PBA RPI 2023 Recap

bowlingball.com Staff Writer, Cortez Schenck

Published: 1/10/2023


This past week I bowled the PBA RPI in Las Vegas. I was excited and nervous about this event since it pulled together some of the best regional players from all over the country. To qualify, you had to be in the top eight in points in your region or make it through the RPI qualifier in
your respective region.

We bowled at South Point on a 43-foot pattern. We had a practice session on the first day, and I felt like the lanes played more difficult than I anticipated. I didn't have much of a look with the reactive balls I brought and had an okay look with urethane.

When we bowled the first set of qualifying, I decided to use urethane the first four games and use reactive the last three games (Pitch Black, Rubicon UC3, IQ Nano Pearl, and Phaze 2). I ended up being in 5th place after qualifying with +271. I felt like I could have bowled a little better, so I took some mental notes on how I could adjust to score better the next day.

The next day of qualifying I played the lanes similarly but decided to use a stronger reactive ball when the lanes transitioned (Fast Pitch, Rubicon UC3, Reality). I went +325 for the set to finish +596 for qualifying and be in second place for the thirty-two-man bracket. This second-place
finish earned me a two-round bye and automatically into the round of sixteen. For matchplay, it was a best-two-of-three match. I bowled my first match against a talented bowler from the east region, who ended up beating me in the first game. I then squeezed the win in the second game by a few pins. Both their ball reaction and mine were going away.

I decided to make a huge move to the Reality deep in the lane and shot 279 to make it through the match. Now onto the second match, I bowled another talented bowler from the southwest region. This was a tough
match for me since it was the first time all week that I felt like the lanes were playing much differently than any other day. Nothing I was doing seemed to work, and once I got lined up, the match was over, and I had lost. It's important to remind yourself that although you are
bowling on the same pattern, it doesn't mean it will play similar to before.

I made a rookie mistake of playing the lanes too close to how they were all week when I should have tried a new line. It's a learning lesson for me that I hope you can learn from too. Overall the event was a good confidence boost going into the start of the 2023 PBA Tour season.



-Cortez Schenck