with whom Chris Barnes shook hands to begin the 2012 USBC Masters title match was two years removed from his last and only singles title at the 2010 Dick Weber Open. The player he wants to be may have
shown up that day in Fountain Valley, but Fagan spent the first four frames of that Masters match in Reno waiting for that player to show his face again. In the meantime, there was a 6-7- 10 split staring him in the face after his
FAGAN LEARNED SOMETHING ELSE GREAT PLAYERS COME TO KNOW: SOMETIMES THE LITTLE THINGS ARE ALL IT TAKES TO MAKE BIG THINGS HAPPEN.
opening shot. A towel he slammed to the ground after taking his seat a frame later. The camera man he chewed out after blasting the pocket for two straight games with hardly anything but single- pin spares to show for the effort. Fagan does not think much of the
discrepancy between his ability and that of the tour’s greatest players. It may be a 10 pin that did not fall in a po- sition round, a shot he couldn ‘t throw on a show when he needed it most. The little things. There are many reasons to be im-
pressed by Fagan’s win over Barnes in Reno that day. The 30-pin deficit he erased; the strikes he threw when any-
thing less would have sent him packing for another long trip home. But it was the little things that impressed the most. The 10 pins that started to fall after standing so many times before. The messengers that toppled stubborn 7 pins. The 4 pins that no longer withstood high-flush strike shots Fagan seemed to loft past the arrows. Those little things the player he wants to be can do. That is the day Fagan learned something else great players come to know: Sometimes the little things are all it takes to make big things happen. “It started giving me a lot of
confidence when I started doing well and I think it just snowballed from there,” Fagan says. The hill down which that snowball
rolled seemed like it might never end. It rolled into the U.S. Open show, where Fagan fell short of back-to-back majors by just one pin. It rolled into the Tournament of Champions show, and then it rolled just short of a Player of the Year award. And who knows? Maybe it is not
done rolling yet. “Obviously, to make the amount
of TV shows I made last year, it might not happen again. And I’m prepared for that,” Fagan says. “But I think I have enough experience now under the lights and I think I can take advantage of my situations a bit better. So hopefully that means more wins, even if it’s less TV show appearances.”
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