i bowled the regional in springfield and despite not doing as well as i would have liked i came away with several positives:
1) exceptional spare shooting. i made every spare for the 8 games of qualifying. this does not count splits. i've been practicing making spares and it's paying off. i thought this would keep me close.
2)focus. my concentration level was very high and this really kept me on an even keel---not too up or down.
3)i was actually in 4th place after 4 games( 205, 257, 237, 235 ).
4)i was able to qualify higher than a pba national champ and several pba regional champs.
5)i was able to meet some good guys and this made the day more enjoyable.
too bad i fell apart after the first 4 games. the 5th game was in the 180's but i came back with a 217 in the 6th. games 7 & 8 were both under 185 and this kept me from cashing. call it poor shots at the wrong time but splits killed me. this tournament was on pattern #5----44' of oil with the outsides being out of bounds. the center of the lane dried up quicker since the synthetic lanes are 15 years old and less oil was used. still, i was able to use a dull scorchin' inferno for 5 games until i switched to a polished rampage. this proved to be a mistake in the long run. i should have continued to move left with the inferno instead of playing nearer the dry with the rampage. live and learn i guess. congrats go out to brian menini for winning !
Edited on 10/15/2006 9:35 PM
Edited on 10/15/2006 9:56 PM