The Tournament of Champions is the last tournament of the 2006-7 season. With the player of the year race so close, several players had a chance to put themselves into a better spot for that honor. However, quite a few of the top players for the year were eliminated early, so the Player of the Year award should be the closest voting since I have been on tour.

The Tournament of Champions is an invitation only tournament to recent champions which include the Senior U.S. Open, USBC Senior Masters, PBA Regionals Players Championship, PBA Regional Players Invitational and the most recent winners on the PBA Denny's tour filling up the remaining spots for a field of 32 players. The format is unique in that there is no qualifying, besides the winning a tournament, and is all elimination match play. The players are matched up at a draw party the night before competition which determines the match ups for the rest of the tournament in a typical bracket. This year the rounds of 32 and 16 were played at Bradley Bowl in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The round of 8 and the TV matches are to be bowled at the Mohegan Sun on the portable lanes used for arena finals. The first three matches are all best of 7 matches. The oil pattern is a bit unique as it is 50' long. There is a bit more oil in the middle of the lane, but when you first throw shots on the lanes, the ball doesn't hook very much no matter where you play except on the 1/2 board. Since I am able to stay on the same pair of lanes and don't have to worry about where everybody else is playing I prefer to play as far right as I can to get some angle in to the pocket on these extremely tight lanes.

My first match was against Pete Weber. It is too bad that the PBA doesn't have a better way to come up with match ups like using the point list, but that's the way it is. I started my match playing up the 3rd board with a semi dull Awesome Finish while Pete was trying to play around the 3rd arrow. I quickly developed a good shot and was hitting the pocket pretty well. Pete on the other hand was able to hit the pocket, but left the most weak 10's he has probably left in his bowling career. After a couple of games and seeing the success that I was having, Pete moved between the 1st and 2nd arrows and never really got comfortable with his reaction. I had a little trouble with taps in the 2nd game which I ended up losing. Other than that blip, bowling was a lot of fun for me. The lanes did 'break down' a fair amount especially on the right lane and I ended up playing 5 on the left lane and 7 on the right. I got a really nice break in the 1st frame of the 5th game when I struck after going through the nose. I made the proper adjustment left and finished with a really nice 300 game to win the match.

Summary for Pete Weber
201.6 (1008/5)
X % 45 (25/56)
Poc % 77 (43/56)
Poc X % 58 (25/43)
Spares made: 15 10's, 3 4-7's, 4, 3-6, 7, 2-8, 6-10
Spares missed: 10 (fill ball), 2-4-8, 3-6-10
Split made: 3-6-7-10
Splits missed: 4-6-7-10, 2-8-10

Summary for WRW vs PW
254.2 (1271/5)
X % 78 (46/59)
Poc % 95 (56/59) Poc X % 80 (45/56) A tripped 4-6-9
Spares made: 5 10's, 4, 7, 9, 3-6-10
Split made: 4-9
Splits missed: 7-10, 4-6-7-9-10