I have to admit to not being impressed with pattern D's difficulty either. There were too many scores that were just as high as last week. Dennis Horan shot 297 in the round of 64, and there were NUMEROUS 300 runs even up through the round of 8. There were several different guys that had the front 8 or 9, namely Haugen, Mika, Duke, Steelsmith, Barnes and Scroggins. To me, it looked easier than pattern E was last week, cause they could miss inside a little and have it hold this week. There was bump room outside too. Delutz rode 2 board for 30 feet of lane quite often. You also saw those couple shots that Horan made today that almost were channel food that recovered. For being supposedly the hardest pattern, it didn't seem to challenge them much at all. Kevin Duncan, who beat Walter Ray in the round of 32, competed in his FIRST national tour stop this week. He very nearly defeated Haugen as well, he took Haugen to 7 games after he beat Walter 4-1. Simple game, about 17-18 mph, 250-300 revs. Used a Freak Out at 1200 grit the entire round of 64, 32, and 16 up until the last game with Haugen where he switched to a polished Freak. Chicken winged the ball something fierce, but he was pretty accurate. Soo, for pattern D being really tough, it didn't seem to be too much trouble for a guy bowling his first national stop AND going up against the best bowler in the world. I'm not saying it's not difficult, I'm just saying it's not as hard as they say it is, and it didn't seem to challenge the pros at all. Depending on their angle and line, they had anywhere from 2-4 boards at the different points in the lane. They had 2 at release, 2 or 3 from the arrows to about 35 feet, and 4 boards at the breakpoint that would hit the pocket ranging from mixer to high flush. Norm Duke was playing the channel in the round of 16 and 8, so naturally he didn't have a whole lot of room for error. Some of it had to do with ball energy too. The reaction was pretty bland, so there was no sharp turn that any ball ever made. If they missed inside, it slowly burned energy all the way down the lane, and actually left more 10's than when they missed outside. If it rode the oil most of the way down on the outside, it would come back a little harder. I paid VERY close attention this week. Accuracy was rewarded for the most part, but you didn't have to be super accurate to hit the pocket. Mixers carried a lot better than flush did though.
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Cocky? I'm not cocky. I'm the proud owner of a 280-742 set with a White Dot. So, who wants to touch me? . . . . . . . I SAID WHO WANTS TO F*#%!&G TOUCH ME?!?!
Man! I'm like the white Larry Bird!
