USBC Masters - Las Vegas, NV

After almost being pushed into it, I decided to enter the USBC Masters tournament. In my head i was thinking that I wasn't really ready for a tournament mainly dominated by pro bowlers, but what the hell. I had no clue what was in store for me. I also got the good people at Heel to do a partial sponspor, and my good friends at Camtuning.com gave me a partial sponsorship too. 
Sunday - practice:
This was the optional practice session that I thought was a good idea to attend. In hindsight, it really didnt help anything. I brought a track Kinetic Energy, Storm Virtual Gravity, Brunswick Danger Zone HPH, and my Target Zone. I was early to the practice, so i picked a pair where there was someone waiting and stuck with it. The guy was from wisonsin, and he claimed he averaged 23o back home. They all avereage 230. He had all AMF equipment, which I thought was weird. When is the last time they made a ball? Anyway, he played the normal lefty down and in shot.
The lanes were snappy on the back, and had a decent amount of oil. The approaches were so sticky, i had to change my heel to the felt heel. After some warm up throws, i started trying to figure out a line to hit pocket. i was basically playing my normal league shot, standing on the far left dot, throwing over the 15 with the ball breaking around 7. At one point, I had thrown 6 in a row. Also, i could miss my mark by 2-3 boards and still hit pocket. This filled me with confidence.
Monday - Practice
Overflowing with confidence, i found out what pair i was starting the tourney on and went there to practice. Guess who showed up on my pair. Chris Barnes. I was pretty excited to see him, and it was cool to watch him bowl. He said a few words to us other guys that were there and i didnt really care for him much. He had 3 momentum swings and 2 power swings, all drilled differently. And, they looked like they had just been drilled.
The shot was much "tighter". I only had 1 board to miss and still hit pocket. This was about the point where i realized that i wasnt as accurate as i thought. I found out that the normal league shot i was used to allowed for a less accurate shot, more forgiving i guess i would call it. This was a much tougher shot than the first practice session. which started to get me thinking about being able to score high.
Tuesday - First Qualifying Session
Yes! My squads first practice session was at 8 am. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am NOT a morning person. I downed a 5 hour energy and an egg mcmuffin and hoped for the best.
Got to my pair, guess who was on my lane. Tommy Jones. Yeah, I got to bowl 2 days and 10 games with Tommy Jones. Awesome.
Wow, the lanes were MUCH tighter. If i missed 2 boards right, it would go in the gutter. 2 boards left, it would hook past brooklyn. You had to be SUPER accurate and, as I stated before, i wasnt. I remember the first game vividly. I felt like i got beat up. Right underneath Tommy's score was mine, bright red for eveyone to see. 138. Ouch. wow. thats embarrasing. I never really recovered from that...
Tommy was having a tough time too but he was doing much better than me. He had 7 different ebonite the ones. Watching this guy thr0w at single pin spares was amazing. He would throw so hard. One time I thought he broke the pinsetter.
Over all it was a very rough first day. I was so upset about my performance i almost cried on the lanes.
Wednesday - Second Qualifying Session
I spent most of tuesday night trying to figure out what the hell happened. Michael and Elena both said that it didnt look like me out there. I went into wednesday with the goal of having fun. I also decided to just pick one ball and stick with it. I chose the Virtual Gravity.
wow, they were right. First game was 188, second was 225. That glory didnt last and i started sucking again but at least I had some decent games. 1 out of 10 isnt bad right? Elena and Michael did a great job of rooting for me. thanks. Even though i sucked BAD, they still believed in me. It meant a lot.
Ovbiously i didnt make the first cut. It was a great learning experience for me, and it was very humbling. I was fresh off of a 289 game and a 705 series on friday. I thought i was going to do very well. I guess theres always next time.....
by the way, Tommy made it to the telecast but lost his match. I was rooting for him. He was really cool to bowl with, he was trying to get me poumped up and stuff. Bowling with him was a great experience.