There was no place like home for top-seeded Jason Couch who made the most of his comfortable surroundings in the inaugural PBA Villages Open when he beat the snake-bitten Chris Barnes in the outdoor championship match 223-201 that earned him $25,000 and his ninth PBA National Tour victory.
The ESPN commentator for the week, Dave Ozio, whose bowling nickname is "The Wizard of Oz," advised Couch before the top-five TV finals began to "stay patient." This was in the speech Ozio gave me this morning before we started," Couch commented. "The key to winning is to think, use your head and remain patient near the end of a match and not get too fast with my feet or throw the ball too hard with too much speed but simply maintain an even tempo of rhythm and let it work out."
Couch took the Wizard’s wisdom, clicked his heels together on his home lanes and took the heart out of Chris Barnes’ game in the championship match to beat him. Couch then had the courage to raise his fist and yell to the crowd, "Keep the money in Florida!"
According to Jason, a healthy portion of the Couch family was a big part of that noisy crowd.
"My wife, daughters, my parents and my in-laws were all here today so Clermont shut down for this tournament and they’re all here."
Couch’s use of patience in The Villages final TV match was the same approach he uses in golf as he shot a match earlier in the week with Walter Ray Williams Jr. and PBA Commissioner Ian Hamilton. Couch’s patience rewarded him with the lead in all PBA National categories on the winter swing except number of victories where he is one behind Parker Bohn III and is tied with four other touring pros. His first place high average leads Bohn 226.17 to 223.06 going into the PBA’s final winter stop in Virginia Beach March 4.
Rain delayed the February 24 Villages taping one hour for resurfacing for the first time of only the second outdoor finals of the PBA Tour. The original outdoor finals were staged in New York City on May Day of 1999. Promoters of The Villages thought a mayday could occur again, but this time they were concerned about a rainout, but the rain went away after the fourth frame of the opening match while a lane attendant constantly wiped the approaches to keep Pete Weber and Doug Kent from sticking to the wet surface and losing their balance. Kent lost to Weber in the opening match 246-198 and Pete appeared to be on his way to his first tournament victory since his partial suspension by the PBA where he narrowly lost the ABC/PBA Masters title match to Mika Koivuniemi last year.
Tournament director Kirk von Krueger asked Kent and Weber if they wanted to continue their match in the rain and both wanted to proceed. Bowlers competing outdoors can ask for a delay if the rain impedes their competition.
Couch was glad the rain stopped.
"I thank God it didn’t rain more than sprinkles today. The breeze helped but it was very warm. I came to the Senior events and it was 90 degrees out there without a lick of wind."
Couch watched both PBA Senior Tour stops won by Dave Soutar in October 1999 and Roger Workman in March of last year and had great expectations of winning on Sun Bowl’s outdoor lanes when the regular tour finally staged their stop.
Couch said the outdoor game for the bowlers was radically different than the indoor competition in the rounds leading to the ESPN-TV finals.
"It was a lot tougher to get a good feel on the ball because my hand sweats a lot so it was difficult. Perspiration and rain drops were not a problem on the lanes today because Adam from Kegel came out and wiped and re-did the approaches constantly anytime that happened. I was a little scared coming in today that the approaches would be sticky, but Adam kept after it."
Couch also prepared for other non-weather obstacles unique to The Villages outdoors.
"You have to maintain your mental game more outside because there’s a lot more distractions. I watched the first two matches and saw the trolley going by and heard the church bells ringing just to know what’s going on around me. At least Chris made good light of it and there was nothing he could do about those noises. Watching people mill around behind the pins is one thing I had experienced already because I bowled for the title two years ago in the US Open in Connecticut against Bob Learn and it was in a casino where the fans stood behind the pins and all the way around so that wasn’t a problem. I went to sleep early last night and got a good night’s rest for the finals, and that’s the best preparation. You’ll definitely need to be fresh and have stamina for the heat outdoors more so than indoors."
All of the finalists, including Mike Aulby who already bowled outdoors in a European stop at a beach in Italy, wore sunglasses to cut down on the tremendous glare of the lanes under the sun and shorts were also an option but baseball caps have not yet been implemented for outdoor finals.
"I played golf a couple of days ago with Walter Ray and the Commissioner and I wore sunglasses then and I tried bowling with them in practice and they really help with that blazing sun. I’m glad I remembered them and we all wore them. Kent wore shorts and if it allows him to be more comfortable, then I don’t have a problem with it. They were nice dress shorts and its shows professionalism. I was drained this week and I wouldn’t want to see someone pass out on the lanes from the heat which reached 112 degrees so I have no problem with it. They’ve been wearing shorts in the Cream of the Crop for years because it can get hot in Florida in July."
Former ESPN Pro Golf commentator Jim Kelly, who is the most frequent host for the PBA Winter Tour, commented on Couch’s golf compared to his own in addition to Jason’s heroics in bowling at the conclusion of the ESPN telecast. It would be useful to the telecast if Kelly was as knowledgeable about the PBA, its members, or bowling itself as he is about golf.
One advantage the finalists had on the Sun Bowl outdoor lanes was the return of the traditional white pins which have replaced the gold pins used exclusively by the PBA in their TV finals for the past three years. Many finalists complained that the racks and the spare leaves using the gold pins were hard to see, especially with the shadows cast over them by the pinsetters outdoors. Also returning for the winter swing of the Tour with the backing of the new ownership is the old-fashioned top-five one-on-one TV final format which replaces the busy top-eight format. Strangely, the top-five hour-and-a-half length presentation is the one the TV network execs complained about the most when it came to low ratings.
The Villages PBA Open champion went into heavy training in anticipation of the outdoor finals and Couch credits bowling instructor Richard Shockley at Kegel Center in Sebring for this recent success on the Tour. Shockley and Couch golf regularly at Greg Norman’s course in Avon Park near Kegel, which is the home of the turf used in Super Bowl XXXV.
"I have a coach down there named Richard Shockley and he grills me on my bowling. I’ll throw 10 shots in a row on the computer and it tells me right through what speed it is and if it’s not good enough for him, I do it again until I get it right. It definitely pays off when you let your muscle memory take over and just concentrate on your target."
Couch spent time working out problems he had on last year’s Tour on the championship pairs by correcting the errors he made by using simulated conditions on lanes specially dressed at the Kegel Center, which also dresses the lanes on the PBA Tour.
Jason’s work at the Kegel Training center has paid off for him with positive results on the PBA Winter Tour as he finished third in the Parker Bohn III Empire State Open where he lost the semi-final match to Barnes who lost the title match to Bohn who won his own tournament Feb. 11. A week later in the Tarheel Open, Couch lost as the top seed to Ricky Ward before beating Barnes as the top-seed again the following week at The Villages Open.
"If I struggled at an event last year, then Kegel can recreate that pattern and I practice on the same pattern and find out why I had those problems. Anything we’ve seen in the past for any bowler, they can run the pattern and you can solve your problems. I’ve gone from third to second to first in three consecutive tournaments and I’m glad to get that monkey off my back of not being a winner over the years."
That monkey has jumped off Couch’s back and has landed squarely on the back of Barnes as he has come away winless on the Tour for the past two seasons, especially against Jason.
"The biggest prize I ever won was $100,000 in the 1999 Tournament of Champions against Chris Barnes who opened at the end to give me the win," Couch commented on his déjà vu. "After Barnes left the 2-8-10 in his ninth in this title match, I knew that if I got the one in my ninth on the lane I split on, I could hit the pocket in the 10th, so I was ready to go and focused on the left lane and all I was worried about was the 7-pin because I was really dialed in on that lane. I was shocked that Chris threw the 2-8-10 because he’s a great clutch player and you don’t expect him to open the door like that."
Couch actually opened the door briefly in The Villages title match for Barnes in the seventh with a 4-7-10 which he did not convert, but he threw a turkey in the next three frames to overcome his 11-pin deficit to leave Barnes with a $13,000 paycheck for second. Jason has sympathy for his friend and former TEAM USA teammate who chokes in the final title frames against him.
"You don’t like to go through too many shows without winning and unfortunately, Chris is doing that right now. I’m glad I bowled him because at least one of us would have won and I would’ve been happy for him if he did. He struggled the first year to make the telecast and was on a tear and now he has 14 shows where he hasn’t won and I think that’s a record. My ball rep Del Ballard told me that you have to keep getting to the show because the more times you get there, the better opportunity you have to win a tournament. You can’t stay out there forever without winning eventually. I think once he breaks the ice, he’ll win several but he can hold back on that a little bit because we don’t need him catching fire."
Barnes was so intent on bowling Couch in the ESPN outdoor championship match that he beat Mike Aulby in the semifinal match 219-213. Aulby prevailed in the battle of the Triple Crown winners 214-204 in the previous match, as Johnny Petraglia, a third Triple Crown champion, watched the action from the edge of the approach.
Jason looked forward to the final PBA Winter Tour stop in the Battle at Little Creek in Virginia Beach March 4 that sounds more like a Civil War battle than a bowling tournament. The top bowlers on the Tour were picked in advance to battle in a single elimination shootout for a champion and Couch told Weber as he left for the next stop in the Old Dominion, "Pete, you’re mine next week."
Weber never made the top four finals in the Battle at Little Creek in Virginia Beach, Va. Instead, Jason Couch was introduced twice to the audience and the fans watching ESPN after a 15-minute delay for the conclusion of the Dodge Dealers 400 truck race in Plantation, Fla. The race could have been delayed by an accident or the heavy rains which were heading for South Florida, but luckily for bowling fans neither happened.
Meanwhile back at Little Creek, Brian Himmler was introduced as Jason Couch, and his name only came up when guest commentator Jan Schmidt set the record straight. After the ball of introduction confusion, Couch beat Himmler 240-227 and appeared to be heading for back-to-back victories. But Couch cooled off when he had to wait to bowl the winner of the next match, which was Steve Wilson, who had a lock on the strike zone after demolishing Tony Reyes 245-150.
Wilson had a clear advantage over Couch who was bowling again from the top position since the lanes changed and Wilson stayed with the changes. Couch stayed close to Wilson through five frames, but he was not able to adjust enough to keep from leaving corner pin spares and Wilson pulled away from Couch on the strength of six consecutive strikes to win the Battle at Little Creek 246-228 for his third career victory, the first time he has won a PBA national tournament in five years. It was also the first time a single elimination bracket tournament was staged on the PBA Tour.
It was the third time Couch has lost the title match from the number one position having lost the championship match to Mike Aulby (who was inducted into the ABC Hall of Fame March 18) in Daly City, Calif., and to Ricky Ward in Burlington, N.C., before prevailing as the top seed over Chris Barnes at The Villages.