PBA Regional Spalding G Wathen Memorial Open

Hello everyone!

After a nice three-week honeymoon, it's back to work and that means A LOT of bowling is my future!

This past weekend, I bowled in the PBA West Region Spalding G Wathen Memorial Open, held in Fresno, California. We competed on the high scoring Cheetah pattern, and boy was it ever high scoring!

Even though I practiced every day since returning home from the honeymoon (for a little over one week), I was definitely rusty while bowling this weekend. That's exactly why I wanted to compete because I have MUCH bigger events coming up real soon.

So after a not so stellar start (compared to the high scoring pace of the field) - 204, 200, 235, 236 and 214 - I was +89 after 5 games. I started the tournament using my Bounty Hunter Pearl, but after the fast carry-down we encountered, that ball quickly got thrown back in the bag, as it was going too long. We had to play far right on the lane, and the further right and harder you could play, the better you were going to score. i.e. Wayne Garber averaged about 260 for the first 5 games. So I switched to my Bank, which I had polished up for the tournament. It worked a lot better and was more predictable, and I ended up using this ball for the majority of the day.

Then in game 6, I completely fell apart! I missed two single spares (which is definitely not like me!) and I also left a 2-8-10. Needless to say, this game didn't go too well and I shot 161! And lost A LOT of ground on the cut and the cash number. So with two games left, I was +50 and way out of the top 8 cut to match play and still pretty far out of the top 18 cash spot.

So the last two games, I decided to switch balls to my Profit, which has a strong arc, compared to the skid/snap reaction of my Bank. I ended up bowling MUCH better! It also helped that I finally figured out what I was physically doing wrong and was able to start physically throwing the ball a million times better!

So the 7th game, I shot 248 and was +98 and within reach of the cash number. The top 8 cut was already +200 with one game to go. The last game, we hit a little bit of a weird pair (that's always nice and seems to be inevitable when you need a big game). So I got lined up towards the middle of the game and starting stringing strikes together until a stubborn 9 pin stood up in the 7th frame. I then struck out from the 8th frame on and shot 222 to be +120 overall. The cash spot ended up being +127, so I missed cashing by 7 pins. The cut to the top 8 was +255.

Even though I didn't cash in the regional, I did figure out some key physical game factors and also was able to get in some great competitive practice to get ready for my next BIG tournament - The LBO Ladies International Open in Tokyo, Japan.

The tournament in Japan starts on Friday, October 29th and ends on Sunday, October 31st. If you are interested in keeping up with the scores as I compete, please visit: www.bowlingdigital.com (You may have to click on the Asia section.)