thanks....i'm glad someone besides my wife noticed !

i'll give everyone a rundown of this weekends pba midwest/southwest regional from enterprise park lanes in springfield, missouri. first, i'd like to thank the wiemer family for being great hosts of this tournament. i was lucky enough to cross with the owner roger wiemer....what a great senior player and nice man.

this tournament was contested on the pba's scorpion pattern-----41' in length with more oil placed farther down the lane than most oil patterns. straighter is greater on this pattern as the outsides of the lanes are very slick. i repeat, very slick outside of 10. enterprise park lanes has 16 year old brunswick synthetic lanes that were "polished" in the past year. the pba chose to use a "medium" thickness of oil on this pattern. shadow balls saturday morning tested everyones' nerve and accuracy as errant shots to the outside sailed towards the 6-10. i tried several balls and many angles of attack in my 15 minutes of shadow balls. here are the results:

game #1.....used my brunswick rampage( 4,000 abralon + polish ), stood on 25 and swung 17 to 12, medium speed and appx. 45 degrees axis rotation. 197 with a missed 10 pin and a chopped 3-6-10.

game #2.....236, standing on 30, swinging 18 to 14.

game #3.....161, standing on 35, swung 20 to 15. chopped 3-6-10 again( more on that later ). switched to my brunswick mammoth( 360 abralon ) in the last frame to go straighter.

game #4.....210 with a solid 9 in the 10th frame, missed a 2 pin. stood on 19, swung 13 to 11 with firmer speed and more roll.

game #5.....178. stood on 20 and swung 14 to 12. not many good shots.

game #6.....204. switched to my total inferno( 4,000 abralon + compound ). stood 25-27, swung 17 to 13 with medium speed and appx. 45 degrees axis rotation.

game #7.....257. a missed 10 pin kept this from being a great game. stood 28 and swung 18 to 13.

game #8.....236. great game, not so great carry. stood 29 and swung 18 to 14.

+79 on a very challenging condition......good enough for 5th out of 85 entrants. this was a very tough pattern. i never really found any hold left but there was some room to the right provided it didn't get past 10. i was disappointed in the missed spares. the center of the lane seemed somewhat dry------my plastic ball would come back with very little oil on it after shooting the 10 pin. the top 28 advanced to sunday morning for 5 more games of qualifying. the lanes were even tougher than saturday. i won't bore you with the details but sunday was not my day. poor shotmaking and poor spareshooting were the norm for me as i finished 23rd after qualifying 5th. congrats to dale traber for winning on a very tough condition.

several side notes----i was lucky enough to run into ballreviews own mike austin. he arrived saturady morning at about 8:25am-----in plenty of time for the mandatory 8:30am roll call. he was to my left all day saturday and really struggled. my hat's off to him for keeping his cool and acting like a true pro during a tough time. he was surprised to find out he was assinged to bowl the 7pm pro-am saturday night.....what time did you get home mike ?

i crossed with michael haugen, jr., sunday. nice guy, great bowler. he had a down and in shot in that oil slick and looked sharp( he led qualifying ). i wished him well on the upcoming 2007-2008 national tour.

tom hess of urbandale, iowa, and larry stepp, jr., of kansas city, kansas, congratulated me on a good tournament. i've known larry for several years now after bowling against him in local tournaments. tom helped me out last year at my first regional.

well, the regional tour is off for about 4 months or so as the national tour gets the spotlight( and rightly so ). my next regional will probably be in april 2008 in raytown, missouri( a suburb of kansas city ). i'll only have to drive 60-70 miles for that one. that stop is an adventure----old wood lanes with 22' of guardian.

Edited on 10/14/2007 9:04 PM

Edited on 10/14/2007 9:06 PM

Greg bowled very well.  Stuck to his game plan and kept HIS cool even though he missed some easy spares.  He had a nice little line inside and his roll held pretty well there.  His swing dictates that he will not miss right much, and that was what was needed for where he was playing.  Like Greg said, if he missed it right, he was probably gonna get 3.

I bowled terrible, but let me say that I was not really there to bowl.  I was there to meet Mr. Bruce Postel, whom I crossed with, about a job at his company.  I have been bowling 6 games a week since July and am not ready to bowl a regional competition.

I played outside, as the ball would come off the gutter if you played straight up it, not swing to it.  I used a new Roto Grip Epic Odyssey.  The ball was pretty close to perfect, I was far from it.  I was standing 8-10 looking at 2-5.  I kept missing right and into the gutter.  My swing is kind of the opposite of Greg's, when I miss, it is usually to the right.  I missed 6-8 spares also, just not ready to bowl.  I knew this going in, so I didn't get upset.  Those that know me, know I would be pretty irate normally.

Greg must have been overly excited.  I arrived at 10:15 for the 10:30 roll call and bowl at 11 AM.  There was only one squad.  I left OKC at 5:50 for the about 4 hour trip.  That was probably a mistake too.  I ran out of gas the last 3 games or so.  Just not as young as I used to be.  Can't do at 43 what I could easily do at 33.

After bowling, I was sitting at the bar with my friend Bruce, and another friend from St. Charles area, Jim Mitts.  Eating my burger, and Rich Weber walks up and tells me I'm on 1-2 for the Pro AM tonight.  I didn't hear him call my name during roll call and had already packed up my stuff and was going to go back to OKC Saturday night.

As I like to, Rich put me with the Jr Bowlers for the Pro AM.  Love bowling with the kids, they don't care what you do, just give them high five, smile, laugh, and hook the ball a lot.  I can do all those things!!  We had a great time, the kids were into it, their parents were into it.  I have already gotten email from the parents of two little girls that I bowled with.  They want to know when I'm coming back??!!

Special thanks to the Weimers for hosting the the tournament.  Thanks to Hollie Brannen, the manager of the bowl for her hard work and making things nice for the players.  BTW, from far away she looks like Kelly Kulick, nice swing, good timing, blonde pony tail.  Hollie is cuter up close.  (Is cuter a word?)  She didn't score very well, but gave it a go, and is a super nice girl.

I also got to meet Ballreviews' Jeremy Hunt.  He is a regular Midwest player.  Throws it real good, big back swing, big revs, powerful game.  We laughed as we co-miserated in crappy scoring.  

The scoring was low, -21 to cash for 8.  Scorpion usually scores a little better.  A number of Midwest champs and exempt player Chad Kloss did not cash in the tournament.  There was a decent turn out for the event, but it was cut down some because the SW's Tyler Jensen got married Saturday, a number of SW guys went to his wedding.

--------------------
Just because they make it in your size, doesn't mean you should wear it!!!

Check out my project: www.mikeaustinbowling.net

CHECK OUT MY BLOGS!  www.myspace.com/strikes4days

Check out Tony's Journals - they are FREE!!
http://www.allbowling.com/journal/public.php?uid=67&leagueid=563


Edited on 10/15/2007 11:08 AM