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Chris Collins	Jack Jurek	Mike Wolfe	Mike Scroggins

Game 1

Game 2

Championship

This match may not have the most familiar names on tour, but it is certainly two of the players who match up well in this environment.

Chris is in my mind one of the future stars of the PBA. His roll is a natural match up for TV.

Jack is one of the PBA's nicest guys. He can do some things that many of today's bowlers can not. Don't let his lower rev rate fool you, he can make his ball hit. He does this by focusing on his angles, speed and direction of roll.

This match favors Chris Collins because of his look during practice. He had a very similar look to what he had all week.

The outside part of the lane wants to jump harder than it did during the week. Most of the week the outside part of the lane checked early but today it looks like it is more skid/snappy.

After practice Mike is not suppose to win this match. But I know better than to say that. So I won't. Do you hear that Black Cloud...I DID NOT say Mike Wolfe was going to win. I only said his ball reaction was better in practice.

I was a little concerned at the beginning of practice because the lanes felt too skid/snappy. But as quickly as they change on TV you have to really think ahead. Too many times a bowler get confused during the shorter practice sessions. The amount of practice they get quite often puts the bowler right in the middle of lane transition especially in the early matches. It is worse on synthetics.

Mike is without a doubt one of if not the hottest bowler on tour. I had to ask him if it was him or that shirt he seems to wear on the show every time. He said it was his lucky shirt after the Masters. I told him it wasn't the shirt it was the patch. Just kidding Mike.

The lane looks a little tighter on his side of the lane. I understand that the pair (7 & 8) was like that all week. No conspiracy theories please the show pair is picked way before we even get to the event.

Mike was a little concerned about the right lane. That is why he started with the One on that lane. The One has surface on it and it was the ball he used on the fresh just to smooth out the reaction so he could keep his angles to the right. He can strike with this ball for a while and when the lane is ready he will use the Classic on both lanes. What he is looking for is a smoother reaction. To get this he needs to blend out the front to back wet/dry feeling you typically see on the fresh. It should not take long as the oil goes down lane and the fronts break down quickly on TV. The Classic Zone is a low pin low hole. Layout this way to give Mike a smoother move than the characteristics of this ball can give you. If we needed smoother yet we would lower the pin even further. The hole is off the axis to increase the flare of the given pin to axis distance. The pin to axis distance is 4 1/2 inches for Mike. This pin to axis distance is a good distance for Mikes roll and rev rate. It is a versatile distance for Mike as it allows him to stay within his physical tools. Giving him options to go through during lane transition. Stronger or weaker pin to axis distances would be more sensitive to the transitions we expect Mike to see.

Sorry I did not get a picture of the ball. It rolled to bad to take a picture of it. I understand it was a Track Robo Rule To see balls he used during the week see the photos section.

The emotion in this match might be the key to who wins. Mike has to be prepared for the level of energy.

I just saw Mike's reaction in the 3rd and 4th frames and this reminds me a lot of what Machuga went through in his match with Collins. Both Mikes were able to stay to the right all week. Mike Wolfe is actually deeper on the show than he was during the week. His choices are going to be the same choices Mike Machuga went through. I hope he is able to stay to the right. The middle part of the lane is OK if you know how it breaks down but when you haven't been there all week bowling somebody who has that is not a good idea. The moves are a little tricky left of the track. It is a totally different speed. And with as fast as the fronts blow open on TV you probably won't be able to slow down as easily as you could during the week. Not that Chris will have to. His angles are a big key and if he has to start opening them up too much the match will have a new favorite.

I didn't get to see the shots but  I heard that Mike doubled in the 5th and 6th. I am sitting off by the practice pair and there are no TV's to watch from here. So you have a better view than I do.

I couldn't take it I had to leave and find a TV. I remember the days when we could sit behind the bowlers and even communicate with them if we needed to. It is almost impossible to tell how they are bowling physically. They have to make a pretty bad mistake to see it from the side.

This match was very similar to the matches during the week. Holes and breaks were keys to victories. The lanes were pretty sensitive to poor speed control and improper moves. They were quick to tell you You shouldn't have done that. Once a bowler saw early hook and they thought that meant they could open up towards that hook it was an almost guaranteed a split of some kind. Too firm and it was a 2-8-10. To grabby to guard against the 2-8-10 and it was a 3-6-9-10 or big four. If the transition gave you help to the inside they were very score-able. I thought that was the issue with the show today. They made you think you could open up to the hook. Mike's game plan was very sound and he was able to follow transition looking for inside help instead of outside. The outside help came because angles, speed, tilt, and ball choices were right based on angles first.

You could find a ball that allowed the bowler to open up but they were going to deal with quicker transitions. The scoring pace was too high this week. To think you could throw 6 and 7 baggers moving every third frame.