Davidson Rolls 300 Game at Bowling's US Open  

It had been 8 years since Doug Davidson competed at the most prestigious and grueling bowling tournament Major in the world, Bowling's US Open. He had competed back in 2005 at The Open in New Jersey after winning a US Open Qualifier spot in Dayton, Ohio. The trip to The Open was not much different. "With the incredibly busy summer with trade shows and coaching Michael in the Teen Masters and Junior Gold, I had no plans in competing in The Open, even though it was being held in Columbus, Ohio for the first time ever." 

The Ace Mitchell All Star Team Challenge was being held at Beaver-Vu Bowl in Beavercreek on Friday July 12th. The All Star Division consisted of teams sponsored by manufacturers within the industry. During this tournament, there was also a US Open Qualifier going on. "I was not going to enter the qualifier due to lack of preparation, but one of my reps and good friend, Scott Shreve, talked me into it. He said if you bowl well and would have won a spot, you would not be very happy about it." It ended up being a great night for Davidson and "Team KR Strikeforce". Their team ended up winning the All Star Division of the tournament and Doug won 1 of 2 spots for the paid entry into the US Open. Team members were Tom Adcock and Brian Bever from Illinois, Rick Miller and Tom Kelley Jr. from Oklahoma and Doug. 

Now to The Open. Davidson only had 1 week to prepare for the toughest tournament of the year, but it was going to be quite difficult to do as his son, Michael, was competing at the 2013 Junior Gold Championships in Detroit. "With Michael competing the week prior and helping him as much as I could, it was going to be tough to prepare. But, quite honestly, being able to coach him and the other kids during the high school season is much more important and gratifying." By the time they got back from Detroit, he had 2 days to prepare. The US Open was being held in 3 different bowling centers in Columbus. The Men's, Women's and Senior Women's were all taking place at the same time. There were 260 men competing from all over the world. Bowlers came from as far as Finland, Sweden and Australia. Each competitor would bowl 8 qualifying games over 3 days in each center. After 24 games, the field would be cut to the top 65 with 8 more games being bowled and then the field would be cut to the top 24. The top 24 would then bowl 24 more games of head to head match play to cut to the top 5 for the ESPN Live Show. "In a Major Tournament like this, 95% of the time, the cream always rises to the top. My goal was to make the 1st cut and then just go with it from there." 

The oil pattern was 38 feet with the pattern being a 1 to 1 ratio. What this means is there is just no room for error. To put this into perspective, most "league oil patterns" can have a ratio of 10 to 1 or more with more oil in the middle of the lane and less on the outside to help guide the ball into the pocket. After the first 4 games of qualifying Davidson was doing OK, but really needed to figure something out. "One of our Brunswick reps was there during qualifying helping out the Brunswick PBA Staffers and we had a little discussion the middle of the 4th game. We both agreed a line change and a ball change to the new Aura Mystic ball was worth a shot. I finished the 9th and 10th with it and really liked the reaction."

After moving pair for the 5th game, the strikes kept on. Davidson got a couple of good breaks in the 3rd and 6th frames with a trip 4 pin and a messenger 10 pin. "After I struck in frame 7, I told myself, rolling a 300 game at the US Open is not even on my bucket list. So, I quickly put it on there, just in case!" After striking in the 8th and 9th, the tough 10th frame was here. "At this point, I was just trying to breathe somewhat normal and make good shots." The 10th frame was just like the previous 3 frames. All of them were dead flush in the pocket and the 1st 300 game of the tournament was thrown. "That made my 18th 300 game and 2nd in PBA competition, but this one, hands down, is the most rewarding of all." 

After Day 1 completed, he was about 50 pins from the cut with 16 more games to go. Day 2 went OK for him and he still had a chance to make the cut with 8 more games. "I figured I needed to average about 210 or so the last day to make it to the top 65. On a normal league pattern and most tournament patterns, that is not a tough feat. But here, that is a different story." Unfortunately, the 3rd day did not fair very well and he missed the cut to the top 65. "No doubt the lack of preparation finally caught up to me. Physically, I was not in too bad of shape, but mentally, I was drained." To put the 300 game into perspective. There were 260 men and 150 women that competed. So, just in qualifying, there were almost 10,000 games bowled. Davidson rolled the only 300 during qualifying. Jason Belmonte from Australia, rolled the only other 300 game in the tournament in game 32. Belmo also ended up being the tournament leader and ended up finishing in 2nd place. 

Davidson finished a respectable 155 out of 260 bowlers and averaged a 187.21 for 24 games. "I looked back to when I competed in 2005 in The Open just to compare. I finished 203rd out of 433 and averaged 187.72.  My league average is 220 and my lifetime tournament average is around 210-215. That pretty much sums up how hard the US Open is." Hats off to the PBA and the Bowling Proprietor's of America for putting this tournament on and running a great event. Full results can be found at www.pba.com or www.bowlingusopen.com.