Reporting from Vegas…

Well I’m not there but a friend of TamerBowling.com is spending a week out in Vegas checking out the action.

Day 1-2:

All animal patterns have changed.  There’s a lot more volume to each one.  On Cheetah, bowlers were playing pretty deep in qualifying.  Bryon Smith who we’ve seen play down and in as well as Craig Nidiffer were slow hooking it, covering lots of boards.

Clara Guerrero made the top 4 using the new Columbia 300 Eruption Pro at the end of the set.  Overheard Del Ballard telling storm guys, that he wanted them throwing surface and he wanted the balls to be early.  The Marvel S, Disturbed, Soul and Totally Defiant are by far the most used pieces for storm.  Not sure what else in the C300 line was being used, but the pumpkin color orange eruption stands out.  Brunswick’s Melee got quite a lot of play.  Chuck gardner said this ball was designed to be just like the Versa Max, w/ just a touch more back end.  The DV8 guy said it would be longer and snappier than the Versa.

Some local guy mentioned that they are going to build a brand new tournament house at Southpoint and that they are aiming to have it done so that WSOB 6 would be played in it and not where they are at this week.  That’s awesome if true.

Motiv is making great strides in players using the stuff and being successful with it. “They have EJ Tackett on staff.  OMG I love the amount of speed/power and torque he achieves.  He can’t weigh more than #125.”

EJ and PJ Haggarty had heartbreaking performances in the final games of the night set.  Both ran into pairs that they just could not recover from.  PJ was bowling  with Clara G.  Both were striking a lot the whole set and they were pretty closely matched.  Clara switched to the Eruption pro and kept her look alive.  PJ tried to find something besides the Marvel S to go to.  I know he tried the Marvel Pearl but it was too clean, not sure what else he tried, they were bowling a little ways away.  Nothing he tried could get his look back.

Pete Weber started in 19th place and jammed all the way into second place.  Used a HyRoad the whole set.  He and Parker put on a great show.

Duke never had a look at all.  apparently no matter what pattern they put out at southpoint lanes, the gutter is unplayable.  Duke ended up playing around 3rd-4th arrow out to the gutter with a Critical Theory.  McCune played out there in the night block, but it was squirrelly for him.

That’s it for today.  May get some video up as well.

Thanks to David H for reporting from Vegas.