round 1

The biggest tournament for the PBA players, the PBA World Championships is being held at Southwyck Lanes in Toledo, OH. This used to be called the PBA National Championships. Everybody wants to win the $120,000 first place check. Typically the lanes are oiled using a tougher pattern for a major, but the scores were pretty decent after the first round. The lanes seemed to be playing best left of the 4th arrow for the right handers. Mike Aulby on the left was playing inside (right) of the 4th arrow and he bowled pretty well.

I started trying to play around 17 at the arrows, but I couldn't get very comfortable. After the 3rd game I decided to slow down and move more inside (left) to around 24 and finally got a good reaction and threw some strikes.

My first game I alternated strikes and spares until the 8th frame when I chopped the 2-4-5 spare. I came back with a turkey (3 strikes in a row) to shoot 205. In the 2nd game I started with a double, but came back with some poor shots missing the 7-8, but picking up the bucket (2-4-5-8-) twice and the 6-7-10 split to shoot 187. In the 3rd game I missed the 4-6-7 split in the 3rd frame and the 3-10 baby split in the 5th frame. I doubled after that, but taps kept my score down to a 181. I then moved inside to around the 5th arrow and hooked the ball more and started the 4th game with a strike, 10 pin and a 4 bagger. After 2 bad shots going through the nose I made another adjustment and added a turkey to shoot 244. The 5th game I started with a turkey and then left a 10 pin on a bad shot. 3 taps preceded my 4 bagger to finish the game for another nice 243. In the last game the pair was a bit tighter and I went light my first 2 frames. I went high in the 6th frame before getting a double. A few stubborn taps kept my score lower than I would have liked (203).

I started out slow as I was uncomfortable with what to do, but I made a decision to play in and it seemed to work. I will probably start the 2nd block by trying to play in a little bit faster. I was in 68th place after the 1st round at +63 with Amleto Monacelli leading with +273. 32nd place was +115 while 64th place was +68. The first cut is made after the 3rd round (18 games) to the top 64 while the next 64 players get $500 checks. The 2nd cut is made after the 4th round and 9 more games.

9/ X8/ X9/ X9/72 XXX9 205
X X9/816/9/6/7/ X9/X187
X8/72 X81 X X9/9/9/X181
X9/ X X X X7/8/ XXX9 244
X X X9/9/9/9/ X XXX7 243
7/9/9/ X9/8/ X X9/9/9 203

I had 33 strikes in 69 shots. (2 strikes when I missed the pocket, both tripped 2's)
I missed the pocket 19 times.
My strike % on pocket hits was 31 of 50 or 62%.
I had 4 opens. 3 were splits (7-8, 4-6-7 & 3-10). I missed the 2-4-5 when I chopped the 2 off of the 5 pin. I did pick up the 6-7-10 and a couple of buckets. I definitely need to hit the pocket more.

Walter Ray