy with multiple balls working from multiple angles. I only practiced about an hour because of the heat and heading to Hooters for dinner with some friends. The Pro-Am was at 7:30 Friday night and they had about 60 or so entries. There were only about 4-5 people per pair so it went by pretty fast. After the Pro-Am I headed back to the hotel to do some work for my regional. Pro-Am entries have been rolling in so I’ve been working on lane assignments, averages, handicap, etc….

Saturday July 15th

I always look forward to coming to Schwoegler’s because this is where I won my first title, back in 1999. Even though I haven’t bowled very well here since, it will always be pretty special to me. For some reason I just cant seem to put good blocks together here, and when I do I bowl a bad match on Sunday and go home early. Sometimes its tough to put your finger on why you have success in one center and not another, but for some reason the last several years haven’t been very good to me here. Thanks to John Slavich IV, we had at least a little air conditioning. The temps outside were high 90s again and it was still pretty warm inside. I started with a Pyro, going through about 17-18. The Pyro looked good in practice, being slightly tamer than the other pearl reactives that I tried. I can always get a pretty good idea how my day will go by the result of my first shot. Today’.s first shot, 4-9. Well not exactly the start I was looking for ! The rest of the game was a couple of triples and five ring 10s for 204. Same story that I’ve had a lot lately, bad angles. Game 2 was more of the same for 201, but with 3 ball changes trying to find something. I tried an Agent, a Thunderstruck and finally a Fired-Up. I stuck with the Fired-Up and finally started striking, but my swing felt horrible. Game 3 wasn’t pretty, but the 246 I posted looked pretty good. During Game 4 I found the flaw in my swing, corrected it and bowled a very solid 248 with 2 ring 10s and a solid 8. I was letting my swing get a little too steep and I was losing feel at the bottom. I compacted my swing a little and tried to “roll” through it more. It helped to the point that I felt 100% better, but my carry percentage wasn’t very high. Game 5 was fairly solid with a 3-6-10 start, followed by a ring 10 and a solid 9. I finished strong for  237 and I was finally staring to feel good about the way I was throwing it. Game 6 was going along well ( front 4 start ), but a 2-4-8-10 in the 9th cost me a bunch of pins that I felt that I gave away. I finished that game with 223 to get to +159 for the block, but I had been creeping in for the last couple of games and I wasn’t taking full advantage of it. Game 7 was the turning point of the weekend for me ( looking back now ). I started strike, ring 10, 6-bagger. I was moving up the standing and building towards Sunday, when all of a sudden I threw the worst shot of the day by far. A monster lapse in concentration left me with a “greek church” and an extreme break in momentum. I finished with 229, but it should have been much more. I feel like I cost myself 30-40 pins that game on a dumb mistake. I never really recovered from that shot, finishing game 8 with 203. I never really got lined up the last game, plus I could tell my mind was still stuck on that “greek church”. Terrible mistake at a crucial time. I finished at +191 for the block, which was 16th on my squad. Yes I said 16th on my squad. I’m not sure what has happened, but the PBA regional patterns have gotten pretty high scoring. But I will save that rant for later. Luckily we were on A squad Saturday and weren’t subjected to the soaring temperatures. I headed back to the room to chill out for a while, then went back to the bowl later for lunch and to watch B squad bowl. The scoring pace for B was much lower, due to more hook in the middle and a little more hang right. Even with that it still took +155 to cash and +218 for the top 16. Again, high scores seem to be the norm now. After B was done, I just went back to the room for the night. I didn’t even eat dinner. I was just frustrated with the way I had bowled, I was frustrated that I averaged over 223 and I was in 22nd place, and I was frustrated with the way the pattern played.

Sunday July 16th

I woke up late, had no hot water in the shower and had a terrible headache. Again, not a good start to the day. It just seemed like the entire weekend was like that. If seemed like there was even more friction on Sunday, so I started with a  Thunderstruck in the same part of the lane as yesterday. My biggest problem was my head though. I just didn’t feel like bowling Sunday. Maybe it was my lack of bowling over the last few months, or it might have been the bad taste left in my mouth after Saturday. I’m not sure what it was, but I just didn’t want to be there. I would have been better off not bowling, taking my check and driving home early. When your head isn’t in it and you are just going through the motions, no good can come from it. Instead I stuck it out and just bowled my 5 games. After a 4-10, 4-9, ring 10, ring 10 start I was pretty much done. I know, it was only the first game, but my mood was already sour and It wasn’t going to get better. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t give up but I didn’t see much hope for the day. At that point I pretty much quit keeping notes and just tried to stay out of everybody’s way. I threw my last shot, changed shoes and drove home. I stewed all the way home thinking about what was going on with my bowling and the sport in general, and I was ready to vent in my report. When I got home and found that my internet was down, it was probably a good thing because I would have gone off.

I’m still not very happy about the way that our patterns are playing, but I also realize that a) I cant do anything about it, b ) the PBA wants increased membership and the best way to do that is to pad some of these guys egos and let them score, and c) no matter what, my job is to hit what is put in front of me. When I started the scores were respectable and the guys with the talent and versatility were dominating. Now a lot of those guys don’t even bowl anymore. With that being said, I started practicing again yesterday. Good or bad its something that needs to be done. I may not have the time to put the work in that I really need, but at least it’s a start. My regional is in a couple of weeks and when its over and done with things should start to settle down.

On a side note, earlier last week we found out that Schwoegler’s Parktowne Lanes has been sold. That’s sad news, because of the history that the Schwoegler family has brought to the sport of bowling. I hate to see things like this happen, because it just increases the decline in our sport. We are losing too much of our history and somebody, somewhere needs to do something about it !

I am running some specials for Pro-Am balls ( forms can be found on this site ) and we will be having some shirts made up that will be for sale here. I’m also taking donations for our host charity for the regional. We are raising money again this year for Cancer research and if anybody is interested in making any kind of donation it would be greatly appreciated. You can find my contact info on the top right corner of the front page. Feel free to contact me with any questions. My next report will be coming from Council Bluffs, IA. Until then as always, Bowl up a Storm !!!