Stop #3 -The PWBA Fountain Valley Open

This past week, the PWBA came close to my home for the PWBA Fountain Valley Open at Fountain Bowl in Southern California.

Prior to the start of the event, Scott Norton had some of us over for a little get together, which was a lot of fun!

Also this week, just before the practice session, we had a PWBA photo shoot.

It was nice to be able to sleep in my own bed this week. However, the best thing about the event being so close to home, was that a ton of my family, friends customers and lessons came out to cheer me on. My family called it “my entourage.” I’m sure the entire bowling center thought I was shooting 300 every game with the abundance of cheering. LOL! It was amazing to be able to compete in front of them!

This week, we competed on a 38’ pattern using Curve oil. Seeing as this bowling center tends to hook pretty good already, I knew there would definitely be some friction.

I ended up struggling to start game 1, shooting only 162 (my lowest qualifying game of the season thus far.) But then I quickly turned it around shooting 203 and then completely switched strategies. I was playing further inside, trying to be soft and let it float off my hand (not my strong suite.) So instead, I switched to my Game Breaker 2 Phenom Pearl, moved back right and threw it hard to play a straighter line. This definitely paid off as I then shot 214, 238, 227 and 209 for +55 overall. This put me in 12^th place.

The next qualifying block, I decided to start with my Game Breaker 2 Phenom again throwing the ball harder with a straighter line. This also paid off, as I strung 10 in-a-row for a 267 game 1. Then followed it up with a 211, 217 and 236 before hitting a horrible pair and shooting 145 with 5 splits.  I brought it back the last game and ended the night with a 245 to be +176 and in 4^th place overall.

Going into the casher’s round, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do on the lanes. Unfortunately, the fronts burned up quicker and the backends got tighter and the line that I had been playing completely stopped working. I struggled all block to find the correct line/ball combo. Unfortunately, this cost me making the cut to the top 12 for matchplay. I ended up finishing tied for 15^th place overall in the 3^rd stop of the PWBA season.

Although I missed my ultimate goal of making match play, I am still very pleased with how I bowled all week. I only missed 3 makeable spares – a 2,8 spare a 3,10 baby split and a washout that I went around.

Thank you to Gary Foreman and the entire staff at Fountain Bowl for the gracious hospitality!  HUGE thank you to everyone that came out to cheer me on! That meant more than you’ll ever know!

On to Baton Rouge for our 1^st major of the year - the USBC Queens. Time to grab another tiara!

For full tournament results, click here.