Here is my report of the first two days of the PBA Greater Philadelphia Open held at Sproul Lanes in Springfield, Pennsylvania. Springfield is a suburb of Philadelphia.
There was a PTQ this week which was led by Tim Mack. Even though the scores were decent for the 'D' pattern, it was decided to modify the 'D' pattern and add oil to the middle of the lane. The lanes did hook a fair amount but the outside didn't really seem to hook that much. Most of the bowlers were playing from the 3rd arrow and left. The scores off of 'A' squad were pretty high and it looked like +150 to +160 would be a decent score to get to. I started the first game playing a little left of the 3rd arrow swinging it out to around 7 or 8. But I didn't throw the ball very well and decided to go with a straighter line to the pocket up around 12. After leaving a pocket 5-7 I decided to change balls again to a reactive ball
(#2372) and move back inside to around 17 and hook the ball. I ended up with a 171. The 2nd game was better as I had an early 4 bagger, but a rip 7-10 in the 10th gave me a 212. After starting with a 10 pin in the 3rd game I had a 7 bagger and a then a solid 8 with a turkey in the 10th for a nice 269. Unfortunately the 4th game wasn't as good as I started with a 4-6-7 split and a 3-6-9-10 for a couple of opens. I did manage a double and finishing 4 bagger to shoot 203 thanks to a cross over strike on my 2nd shot in the 10th. And the lights went out, literally. It had been windy all day and I guess that a couple of trees fell over on some power lines. After a couple of hours of waiting it was announced to finish the block from the start of the 4th game in morning on freshly oiled lanes with 32 players from each squad making the cut. However, in the morning the PBA management decided to have us bowl from the 5th game or the end of the 4th game and on lanes which hadn't been re-oiled. Also the cut would be from the top 64 from both squads, and not from the top 32 from each squad. I feel that this was the best thing to do, but was unpopular with many of the players on our squad which has been on the short end after qualifying each week. Unfortunately the power to the bowling center wasn't fully restored and they couldn't get the computers and lane machines to work properly. So after another 4 hours of waiting we finally resumed our bowling. I was surprised at how well the oil had held up on the lanes. I was expecting the lanes to be hooking quite a bit more than they did. I continued to use the same ball as I had from the evening before and moved a couple of boards left. I started with a 4 bagger in the 5th game and finished with a turkey plus I made the 2-4-10 in the 7th frame to shoot 239. Again in the 6th game I started with a 4 bagger, but missed the 3-4-7 in the 6th frame. I had a turkey after that to shoot 232.
I had two doubles in game 7 to shoot 218. I picked up the 3-4-6-7 in the 2nd frame of game 8 and after a nice 4 bagger left a rip 7-10 to shoot 210. With one game to go I was +154 with the cut number at +126. I figured that the number would get to the high 130's. After starting with a strike in the 9th game I washed out in the 2nd frame for an open. 3 of my next 4 shots didn't hit the pocket, but I did manage to make my spares including a 3-10. I finally hit the pocket in the 7th frame for a strike, but went a pinch high in the 8th leaving the 4-7. I struck in the 9th and in the 10th frame tugged the ball only to watch it hook a lot and crossed over for a strike. I got my 2nd shot more to the right only to leave the 2-4-8-10. I only got 2 pins to finish at +142. I wasn't sure I had made the cut when I finished, but I did end up qualifying in 56th spot with the cut being a tie for +133. Tommy Jones ended up beating James Wallace for the last spot. 'A' squad ended up having 42 players compared to 22 from 'B' squad in the top 64.
In the first round I had 56 strikes out of 101 shots. I had 3 strikes while missing the pocket, a cross over strike in the 2nd shot of the 10th frame in game 4, a tripped 4-7-10 in the 7th frame of the 7th game, and a cross over strike in the 10the frame of the 9th game. I missed the pocket 26 times.
My strike % on pocket shots was 53 out of 75 pocket shots or 71%.
I had 9 opens. 7 were splits (6-7-10, 4-7-10, 5-7, rip 7-10, 4-6-7, 3-4-7, rip 7-10) and 1 missed washout (1-2-8-10) and 1 missed spare (3-6-9-10). I did make several splits including the 2-4-10, 3-6-7-10, 3-10. I also made the 2-4-5-7-8, 3-6-10, 4-7, 3-6 twice, 2-8, 2-4-8, and 6-10.
I threw the ball pretty well except for the start of the first game and the last game. We had about an hour and half for the lanes to be re-oiled for the 2nd round. I decided to use the same ball as used in the first round (#2372). I started trying to hook the ball around 17 out to around 8, but the ball was going every where so I moved right and started throwing the ball really hard straight up 11. I managed a couple of doubles to shoot 218. In the 2nd game of the block I had several bad shots in the middle of the game including a greek church (4-6-7-9-10) which was able to get 4 pins of on the spare. I struck out from the 9th frame to shoot 200. Since I had a really nice 3rd game in the first round hooking the ball I thought I would give that a try again, but left the 3-4-6-7-10, 2-8-10 and 3-4-6-7-10 splits on frames 2 through 4. Fortunately I was able to pick up the 2nd 3-4-6-7-10 split. So in the 6th frame I went back out to the straight shot and after a 4 pin struck out to bail out a nice 209.
Game 4 was a bit frustrating as I left four 10 pins, two 4 pins and a 7 pin while shooting 204. In game 5 I was bit more fortunate as I missed the pocket more, but managed a couple of doubles to shoot 211. I thought that by now I should have some sort of reaction inside so I moved back inside only to again have my ball go all over the place including another 3-4-6-7-10 which I missed and a 1-2-10 washout. I did have an early double to shoot 172. I figured that I wasn't going to throw the ball very well hooking it, so I went back to going straight and shot 231 with a double and a starting and finishing turkey. In game 8 I shot 226 thanks to a turkey and a double. I figured that with 1 game to go I needed a 300 to make the top 32 cut. Unfortunately I left the 3-6 in the first frame and a 4 pin in the 4th to seal my fate. I missed the 4-6-10 in the 6th frame to go with my early double to shoot 195. I don't know why I had so much trouble hooking the ball, especially after having a decent reaction from inside in the first round. I finished in 50th place at +208 while it took +311 for the 32nd spot. Eric Forkel led the qualifying after the 18 games.
In the second round I had 50 strikes out of 104 shots. I had no strikes while missing the pocket. I missed the pocket 30 times. My strike % on pocket shots was 50 out of 84 pocket shots or 60%.
I had 6 opens. 5 were splits (4-6-7-9-10, 3-4-6-7-10, 2-8, 3-4-6-7-10, 4-6-10) and 1 missed washout (1-2-10). I did make one split, the 3-4-6-7-10 plus I made the rest of my spares which included four 3-6's, four 6-10's, two 4-7's, two 3-6-10's, 1-2, 4-7-8, 2-4-5-8, 2-4-8, and 2-4-5.
Walter Ray