Open Championship 2024 Recap
Written By: bowlingball.com | Written On: Friday, July 5, 2024
bowlingball.com Staff Writer, Cortez Schenck
Published: 7/5/2024
I just finished the 2024 USBC Open Championships this past weekend. I didn’t bowl last year and wasn’t even planning on bowling this year. I had a buddy ask me to bowl as they needed one more spot filled and decided to bowl last minute. I have struggled at this tournament in the past, but finally had a good performance this weekend. I ended up shooting 2150 for all events (722 for singles, 688 for doubles, and 740 for singles). I wanted to share why I believe my performance this year was better than my past performances. I credit my bowling this year due to breaking the lanes down, not taking it too seriously, and simplifying things. Our team and companion team did a great job breaking the lanes down this year. We knew there would be a lot of friction to the outside this year and decided to throw plastic and urethane down the middle of the lane to create hold instead of breaking them down to the right. In my past experiences I have always tried to play right and break them down, so we have something to throw it at. This year we had an idea that they would hook a lot so we felt that throwing plastic/urethane down the middle would help stretch the pattern and give us more hold. We ended up using this hold to finish at 3120 for the team event which we were all very happy with. Our team this year was also with a group of individuals who wanted to bowl well but also wanted to have a good time. I felt less pressure this year compared to other years in the past where I felt like we were only there to bowl and that’s it. This
year just felt different as I had a few good friends of mine bowling around the same squad times so we could hang out after. The final reason I feel like I bowled well this year was because I only threw two different balls. I brought a bunch of balls with me but decided to keep it simple and just throw balls I felt comfortable with. I believe sometimes I have got caught up in the past trying to chase ball reaction with different balls instead of just adjusting my hand position, ball speed, and just making small minor adjustments. This experience was beneficial and a good reminder that it’s good to take bowling as an enjoyable activity that I do instead of taking it so serious all the time.
-Cortez Schenck