Cheetah Pattern - 35ft.
My game plan with this pattern was to play the lanes very straight and attempt to average 8-10 strikes a game
My ball of choice for this pattern was the Surge. If anyone really wants a pic of this ball, I can get one.
This ball gives me such a smooth turn off the dry boards it's amazing. I had 8 strikes the first game standing 12 looking 5 out to the gutter for a nice 200, front 7 the 2nd game for 244, and 7 strikes the 3rd game for 206. Needless to say when I missed the break point it was a guaranteed 2-8-10.
The next 3 games I squared up a bit with my feet, standing 10 and trying to get the ball across 5 out to 2 or 3. This worked pretty well for 245, 255 and 264. I lost a bit of carry the 7th game for a 212 then moved my feet and target 3 or 4 left the 8th game since they were hooking a bit more for a 237 which put me at +836 overall and +263 for the day.
The last game I ran into some unfortunate luck with 4 out of the first 6 frames being splits. That put me in quite a hole. The last pair was hooking at least 4 more boards than the previous ones were. I made some adjustments but couldn't get a double, so I ended up with a 152 which ended up costing me a cash spot for the day.
Overall a good experience for the week. I only had 7 games under 200 for the week. I averaged 217.5 for the week and it was a 222 average to be in top 10 so I wasn't too far off the pace if you look at it that way.
The patterns played all very similarly which was a surprise being that this was the first year on synthetics. It seemed like the outside boards near the gutter had friction on all 5 patterns. This isn't usually the case on Shark, Chameleon and/or Scorpion. Regardless, the bowlers who made it are all very good bowlers and each deserve a spot.
So it's back to the Regionals for me, luckily Haugen Jr. and Pratt both got spots.
Thanks to all for their suport over the week, I look forward to doing it again next year......
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Jon Brandon
Columbia Regional Staff 04-06
2003 PBA West Region Rookie of the Year
"You don't score, until you score......"
