The tournament format features 12 games of qualifying the first day, then a cut to the top 14 players. The next day is 14 games of round robin match play, then another cut to the top 8 players. Then the final day is 8 more games of round robin match play and a top 4 stepladder final.
I started off very well in the tournament, shooting games of 258 and 213. Then in my third game, I started stringing lots of strikes. Before I knew it, I had the front 9. Well, in the LBO tournaments, if you have the first 9 strikes, they get over the loud speaker and announce it so everyone can go and watch you bowl the 10th frame. So there I was with the front 9 strikes and I hear my name over the loud speaker amiss the Japanese (as if the front 9 wasn't nerve racking enough.) So the entire bowling center stops bowling to watch my 10th frame. I threw 3 very good shots and struck out shooting my 24th 300 game (1st in Japan), using my 900 Global Bank Roll. I wasn't aware that there was a prize for shooting a 300 game during regular competition. So when the tournament director immediately came down with a nice big size check with 100,000 yen (approximately $1,200) on it, that was a nice added bonus! The rest of qualifying didn't go so well, as I struggled to carry the rest of the day. I ended up only +115 after the 14 games and qualified in 12th position.
The next day, I was informed that I had made it in to the Daily Sports newspaper, a rather big sports publication, for shooting my 300 game. That was pretty cool and I picked up a couple of copies to keep.
During the 14 games of round robin match play it seemed that everyone was shooting their best games at me, as I was pretty high up there in the scratch totals for the day, but couldn't win many matches. I ended up the day 7-6-1 but shot +310 scratch and I had moved up into 6th place, making the top 8 (see photo below.)
I was about 200 pins out of the top 4 stepladder to start the day, so I knew I needed to bowl really well to make the finals. I started out shooting 243 and 222 winning both matches. Then I hit a really bad pair and shot 164! Then I won my next 4 straight matches with games of 226, 186, 217 and 254. I had moved into 5th position with one game to go and was 94 pins from 4th place. I needed to shoot a big game and win my match to jump into the final stepladder position. I bowled a great game, not missing the pocket, but couldn't carry the 10 pin on one lane and shot 206 and lost. So I was 6-2 for the day and shot +118 scratch, missing 4th place by 75 pins.
Although I was happy with how I physically bowled, especially the last two days of the tournament, I was disappointed in not making the stepladder finals, as it was the first time in all 5 of my trips to Japan that I did not make the final stepladder.
A BIG congratulations to Yuka Tsuchiya for capturing the title and for leading the entire tournament pretty much from start to finish!
It was such an honor to be invited back to Japan! I love seeing all of my friends that I have made over these past 3 years. I always enjoy visiting Japan, eating the yummy food and seeing the beautiful country! A huge thank you to LBO Ladies Bowling Tour, DHC and the ladies of LBO!!!
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