This week’s edition of my road report comes to you from Springfield, MO, home of the Barney’s Open. I’ve been coming to Springfield for the last several years and I’ve had a decent amount of success here. This week is a little different for me, since I will be competing without bowling the practice session.

Friday October 13th

Well today is my baby girl’s 9th birthday. She was entered into the Williamsville Homecoming Parade ( my old high school ). My dad and I drove Kaitlyn through the parade in his 1932 Ford Cabriolet Convertible. It was only about 50 degrees out, but we had an absolute blast. We propped Kaitlyn up on the back of the car, wrapped in blankets and decked out in my old football jersey. She threw candy to all of the kids lining the streets as we drove by and like I said, we had a great time. After that we headed to her favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner and for her to open her presents. She cleaned house this year, including a new pink I-Pod ! She had a great birthday and I was very happy I was there to be with her. After dinner I hit the highway, making the 4 ½ hour drive from Springfield to Springfield. I got in around 1:00 AM and went straight to sleep. I didn’t even turn on the lights or TV, just went straight to bed.

Saturday October 14th

We were bowling one squad again this week, with 98 bowlers. We had 5 on a pair, which meant a slow pace for the day. We were bowling on PBA Regional Pattern #5 with the medium volume ( 45 mils ). Enterprise has somewhat old, but well maintained, Brunswick Anvilane lanebeds and there is usually quite a bit of friction. For some reason the pattern played tighter than I expected, never really breaking down like normal. I drilled a couple of Dominations earlier in the week so I was anxious to see if they would work on this pattern. I scotch brited one of them and used it, an Agent and a T-Struck in practice. I started with the Domination after I had a good look with it in practice. Three ring 10’s to begin the game was all I needed to switch to the Agent. It must have been a good ball change because I promptly threw a 7-bagger, finishing with 257. I was standing at 36, going through 20 at the arrows. I had the left lane quite a bit tighter, but for a change I was able to make good shots on my bad lane, and I was off to a good start. The second game was going along pretty good as well, until a chopped 3-6-9-10 off of a horrible shot slowed the pace down. I finished Game 2 at 229 and +86 after the first two games.

I started Game 3 off with a triple, paralyzer 5, 4-bagger, then a ring 10 in the 9th. I struck in the 10th, then a 2-8-10 for 246. Game 4 was pretty solid, going blower 7, solid 9, blower 7 to start. Then I threw a 7-bagger to get going again. I ended with 253 putting me at +185 after 4 games. I wasn’t sure what the cut number was, although I figured it would take around +160 to make it this week. At this point my mentality was focused on leading, more than making the cut.

My Agent started to go away a little during Game 5, going 219. I switched to a Domination near the end to try and find something for the last three games. Game 6 was a weird game for me. I started with a 4-bagger, then I big foured. I stuck in the 6th, but then I went 2-4 and 3-6-9-10. At that point I couldn’t figure out if I was lost or just throwing it bad. I finished Game 6 with 208, putting me at +212 and crushing any hope of leading. The lanes were starting to get pretty wet/dry, but I kept grinding along trying to inch closer to the top.

I started Game 7 with a triple, then 4 straight 2 pins. I kept adjusting and finally I found something, finishing with the back 4 for 237. I had switched to a T-Struck in the middle of Game 7, and I carried it over to Game 8. There was a little more friction downlane on our final pair, and I fired a 259 with 2 blower 10’s mixed in. That put me at +308 for the block, and qualified me tied for 4th. The cut number ended up being +126 for the top 32 bowlers.

During qualifying, the tendonitis in my right hand/wrist flared up really bad. There were points were I was losing the ball at the bottom of the swing. I had a hard time hitting through some shots, but luckily my strike percentage was still pretty high. My only hope was that it felt better on Sunday. After qualifying, Derek Sapp, Chris Johnson and I ran to Hooters for an early dinner. We hung out for a little while, watching some baseball and college football before I had to go back to bowl the pro-am. I had asked if I could get out of the pro-am, due to my hand hurting, but no such luck. I bowled with the sponsors my first game ( which we are very appreciative of ) and a couple of other good groups. After the pro-am I headed back to the hotel and just like the night before, went straight to bed without even turning the TV on.

Sunday October 15th

Sunday didn’t get off to a very good start for me. First of all, I woke up sick in the middle of the night and never really got back to sleep. Second, my wrist was absolutely killing me and third, I totally overslept and got to the bowl just before roll call. The lanes looked pretty close to qualifying, so I started with an Agent in the same part of the lane. I was really hoping to get off to a good start and put a cushion between me and the match play cut number. I was crossing with Eddie Byrd and Michael Gaither on Sunday, 2 guys that were playing the same part of the lane as myself. I figured this would help make the lanes transition a little smoother for me, and I was right. By the time practice was over, there was already a hook spot starting to develop. I started with a 4 pin, 4-bagger, ring 10, double. Then I made a horrible shot in the 9th for a 3-6-10, which I promptly missed. I swear that has to be the hardest split in history ( yes that’s sarcasm folks ). For some reason the 3-6-10 is one of those spares that I struggle with, and I cant seem to find a comfort zone on how to consistently make them. I ended up striking out in the 10th for 233, putting me at +341 and moving me into 2nd place.

Game 2 was a very solid 227, with 3 ring 10’s and a 4-9 spare mixed in. We moved to Game 3, and I could tell from the first shot that the pair was wide open. All 3 of us started with the front 5, before Gaither rang a 10-pin. I ended up going front 9, ring 10 for 279 while Gaither had 279 and Byrd had 268. That put me up to +447 after 11 games and 155 pins ahead of the cut number, but still in second behind Dale Traber. The pair we bowled Game 4 on wasn’t quite as forgiving. I left two 2-10 splits ( and made one of them ) for a 224. The right lane was pretty tight and I had to keep fudging right on that lane. The last game of the semi’s was on 15-16 ( which will come into play later in the report ). This was by far the tightest pair downlane that we’d seen all weekend. All three of us struggled getting the ball to go through the pins on Lane 16. It seemed like the ball would face up and just stop in front of the pins. I left four flat 10’s and Eddie threw an 8-10, which if you know Eddie you would find that hard to believe. That’s how tricky that lane was. I finished with 217, putting me at +488 and then I watched Dale Traber shoot 300 his last game to lead qualifying by quite a bit. I finished in second, well ahead of the cut number.

I drew Jerry Gentry Jr. from Topeka, KS for my Round of 16 opponent. I’ve known Jerry for years, but haven’t seen much of him in quite a while. He bowled very well all weekend and told me that one of his goals was to just make match play. Jerry is on Dynothane’s staff and was using a combination of a Threshold and the Vendetta .357 Magnum. I had a pretty good look in practice with a Domination, so I decided to start with that. Now, before I go on with match play keep in mind that I had four opens in 13 games of qualifying. I started the first game of match play with a blower 7-10, strike, ring 10, blower 7-10. At that point I switched to an Agent and moved in a little bit more. Then I rang another 10 followed by a 2-8-10. I grabbed a T-Struck to try something, since Jerry had already wrapped up a Game 1 win. I blower 7-10d again in the 8th, before going back to the Domination and striking out for a 169-224 loss.

Game 2 was a totally different story. I rang a 10 pin in the first, then threw the next 10 strikes before another 7-10 in the fill popped up. I finished Game 2 with a 288-228 win to tie the match up at one game apiece. Game 3 was a great game by both of us. Jerry was striking again as I started with the front 8. Jerry finished with 258, but I struck in the 9th to close out the game. I left a solid 9 in the 10th for 279 to take a two games to one advantage. The lanes started to transition a little more in Game 4, and both of our looks started to diminish a little. I went 3-6, strike, back to back 4 pins, strike, then a solid 8 in the 6th. Jerry had a slim lead on me going into the 7th, when I stepped up and threw a double to take the lead. I didn’t look back, throwing the next 2 strikes to lock up the match 224-208.

My next opponent was Rick Steelsmith again ( see Fort Smith report ). Rick was the co-leader after the first round of qualifying, but struggled Sunday morning and fell back to the middle of the pack. He eliminated PJ Massey in 3 games, and that set up a rematch on……….you guessed it, 15-16 !!! Just like earlier in the day, Lane 16 was extremely tricky. I went with a Domination, trying to create a little more angle to strike with. Rick used 2 different Ones to combat the tricky pair. In Game 1 I left four 10-pins in the first 7 frames, but a double in the 8th and 9th kept me in it. I had an opportunity to step up in the 10th to shut Rick out, but a solid 9 cost me a victory. I ended up losing Game 1 228-215. I got off to a good start in Game 2, throwing the first 6 strikes but a horrible shot in the 7th resulting in a 3-6-7-10 gave Rick an opening. Rick finished first, striking out for 258. I still had an opportunity to step up and double for the win though. I got the first hit in the tenth, but left another 10-pin on Lane 16 costing me the game win. Rick won Game 2 258-253 and took the match, sending me home.

Big thanks go out to the Weimer family for hosting the regional again this year. I look forward to returning again next year. I also want to thank Barney’s Furniture for being a sponsor and supporting the PBA for the last several years. Without sponsors like Barney’s, we don’t have tournaments to bowl. I also want to thank the 180 pro-am bowlers that came out Saturday night. It’s always nice to see the bowling center packed like that. Next week’s report will come from Moline, IL. We’re bowling a retro style regional next weekend, with the Top 16 returning on Sunday for round robin style match-play. That should be a good tune-up leading into the USBC Masters next week. The Tour season is just around the corner, and I’m looking forward to getting started. Until next week, Bowl up a Storm !!!