They are all set. The final eight season-long spots for the 2004-05 PBA Tour were decided in dramatic fashion Sunday June 6th in Merrillville, Indiana's Stardust Bowl II. Two of the players, Midwest Region giants Eugene McCune and David Traber threw respective games of 267 and 290 to make the final eight. Each will join six others (Mike Edwards, Patrick Girard, Brian Kretzer, Mike Wolfe, Shannon Buchan, and Jim Pratt) as members of Year One of the all-exempt PBA Tour. McCune made the cut by 17 pins, Traber by just 11 pins. Read that again, just eleven pins. If one of those last eleven strikes is a 9-spare, he is on the outside looking in, possibly bowling rabbit squads AND all the PBA Midwest Regional he can in the next nine months. Why? The top member of each of the PBA's seven regional points lists wins an exemption for the 2005-06 PBA Tour. Now, that is a moot point. Remember, this is the guy who took Norm Duke to the first one ball rolloff for a title two seasons ago by throwing three of the best pressure shots in recent PBA history, so you knew he was going to show up and put on a show. But make it by 11 pins? Have a feeling he just knew he had to throw at least 10 strikes that game to give himself a chance. That's what 20 years of tour experience does, and you can't just go out and buy that knowledge.

     History would have been made with what had set up the day before. PWBA standout Kelly Kulick was ninth and 22 pins out of eighth going into the final day's nine-game block. She bowled just under a 200 average on the highest scoring pattern to miss by 300 pins. Just imagine the headlines about the first female bowler to earn her way on the men's pro tour. It had happened before in drag racing, Indy car racing, and horse racing, but not in bowling. Once she figures out what she needs to do on Pattern E, she could make next year's tour all in the meanwhile taking Eastern Regional players for a walk to the pay window.

     Actually, I could see a few ladies entering a few of the PBA Midwest Regionals the next few months. The biggest current hurdle will be adjusting to the oil patterns. Most who will walk to the pay window will have a good idea how to play a beat up oil pattern. These ladies have good physical games, but just haven't seen the game, now sport at this level. It is so much more mental at this point, it make take a whole other column to explain. I have tried to talk about this area in the summer columns as I bowl on these patterns myself and explain how the guys on TV can shoot 150 or 250 depending on who bowls and where they are playing in qualifying ahead of your group, the lane surface itself, and what pattern is designated that weekend. Anyway, if Kulick figures out Pattern E, her game is solid enough right now to content for one of those spots next year. Stay tuned.

     Back to this year's Tour Trials. A lot of lives changed that Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. Some familiar names will not be on this year's tour roster. Wayne Webb, PBA President Steve Hoskins, Jimmy Johnson, Ricky Ward, Tim Mack, Del Ballard, Jr., and ESPN color analyst Randy Pedersen will not be bowling the main tour this season. Regionals? Maybe. A rabbit squad or two to get into a tour stop and a guaranteed $2,000, perhaps. But not full time, at least not this year.

     Let's go back to Traber's 290 game for a moment. One more 4-pin left in that game, in any frame, and he has to go to rabbit squad qualifiers. How can one's tour life be measured in just one game. I remember hearing about a PGA Tour school qualifier several years ago where a player who had not made the PGA Tour for a couple of years got down to the 18th hole needing a birdie to get into that year's PGA Tour. All that remained was a 10-foot putt. Just that much stood between one more summer in the sun, or yet another season driving from Nike.com (now Nationwide) tour stop to another. The putt lipped out. All the player could say was, "At least I got it to the hole." Not the way one would like to see his PGA Tour dream come to an end, but nonetheless, it did. The quiet scene of being the final golfer on the course that day was the loudest silence he had ever heard. Thus this day in Indiana, there was no wild locker room celebration, just quiet congratulations among fellow competitors and well-wishing fans. Reminiscent of the beginning of the movie "Major League," the Tom Berenger- catcher charater tells Willie Mays Hayes, played by Wesley Snipes, about the red tags hanging in the lockers following spring training games. "You don't want to celebrate too loud in front of other guys who just died." Some of those may have jobs waiting for them, other will be searching, and both may still continue weekend regional play. A lot of bowling careers took an unexpected turn this Sunday in Indiana.

     Now, you may not know the new PBA Pattern C was unveiled during the Regional Players Championship the weekend before the Tour Trials. Critics said Patterns A and the former C played to close to each other on some lane surfaces. At first it can be a bit deceiving. The outside is drier, however the ball must get thru the middle and end of the pattern in a smoother arc, or the ball will not get to the pocket. Having watched bowlers of different styles throw on different stages of play on this pattern proved this out. Like the other PBA oil patterns, it requires a certain, consistent speed, rev rate, and axis tilt to play properly.

     Next month, I'll look at how these patterns are being played this year verses last year on the PBA Midwest Regional tour.