Up Front
But I figured out what I needed to do, and started moving up the second day.” What was Duke’s strategy? “I was trying to go as straight as hu-
manly possible to avoid splits,” he said. “I figured nine-spare was just fine, and do- ing that, you have a chance to get some strikes.” Although Weber covered many more
boards than Duke, he agreed with Duke’s thinking about grinding it out. “On this pattern, a two-oh or a two-
teen is pretty good,” he said. “I need to roll a few more strikes because Norm is a little bit better spare shooter than I am — but spares are big.” Ironically, that was true through 50
games of action, but not so much in the stepladder finals, which saw winning mar- gins of 69, 35 and 40 pins. All three games were won primarily with strikes. In the opener, Voss tossed 10 strikes
to dash Monacelli’s hopes for an unprec- edented third Senior U.S. Open title, 263- 194. It was a game that featured only two spares by Monacelli — who chopped the 6-pin off the 10 in the 1st frame, then missed a 2-8-10 split in the 2nd — and none by Voss, who ran into a pocket 7-10 in the 3rd frame. The strikes stopped falling for Voss in
the second game, however, as he regis- tered just two in a 193-158 loss to Weber. Six strike-less frames beginning in the 2nd sealed his fate, as Voss lost the pocket and left, in order, a 2-10 split, a 3-6-9-10, a 4-7, a 6-7-10 split, a 2-8-10 split and a 1-2-4-8.
EVERYTHING BOWLING, ALL THE TIME
Each bowler registered five spares in
the title tilt, which meant that strikes and splits would determine the outcome. Duke out-struck Weber, 5-4, while Weber out- split Duke, 3-1, with Duke’s split coming in the 11th frame when the outcome had already been determined. Duke prevailed, 214-174. “I knew Weber and I were going to have
a tough go of it,” Duke said, “but I didn’t think he would struggle quite so much.” Weber said he didn’t like his ball reaction
in the title match. “I didn’t have quite the area to the left
that I’d had for most of the tournament,” he said. “I was afraid to throw it right. I felt like I had to be too perfect, and when you feel that way, it’s tough to be loose. You start squeezing it, and all of a sudden you’ve got a conventional grip.” Long story short: “Norm played the
lanes the right way, and I played them the wrong way.” And that did not surprise Voss, who has
One to spare: Pete Weber called himself and Norm Duke “spare geniuses” and said “in a U.S. Open, it’s a huge advantage.
“Weber has my number on TV,” Voss
admitted. “I’ve never done well against him in that environment. Plus, the lanes weren’t easy. In hindsight, I should have kept moving right and playing straighter, but I tried to stay with what worked in the first game. I was too stubborn.”
That set up a Duke-Weber champion-
ship match, which meant that U.S. Open history would be made no matter who won since Duke has two “regular” Open ti- tles, Weber has five, and nobody had ever won both a U.S. Open title and a Senior U.S. Open title.
bowled against and coached with Duke for years. “Norm knows how good he is, and
he uses that to his advantage,” Voss said. “He has some unbelievable mechanics — armswing, rhythm and infinite imagination. When other bowlers think there’s no shot, he finds one. “He does whatever the lanes tell him
to do,” Voss added, “and that’s the way it should be.” Fellow PBA Hall of Famer Johnny
Petraglia also admires Duke’s versatility.
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