PWBA Sonoma Open

This past week, I competed in the Nationwide PWBA Sonoma Open at Double Decker Lanes in Rohnert Park, Calif.

Prior to the event, my roommates and I decided to make a pit stop and spend the night in San Francisco. I played tour guide and we saw a few sights before traveling on to Rohnert Park the next morning. We went to Pier 39 and saw the sea lions and Alcatraz. We then went to Fisherman's Wharf for an amazing seafood dinner.

  

The next morning, we made a couple of stops at the iconic Golden Gate Bridge before presuming our trip to wine country, the sight of the PWBA Tour stop.

This week, we bowled on a 37' flat oil pattern using Ice oil. I had a great practice session, but decided, in talking to my EBI boss Rob Gotchall, that I needed to drill another ball to have other options. So I drilled an Ebonite Warrior Elite.

 

During the first 6 games of qualifying, I started with my Track Paradox and then switched to my newly drilled Warrior Elite, playing outside shooting games of 201, 204, 223, 186, 205 and 173 for -8. With the scores being pretty low, that put me in 28th place.

I decided to drill another Track Paradox for the second block, to help with some carry issues I faced at the end of the first block. In the second 6-game block, I started with my Warrior Elite with 500 grit, playing far outside and shot 228 and 204. I then switched to my newly drilled Paradox and shot 200 and 210. Then hitting a bad pair, I shot 164. Being close to the cut number at that point, I needed a good last game to secure the top 32 cut. I switched to my Paradox Pearl and shot a clean 216 to make it to +14 overall, which put me in 24th place. The cut to the top 32 was -54.

The next morning, I needed to bowl really well in the 6 games of the casher's round to make the next cut to the top 12. Unfortunately, things did not go my way, and I ended up in 28th place in the tournament.

After the tournament, I did manage to do a little sightseeing and visited Korbel Champagne winery. I took a tour and got to learn how they make champagne, which was very interesting.

Congratulations to EBI staffer Jen Higgins, Kelly Kulick, Shannon O'Keefe and Hui Fen New on qualifying for the stepladder finals.

HUGE thank you to Jim Decker, Dennis, Curtis Woods and the entire staff of Double Decker Lanes for hosting an amazing event.

Stay tuned for our next event, starting this Thursday, May 12th at Steve Cook's Fireside Lanes in Citrus Heights, CA. #letsbowl  www.pwba.com