The Start of the PWBA Tour Season - The PWBA Las Vegas Open

This past weekend, I traveled to Las Vegas, Nev. for the start of the 2016 PWBA Tour. Prior to competition starting, I had the privilege to participate in some exciting events at the USBC Convention.

On Thursday night, I attended the USBC Hall of Fame dinner. With a room full of Bowling's elite, I watched as Kim Adler, Joan Romeo, Steve Kloempken, Harry Sullins and Mike Durbin were added to the prestigious USBC Hall of Fame.

USBC Hall of Famers

Greater L.A. Junior All Stars Alumni that were present at the Hall of Fame dinner

The next morning, I attended some of the USBC Convention activities as part of the PWBA and as an active athlete delegate. The PWBA had a special introduction during the annual meeting and afterwards we had an assembly line of autograph signing for all of the delegates. Later that afternoon we had our first official practice session of the season.

 

For the first week on the PWBA Tour, we bowled at Texas Station Resort and Casino and competed on a 39' pattern using Fire Oil.

Only having surgery 6 weeks prior and only being back on the lanes for 2 weeks, I was a little concerned with the amount of games, but felt ready for the tournament, as I had practiced a lot prior to having my surgery.

During the first block of qualifying, I shot 213, 246, 228, 193, 235 and 213 for +128. I used my Columbia 300 Delirium Shock to start and then switched to my Columbia 300 Oath and Ebonite Game Breaker 2 later in the block.

The 2nd block proved to be much more difficult as the lanes played a lot flatter. I grinder the entire block, shooting games of 186, 213, 191, 201, 189 and 221 for +1 on the block and +129 overall. I again used my Columbia 300 Delirium Shock to start, but then quickly had to move in and open up my angles using my Columbia 300 Oath and then slowing things down and opening up my angles even more using a Track Paradox. This put me in 16th place out of 89 participants. The cut to the top 32 was +15.

I was lucky enough to have my parents present for this first event, as well as my second Mom, USBC Hall of Famer - Virginia Norton, helping me and cheering me on during qualifying.

The next morning, we bowled 6 more games in the cashers round and the cut would then be to the top 12 people for match play.

I grinded in the beginning, striking out in the 9th and 10th frame for 212 my first game. Then doubled in the 9th and first shot in the 10th for 191 in game 2. I then switched to my paradox and slowed things down to open up the lanes and shot 221, 232 and 209 putting me at +194 going into the last game. Needing a big last game, I struck out from the 6th frame until the second shot in the 10th frame when a swisher 5 pin cost me to shot 223 and ended up making me miss the cut to the top 12, as I only missed by 3 pins.

All things considered, I am extremely pleased with my performance in the first event. My spare game was very good. I only missed two makeable spares the entire tournament - a 2,4,5,7 and a 2,5,7. My games were steady and I kept the ball in play a lot. I didn't have any really low games and struck out a majority of the 10th frames/end of games. HUGE thank you to Jerry Francomano, Marshall Heimbach and the entire staff at Texas Station for hosting a great event!

 

Congratulations to EBI Hammer staffer Shannon Pluhowsky for leading the event, being top seed going into the TV finals. Also, BIG congratulations to my roommate Sandra Gongora for making her first TV show as the No. 2 seed. She will face the winner of Rocio Restrepo and Liz Johnson. Be sure to tune in to the TV finals which will air on CBS Sports Network on June 7th.

Until next time... Be sure to follow along on XtraFrame.tv  as we compete in the Nationwide Sonoma County Open at Double Decker Lanes in Rohnert Park.  #letsbowl