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I am challenged with a unique situation this week. The Brunswick staff has been delivered a blow this week. Two injuries that will likely have lingering effects.

Brad Angelo did not bowl due to a back injury from working out with weights and Masters champion Sean Rash struggling to finish due to a nagging knee injury that took a turn for the worse.

The types of injuries they sustained will not go away shortly and if they are able to compete they will not be at 100%.

Brad was doing bench press with his work out partner and it was his turn to spot for his partner. Brad was not even the one lifting the weight. Seems there was some miss-communication and the guy decided to do an extra rep and Brad was going one way while the bar and weight were going another.

I heard that Brad had tweaked his back when I got to town for practice day, so I expected something but when I saw him trying to walk it was obvious it was worse than I expected.

Sean has had an issue with his knee before, but never anything more than an annoyance. Anybody who has ever tried to bowl with a knee pain in your slide knee knows how it can effect you. By the time Sean was in his second round of qualifying it was apparent the knee had worsened. I am sure Sean will do what ever it takes to rehab the knee, at the same time those things don't go away over night.

On Saturday I went with Brad and Sean for specialized treatment and talk with a physical trainer to get as much advise as possible. At this point there is no medical reports to support our concern for rehabilitation and down time.

Brad's appears to be a ligament, not a disc, that was over stretched and time is the only cure. He says there are some things he can do with no pain but as soon as he does anything that requires torque the pain is unbearable. He goes in for treatment and looks like he can bowl. About an hour later he is back to not walking again.

Not sure just how bad Sean is but it was bad enough to effect his performance and when the scoring conditions are as high as they are out here on tour right now. There aren't any frames or games to give away. In bowling... when the base goes so does everything else. I know Sean is concerned but will be anxious to push it as far as he can. My concern is Sean may torque it too much and we all know Sean is all about torque.

On another side Parker missed practice to take care of some Motor home issues. It did not seem to bother him considering he started out +146 after the first two games. The strikes halted after that. One of the main strategies this week was making changes due to carry and not ball reaction. It is kind of hard to give up on what got you so much in the first two games but obviously Parker was confused on what other options to consider.

Mika had plenty of strikes to make the cut, but I don't know the last time I saw him split so much. I saw so many 3 bagger - spit - 3 bagger games on Mika's scoreboard this week it was unbelievable. His ball reaction didn't look bad at all. I think it is a case of his hand being too strong and playing more of the friction than he should have.

Stevie Weber had one of the worse looks in the building. Stevie has tricks that others can not do but when his trick don't look good it is going to be bad. He was using too much friction and playing too much down lane reaction.

Mike Mineman was a real "tweenner" this week. He either chose to or could not get to where the straighter players were going and he could not get the carry from where the higher rev players were at.

On a positive note Sean Swanson made match-play and Brunswick had the top two qualifiers on the women's side.

Sean Swanson was able to square up to the pattern for the most part and when necessary he made the right moves to use more mid-lane than down lane reaction. There was a definite trap this week and trying to create reaction too far down lane was it.

The leader on the women's side was also the tournament leader. Joy Esterson and a look to kill for. She was on the same pair as Mike Devaney and right next to Mika Koivuniemi and it was amazing to watch her ball split the 8-9 while Mike and Mika were leaving the half 10's. Joy was using a Pearl Fury and getting her ball to pick up early and roll through the pins instead of trying to hook it off a spot. The next lady was Carolyn Dorin-Ballard. Carolyn was playing the lane very similar to Joy but was doing it with a combination of balls including the Twisted Fury, Total Inferno, Strike Zone, and Vapor Zone.

Tennelle Milligan struggled to use the front part of the lane because her eyes and hand does not use that part of the lane very effectively. Stefanie Nation left too many ring 10's for a similar reason, and Missy Bellinder was a bigger surprise because I thought her game would match up, but when I watched her ball go down the lane she moved away from early hook instead of playing it.

All in all a very frustrating week as I thought we had good ball reaction. But that is a common statement this week and being as this was the first time I have seen this type of competitive environment on the PBA tour I am not going to over react. Every player in the building was just doing what they do because everybody could get to the pocket. There were a lot of frustrated bowlers at the end of the week because they thought the environment did not showcase real bowling skills. I won't go that far but will say that a good league bowler good certainly have competed in this environment and might have even been at the advantage because they are so use to seeing so much hold.