This week I would like to discuss none other than the USBC Masters.  The Masters is one of the most grueling tournaments of the year, and is by far one of the hardest tournaments to win.  This year the tournament had over 300 entrants into the tournament, and an extremely demanding match play format going from 64 down to the final 4 for the final televised event.  This week I will discuss some of the events throughout the tournament as well as a tip on how to keep a Mastermind.

The four bowlers that made the telecast were #1 seed Chris Barnes, #2 seed Mike Fagan, #3 seed Dan MacLelland, and #4 seed Byron Smith.  In match one Byron Smith made a great comeback to defeat Dan MacLelland 251 – 212.  Match Two Mike Fagan ran away with the match early, and kept the pressure on the whole way through the match to defeat Byron Smith 228 – 180.   The final match included the #1 seed Chris Barnes, and # 2 seed Mike Fagan.

I personally enjoyed watching this match as it had many ups and downs, turn of events, and gave us all something we could take away from watching this great match.   Through the first 5 frames of the match Barnes had 4 strikes to Fagan’s 1(in the fifth frame).  Fagan, the argyle assassin, then ran off 4 more strikes in a row and put himself in a great position to not only take the lead, but win a major. Fagan stepped up in the tenth and only needed 9 pins to win.  He put it dead flush and struck his way to his first major defeating Chris Barnes 246 – 213.

One of keys to Fagan’s success throughout this tournament was his mastermind that put himself in a place to win.  Mike Fagan admitted that he had a new mindset going into this major that he never had before. Mike admitted that in the past he would bowl the best he could, but would get lost in what everyone else was doing throughout the tournament.  I personally have noticed this in my game is well.  I have noticed that if I am watching the scoreboard,  looking to see how far we are down on the other team, or look to see what my highest possible score is halfway through the game I tend to pressure myself into throwing bad shots.  Fagan explained that throughout this tournament he really just focused on his own bowling and didn’t worry about what everyone else was doing.  Think about the last time you stepped on the lanes and felt as though you were in the zone, I guarantee you didn’t think about everyone was doing.  So focus on yourself from now on and enjoy being in the moment of bowling great.

Above180.com wants to make sure that you are taking your game to the next level, so we are giving away a Jet Bowling ball to a few lucky fans.  In order to become eligible for the bowling ball make sure you “like” taking your bowling game to the next level on facebook by clicking here.  We are giving away a Jet Bowling ball of your choice by January 31st.  Also, do not forget to follow the Crew on Twitter as you never know what cool things we will be giving away.  The crew on Twitter is as follows:

Above180.com – @above180

Mike Bonk –  The Messenger – @mikebonk84

Dustin Markowitz – What Happened to Bowling? – @DustinMarkowitz

Matt Kennedy –  The Journey – @mkhawk21

John Baker – Positive Access Point – @positveaccesspt

Until next time, Shred that Rack!

Sincerely,

The Messenger