2022 Masters, Qualifying Day 1
Perry Crowell IV, you sly dog.
In my Masters preview, I chose two players at random and predicted where they’d finish. Crowell IV was one of those players; I picked him to finish 122nd.
Crowell IV sits in second place after Day 1 of the Masters. (Full standings.)
Day 1 Takeaways
Mykel Holliman led the field at +200. Holliman, who finished as the runner-up in 2019 in this very building, was an egregious oversight by me. There’s lots of bowling left to go, but he deserved more consideration.
For Day 1, A- and C-squads bowled on fresh, and B-squad bowled on the burn.
The current cut number is +46, and the cut is evenly distributed amongst the squads. There are 22 players from A-squad, 21 from B, and 21 from C.
Inside the top-25, there were 10 players from C-squad, eight from A-squad and seven from B-squad.
Keep in mind, this is tiny sample size. Don’t draw any conclusions yet.
Twelve of the top-16 players in the PBA points race sit outside the top-64 through five games, and a handful of players on the bubble are off to hot starts, including DJ Archer, Chris Via and Tom Daugherty.
Outside the cut: Jake Peters (+45), Packy Hanrahan (+41), Shawn Maldonado (+39), Dom Barrett (+37), AJ Johnson (+35), Jason Belmonte (+33), Kris Prather (+30), Kyle Troup (+24), Sean Rash (+24), Jesper Svensson (+23), Bill O’Neill (+10), Kyle Sherman (+3), and Jason Sterner (even).
However, there are still two days of qualifying to go, and, like, all of match play. So I’ll hold off on updating the PBA Playoff points race until after qualifying.
To close out Day 1, the most interesting block award goes to my pick-to-win: Matt Russo, who bookended his -54 set with 117 and 278.
Oh yeah, there was that other thing…
I should probably address the elephant in the room: USBC essentially banned six of Storm’s balls — the Storm PHAZE 4, Storm ELECTRIFY SOLID, Storm TREND 2, 900 Global ALTERED REALITY, 900 Global WOLVERINE and Roto Grip UFO ALERT — from USBC national tournaments.
They announced this decision in the midst of their perhaps two biggest national tournaments, including one day into the Masters.
Allowing the use of balls known to be illegal would be a bad idea, but banning them now reveals how little control anyone has over this problem. Someone, likely multiple someones, fell asleep at the wheel.
The testing Jason Belmonte complained about a few days ago has to be connected, right? In which case, it seems USBC’s plan was to test as many Storm balls from Masters entrants as possible, then make a decision mid-tournament.
That’s like ESPN Googling what to discuss on SportsCenter 20 minutes before air-time.
The other point — hammered home by Jeff Richgels on 11thframe.com — is the ridiculous notion that the balls can be illegal in national tournaments, but perfectly fine to use in regional and local events. USBC essentially draws the line between sport and recreation, with over the vast majority of bowling falling under the latter.
I assume USBC is trying to appease your local Joe Shmoe, who uses a PHAZE 4 in his casual Tuesday evening league. But this contradictory decision only serves as ammunition for anyone who argues bowling isn’t a sport.
USBC made the same oversight with the 2016 and 2017 PURPLE HAMMERS, but reversed coursed and outright banned them a few days later. It seems inevitable the same happens here.
Onto the actual issue at hand, I don’t have a strong opinion on the legality of the balls. I have a hard time believing these balls created any significant advantage; I also doubt Storm actively tried to cheat by developing illegal equipment.
I haven’t read any of the hardness studies yet, but I’m open to my assumptions being proven incorrect.
I really, really hope I don’t have to write about this saga again tomorrow.
Scattered Day 2 Predictions
One player from the top-10 drops out of the cut after Day 2.
At least six of the aforementioned PBA Playoff contenders climb inside the cut.
Kenny Ryan (currently 23rd at +86) leaps into the top-five.
Mitch Hupé will be in 44th after Day 2.
Kyle Troup shoots 298.
Owen Darby (a) shoots 217 in Game 5 today.