PWBA Greater Detroit Open

Last week, I travelled to Super Bowl in Canton, MI for the PWBA Greater Detroit Open. Prior to the event, I had the pleasure of returning to the Detroit Athletic Club for an Ebonite International sponsored pro-am event. The DAC is a top-notch member-only exclusive athletic club, which features 8 bowling lanes in its facility. I was thrilled to be invited back by Tom Reaume of the DAC, as last year’s event was so much fun!

I flew in and went straight to the Motown Museum, as Tom had arranged a tour for us. We learned more about the history of Motown music and Hitsville U.S.A. I did not realize how many big hits came out of Motown! Fun fact…Beyoncé, was noted to have been there just an hour prior to our arrival, as she was performing at Ford Field that same night in downtown Detroit. 

After the tour, we headed to one of Detroit’s newest hot spots - Selden Standard for an outdoor patio dinner, followed by admiring the views from the new 7^th floor grill at the top of the DAC.

The next morning, we were pampered with a massage before participating in the pro-am event that evening. The pro-am event was very successful, as many participated and everyone seemed to have a great time! HUGE thank you to Tom Reaume of the DAC for the gracious hospitality! It is always a privilege to be able to showcase our talent in in environment such as the DAC.

We then started the PWBA Greater Detroit Open. This week, we competed on a 44’ oil pattern. After practice session, I drilled a new Track Cyborg to fit in between my Track Paradox and Ebonite Warrior, as both balls looked great on the pattern.

I started out strong the first block of qualifying shooting games of 257, 214, 223, 212, 211 and 243 for +160. I started the block using my Track Paradox and after game 2, switched to the new Track Cyborg and Paradox Pearl. I then finished the block with my Ebonite Warrior the last two games. This put me tied for 6^th place overall.

During the break, I decided to drill another ball and this time I drilled the New Ebonite Warrior Supreme. I again started block 2 using my Paradox and shot 215. I then switched to my newly drilled Warrior Supreme and quickly fell in love with this ball! I used it the rest of the block, shooting games of 228, 237, 258, 233 and 204 for +175 that block and +335 overall. This put me in 4^th place going into the top 32 casher’s round of qualifying.

 

During the casher’s round, the lanes were definitely a little tricky. I shot 243 to start using the New Warrior Supreme and then struggled a bit in the transition shooting 183 and 196. I switched to my Paradox Pearl and changed my angles a bit to then shoot 226, 223 and 238 to qualify in 4^th place finally making the next cut to the top 12 for match play.

Once the cut is made to the top 12, all of the odd numbered qualifiers (1,3,5,7,9 and11) go into a bracket and all of the even numbered qualifiers (2,4,6,8,10 and 12) go into a different bracket. For matchplay, players only compete against their own bracket the entire time. We bowl 6 games of round robin matchplay with the winner of each match earning 30 bonus pins. After 6 games, the top qualifier in each bracket automatically qualifies for the TV show. Then the No. 2, 3 and 4 seeds in each bracket bowl a traditional stepladder finals (No. 3 bowls the No.4 seed and the winner bowls the No. 2 seed) and the winner of each stepladder finals also advances to the TV finals.

Going into matchplay, I drilled another Ebonite Warrior Supreme with a similar layout to the original, just with a bigger extra hole and put more surface on it to start. My goal was to obviously lead my bracket and earn the automatic seed onto the TV show. However, that didn’t end up working out as Rocio Restrepo bowled phenomenal in our bracket and pulled away from the field.

I went 4-2 in matchplay and shot a big 257 the last game, leaving a stubborn 9 pin the second shot in the 10^th frame to just miss the No. 2 seed by 1 pin.

In the stepladder finals, I bowled against one of my roommates Sandra Gongora in the opening match. The match was very close as we both were bowling well. In the end, I needed a mark and good count to win and struck out defeating Sandra 235-221. I then faced Tannya Roumimper from Indonesia. The winner of this match would make the TV finals and join Rocio Restrepo from Colombia and Jane Li Sin from Malaysia.

During the match, I couldn’t miss on the left lane, but had some issues on the right lane with my ball starting to hook early. I was using the newer, dull Warrior Supreme and then in the middle of the game, I switched to my shinier Warrior Supreme on the right lane and managed to double, but left a ring 10 pin to shut out my chances of winning. I ended up losing to Tannya 206-244, coming in 5^th place overall.

Although I am very disappointed in not making the TV show, I am also very proud of how I competed last week, especially with all of the personal issues I have going on. For those that are not aware, I made a public statement explaining that I had a miscarriage during the previous stop - the PWBA Lincoln Open. It is the second time we’ve lost a baby in one year. I almost didn’t bowl in Detroit, but I’m glad I stayed strong and pulled through it. Thank you to everyone for the unending support! It means more than you could ever know!

Be sure to follow along at www.pwba.com and www.xtraframe.tv for the start of our second major of the PWBA Tour season – The Go Bowling PWBA Players Championship, which starts this Thursday at Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley in Green Bay, WI. Until then!