This weeks report comes to you from Waterloo, Ia. I have never been here, nor has the PBA since I’ve been a member. From what I’ve heard, this used to be a regular stop years ago but we haven’t been back in quite a while. This is also the last of my trade show appearances for the year. Its been a hectic last couple of weeks doing trade shows in Chicago, Fort Wayne, Detroit and Red Wing, MN. For the most part the shows have been very busy and its also given me a chance to get used to our new equipment. You can see some of my reviews on www.ballreviews.com or you can check out my arsenal page.

Friday, August 18th

Since the Bob’s Business trade show started this morning at 9:00 AM, I drove in late last night after I finished up some lessons at home. If was a fairly uneventful four-hour drive to Waterloo and by the time I got in it was after 11:00, so I headed straight to bed. This morning was actually pretty boring. Schlem and I did our seminar first thing, discussing the new product line, and after about an hour of that I headed out to the lanes to demo balls and get some practice time in. Unfortunately there were seminars pretty much all day long, so we didn’t get to talk to too many people. Our practice session for the regional started around 3:00. I only practiced about an hour or so, using several of our new balls. It seemed pretty much like the normal Pattern #3. The gutter looked like it was playable, but usually that is fake. After practice I headed back to the hotel for a while to chill out before my pro-am. I had the early pro-am, which was only about 15 entries or so. In their defense, the general manager was new there and didn’t really have much time to organize the pro-am. Still it was fairly disappointing to have so few entries for the night. After the pro-am Sean Rash, Chris Sand and I headed to Applebee’s for dinner and a few beers. We hung out for a few hours, had a nice dinner and talked shop all night. Afterwards I headed back to the hotel to get some work done on the computer before I went to bed. There’s only one squad tomorrow ( 10:00 am ), so we will know right away what the number is for the cut.

Saturday, August 19th

I got to the bowl a little early this morning because I needed to do a little surface work to a couple of balls and “cut up “ a new glove. I wear Etonic golf gloves ( with the fingers still in them – long story ) and I needed to cut the thumb out and get it ready for use. Cadillac Lanes has Brunswick Pro-Anvilane and synthetic approaches. It was pretty humid out and the approaches were very tacky for me this morning. I didn’t have a problem yesterday, but today they just felt sticky. I tried to start out in practice, but I had a feeling that it wouldn’t ever develop. There were only 3 people on a pair and there weren’t enough people playing out to make it happen. I started with a Double Agent, trying to pipe 5-6, but  a 4-6-7 / big–4 start put a stop to that real quick !!! Seems like I have this recurring theme about starting with the wrong ball in the wrong part of the lane. I don’t have an answer as to why, just really bad decision making on my part. Definitely something that I badly need to work on. Anyway, I grabbed a Thunderstruck solid and jumped in to around 15-17 in the 3rd frame. I promptly went 5-bagger, solid 9, strike and back to back blower 10’s in the 10th for 215. I guess it wasn’t a bad save after a horrible start, but if I’d started with that ball who knows what would’ve happened. Game 2 was ok, but not very well bowled. I missed a couple of 3-10s and mixed in a couple of doubles for 194. At this point the ball was still coming off the breakpoint a little sharper than I wanted, but I kept working on hand position to get comfortable. Game 3 was a little better, but after another 4-6-7 start I was digging myself out of another hole. I actually started striking, but a solid 9 in the 9th followed by a couple of ring 10’s in the 10th left me with a 204 ( +13 after 3 games ). Game 4 started to get a little bit better, with my physical game starting to come around. I went double, 2-pin, 4-bagger. Then I went solid 9, ring 10 and blower 4-10 to finish the game. I ended up with 223, but was disappointed with the finish. Game 5 was pretty ugly with a 3-6-9 chop, a 2-8-10 and a big-4 in the 10th for 181, dropping me back to +17 after 5 games. It wasn’t looking very good at all at that point. I had switched to an Agent near the end of Game 5 and the move paid off because Game 6 was 244 to get me up to +61 and inside the cut number with 2 games to go. We made the turn to the low end for Game 7 and my ball was going sideways. That pair was totally on fire. I mixed in a key Brooklyn for 215 on a pair that I deserved about 190. I gladly took it and moved on to Game 8. The pair we had for Game 8 was much better. I had a 5-bagger in the middle of the game and ended up with 246, finishing the block at +122 ( good for 17th place – instead of going home early ! ). After we were done I headed back to the hotel, changed clothes and headed out to meet Rash at Beck’s Sports Bar ( if anybody in Waterloo is reading this, tell the people at Beck’s that they have one of the most impressive Sports Bars I’ve seen !!! ). We sat and watch Tiger dissect the field at the PGA Championship for a few hours, had lunch and then left. Of course Rash wanted to go back and tack a nap ( sissy ! ), but I was bored and headed to the mall to walk around. The mall wasn’t very big and didn’t take long to walk, so I got a haircut and decided to go see a movie. I went to see the new Miami Vice movie, since I am a huge fan of the TV series. I’d heard some bad things about the movie, but in typical Michael Mann fashion, it didn’t disappoint me at all. GREAT MOVIE and a must see in my opinion ! After the movie I grabbed some dinner and headed back to the room.

Sunday, August 20th

The pattern played pretty similar to yesterday ( to start with ), but most importantly the approaches were in perfect shape today, much better for me. I started in with the Thunderstruck solid today, but I was having the same problems on the fresh ( actually it was worse today because I was over-hitting everything ). Every mistake I made was through the face, leaving some pretty difficult spares. I started with 220 in Game 1, with a chopped 3-6-10. Game 2 was back on 3-4 ( my bad pair from yesterday ) and the games on the pair before we got there were 150-160 by the leaders. Again, this pair was totally torched and I bailed a 200 out with a 4-6 in the middle of the game. At this point I was +142 and sitting in 16th place. I was hoping to hit a good pair in Game 3 to get me going in the right direction, and I got my wish going front 10, 2-pin for 289. I got a little quick in the 11th and threw it through the breakpoint. Just a bad shot on my part, but I gladly took the game. That set me up to make match play with a couple of games to go. I finished with 226 and 227, ending up at +284 and jumping up to 9th place. I drew Lennie Boresch Jr for the Round of 16, and if you were to ask me who is the one person that is your toughest opponent you’ve ever faced, my answer would be Lennie. Not Walter, not Mika, not any of the exempt guys. It would be Lennie, flat out. I think I’ve only beat Lennie once in my career and that was for a title ( which was a big honor for me personally ). Lennie is an 18-time titleist who would have several more if he bowled a full schedule. Lennie graces us with his presence every once in a while, and goes home with a top 4 almost every time.

Our match was on the low end of the center, which seemed to be the lower scoring end for me. Lennie started out for our match and made it look like china out there. I started in where I’d been, and had my usual problems with the fresh. I tried a Thunderstruck Pearl to start with, but I was throwing it so bad I couldn’t tell you if it was the right ball or not. So I switched to the solid and started striking. I got up in the 10th with a chance to win with a  mark, but a blower 4-10 put me down 0-1 ( 217-210 ). Certainly not the kind of break I was looking for in that situation. Game 2 was even worse to start. I went washout, 3-6-10 out of the gate. Then triple, bucket, triple. By then the game was over already because the “machine” wouldn’t stop striking. Lennie won Game 2 247-229 and I was in an 0-2 hole. Game 3 was a heartbreaker, with me needing a double in the 10th to win, but a solid 9 derailed any hope I had at making a comeback. Lennie won Game 3 244-223 to take the match. That’s 2 match-plays in a row that I’ve been swept in the Round of 16. Guess I better figure out what’s going on soon !

All in all I feel like I’m bowling better physically this summer than I have in the past, but its not translating into wins and $$$. The good news is I’m matching up pretty well equipment wise and our new stuff is awesome. Hopefully I can get on a roll soon and finish off the summer on a good note.

My next report will be from the Super Bowl in Peru, Il. Until then, bowl up a Storm!