GEICO Classic– Irving, Texas

February 8 - 11, 2007

Hello sports fans we are in good ole Dallas, Texas this week.  Before we get started I want to give a shout out to Chuck and June Pierce for rolling out the red carpet for me.  If you don’t know them they are 2 of the finest people you ever want to meet.  Also I want to thank Vince Banks for calling me out to bowl, without him I wouldn’t have the extra 200 dollars I do now.  I needed that victory after that garbage I bowled last week.  Lets get started.

Thursday, February 8, 2007 - 11:00 a.m.  Because this pattern limits the lefty’s so much, it makes it difficult to make changes.  You can’t really move around, you have to stay in the same zone, and because the heads were so burnt the right handers would move in and mess our reaction up.  The best look I had was with my Hawgzilla, pin over my ring finger with a crater hole in my axis.  I had a good look between 10 and 15 boards.  The ball would push thru the heads and check up right into the pocket.  My 1^st game was 231 with an open frame.  I followed that with a 279.  Brilliant!!  Could this be my week?  Could I lead qualifying on the shark pattern?  Well back to reality, 164.  My reaction went away, because the right handers were playing in my zone and that changed the reaction of my balls.  So now I must go to my grind out game, where I control the pocket and make my spares, 201 and 213 next, both were clean games.  At the end of the squad I wound up 50 over which put me in 18^th place.  I felt pretty good about my performance.  Because the conditions are so tough, I have to minimize those 160’s and 170’s.

Thursday, February 8, 2007 - 6:00 p.m.  The game plan for this block is to get out of the gate on fire while the condition is fresh,  and when it breaks down then switch to my damage control game.  I started with my Zilla as I did the 1^st block.  I didn’t throw it that bad I had one split for a 173 game, followed by a 177 with one open.  I just can’t knock the pins down with that ball, so I switched to my Widow pin down with a small hole.  That ball read the lane a little better, but not that great.  I shoot 202 with an open in the tenth frame, followed by 195 clean.  Then my fingers cut wide open.  I put new skin on, and it burned like crazy, but I couldn’t control where the ball was going.   So I decided to take my fingers out of he ball totally.  Yes throw the ball only with my thumb.  I have done this many times before when the lanes are absolutely brutal, and these lanes definitely qualifies. A 173 followed by 137 and 193 with an open.  This was a bad choice huh?  Well based on the circumstances I didn’t think so at the time.  They say hind sight is always 20/20, in this case they were right.  I finished 100 under, my lowest block all season.  Well if I had my lowest block all season, I’m glad it was on the shark.  Two weeks straight without making it to the top 32, this trend cannot continue. 

Next week we are in Council Bluffs Iowa.  We are bowling on the chameleon, one of my favorite patterns.  It is the long format as well.  So I am looking forward to this, especially after bowling on this garbage, see you then.