This week’s edition of the “road report” comes to you from Fort Smith, AR. I skipped the Midwest event this weekend for 2 reasons, first : The Midwest is bowling their RPI event this weekend in Weston, WI ( where I’m defending champ ) and since I’m not eligible to go to the NRPI in Reno, I didn’t want to possibly take somebody’s opportunity to go from them. Instead I headed down to Fort Smith, where I’m the 2-time defending champion. This event is held in conjunction with a very large charity event called the Celebrity Classic. There are bowling, golf, cycling, Texas Hold-‘Em, billiards and many other events going on for 2 weekends. Its always nice to be a part of an event that raises money for a good cause. Over the last few years I’ve gotten to know the staff at Bowling World, and that makes it an even easier decision to make the long drive down there. The event has always been top notch and I seem to have plenty of success there, so I’m pretty sure I will continue to make this trip as long as my schedule will allow me to.

Friday September 29th

Since it’s a 7 + hour drive to Fort Smith, and it was a 2:00 practice session, I decided to drive halfway Thursday night. I left around 9:00 pm and stopped in Rolla, Mo around midnight to get some sleep. I drove the rest of the way in Friday morning, stopped at the hotel to unload my stuff and change clothes, then headed to the bowl. I got to the bowl shortly before practice, unloaded my equipment, then spent some time talking to Frank, Amber and some of the other familiar faces at the bowl. We were on Pattern #2 this weekend ( you are probably wondering why I would drive 7 hours for that ??? ), so I wanted to use the practice to figure out how to attack the lanes. Bowling World has fairly new AMF HPLs, which is by far my favorite surface. The last time we bowled on this pattern and on this surface was Council Bluffs. I tried to play the lanes like I did in Council Bluffs, but the midlane was hooking way to much to play straight with high-flaring equipment. I ended up curving it off the gutter with an Agent most of practice. Believe me when I say that I tried just about everything. I probably threw 18-19 different balls, looking for a good combination. After all of that, the only 2 balls that I liked on this pattern were my weaker Agent and my stronger Thunderstruck. I practiced for about an hour and a half, then headed back to the hotel for a while to chill out and get some work done on the computer. I had a Friday night Pro-am so, I headed back to the bowl around 6:30. Fort Smith has always had great turnouts for their Pro-Ams, and this year was no different. My first 2 games were with Juniors and we had a great time. I mixed in a few trick shots, picking up splits with 2 balls and the crowd really responded. My last game was on the other end with the Seniors. I had bowled with this group before and they remembered me, which is always nice to see. Again, we had a great time and they seemed to appreciate the fact that we were there. This is one of the better Pro-Ams that we get to bowl, so thanks to all of the Pro-Am bowlers for allowing us to have some fun

Saturday September 30th

We were bowling on 1 squad again this week and our starting time was 11:00 am. I headed to the bowl early, grabbed a little breakfast and then got my equipment ready to get started. Just like yesterday, straight didn’t look very good for me. I felt the only way to play the pattern this weekend was to hook it, so that’s how I started. I started with a Thunderstruck, standing on 28 – going through around 11-12 at the arrows with my breakpoint at around 3-4. I started game 1 with a double, blower 10, strike, but then I went 5 through the middle. It was a case where if I overhit it, the ball went dead sideways off the back of the pattern. I regrouped with a double, ring 10, then the last 4 for 222. The pair we moved to for Game 2 was much tighter downlane. I started off with a strike, then a blower 10, then a super washout and a 2-8-10. I quickly grabbed an Agent and proceeded to strikeout from there, finishing with 234. Game 3 was pretty close to Game 2 as far as reaction goes. After a 4-9 start, I put together two 4-baggers to end up with 246, putting me at +102 after 3 games ( the cut number was +32 ).  I was cruising along, making good shots and then for no apparent reason I go brain dead in the middle of Game 4. I started with a strike, blower 7, then a double. Then all of a sudden I throw 2 horrible shots, leaving a big 4 then a 3-6 ( which I chopped ). I regrouped and struck to the 11th, but my concentration level hasn’t been very good all summer long. Its gonna need to get a lot better before the tour season gets started !!! I finished Game 4 with 210 and +112 half way through the block. Game 5 saw me hit a tight pair again, with three 2-pins mixed in for 223. After 5 games I was at +135 and the cut number was +57. I finally put a good game together in Game 6, going 265 with a ring 10 and a 4-7-9. Game 7 was another solid effort with a  258 including two ring 10s. After 7 games I was now sitting at +258 and in the top 5. I struggled with Game 8, the pair was totally burned up and I found myself moving too far left and getting outside of the pattern lines. I ended up with an ugly 178, falling back to +236 for the block, but a few other guys had bad games and I ended up 3rd after qualifying. After we got done a group of us headed over to Garfield’s Sports Bar for dinner and some cocktails. There were plenty of good college football games on, so we just hung out for a while. After that I headed back to the bowl to hang out, sign some autographs and watch some of the Saturday night pro-am.

Sunday October 1st

The lanes started out a little tighter to the right in practice, similar to Council Bluffs. I started with my Trifecta standing on 20 and going through around 7-8 at the arrows. I chopped a 3-6-10 and had a 4-9 in game 1, finishing with 213. Game 2 was a little better, hitting the pocket every shot and staying clean, ending up with 224 to put me at +273 ( good for 5th place after 10 games ). Game 3 was a very solid game. I switched to my Thunderstruck which allowed me to move in and curve it. I left two ring 10s and two solid 9s for 235, putting me at +308 and moving back up to 3rd. I went to Game 4 in pretty good shape, just looking for a couple more solid games going into match play. We hit a great pair that was nicely blended and I ended up with 279, with only a ring 10 in the 7th. That put me in the lead after 12 games. I held onto my lead with a solid 244 in game 13, ended qualifying at +431.

My Round of 16 opponent was Paul Fleming, former PBA Rookie of the Year and 4 time regional champion. I started off strong in Games 1 and 2, while Paul struggled with ball reaction. Paul used a combination of balls included an Infinite One, a Big One, and Awesome Flip and a Saga. I won the first two games with scores of 246-204 and 211-199. Game 2 wasn’t really that close, but a 2-4-8-10 in the 10th confused me. The ball looked good for about 40 feet, then wiggled and never hooked. As it turned out, the pair was transitioning because Paul had jumped left of me with some surface and now I was caught in the “junk”. I tried to move in with Paul, but I didn’t move far enough. Then I tried to move further right and square up and that was worse. I ended up losing Game 3 258-163 and I was totally lost. I finally got deeper for Game 4 but the combination of a key Brooklyn for Paul and a couple of ring 10s ( including one in the 11th that cost me the game ) put me on the losing side of a 223-215 game. Game 5 was a nail biter, with the game coming down to the 10th. I needed to strike in the 9th and the first ball of the 10th to win, and I did just that. I finally put a couple of really good shots together when I needed to and pulled through a tough match with a great player

The next round saw me face Rick Steelsmith, the person I beat for the title here last year. Rick is a 2 time National Tour champion, as well as the 1988 PBA Rookie of the Year. Rick used a combination of a Brunswick Red Zone and a Radical Inferno, while I stayed with the same Thunderstruck that I had used almost the entire tournament. I started the match with the front 4, but I missed it at the bottom of the swing in the 5th and left a 2-8-10. Rick started striking at that point and it came down to the 10th. I had a chance to step up and strike to win, but I rang a 10 for a 224-222 loser in Game 1. Game 2 saw more hard luck, with a couple of ring 10s and a blower 7 pretty much giving the win to Rick. He finished with 255 and I left a blower 7-10 in the 10th to finish with 214. I ended up finishing 6th, but I was disappointed in how it ended. Rick bowled a great match, but I thought I bowled equally as good. Sometimes you would rather lose with 140s than make good shots and get beaten. Oh well, I’m still happy that I competed hard on this pattern finally !!!

Special thanks go to Frank Jamison, Amber and Roxanne for not only putting together a fantastic tournament, but for always making me feel very welcome. I plan on trying to do some future clinics in Fort Smith and I look forward to building more relationships there. You guys truly are class people.

My next report will be coming to you from Cahokia, Ill next weekend. Until then, Bowl up a Storm !!!