Florida bowler makes farewell trip to Open Championships

RENO, Nev. - Each year, there are some bowlers who do not return to the USBC Open Championships due to a variety of reasons, but for Todd Book of Cantonment, Fla., his farewell appearance on the tournament lanes was a positive experience because he's moving up in the bowling ranks.

For the past four years, the Professional Bowlers Association has held its Tour Trials, a grueling five-day, 45-game competition that utilizes all five of the Denny's PBA Tour's USBC certified Sport Bowling lane conditions. The reward for the lucky few who rise to the top is the opportunity to compete on the Tour full-time as part of the 58-player exempt field during the upcoming season.

Just a few weeks ago, Book topped the 100-bowler field at the 2007 Lake County Indiana Denny's PBA Tour Trials to claim one of the seven Tour spots up for grabs, but in doing so, he also ended his brief career at the Open Championships for a minimum of two years.

"I support bowling 100 percent, and I love the Open Championships, but it's never a bad situation to be moving on to bigger and better things," said Book, who made his fifth consecutive Open Championships appearance. "I will still follow the action in this event when I'm out on tour next year to see how my teammates are doing. This isn't the kind of event that you just forget about if you're not there."

In his final showing, the 35-year-old right-hander posted 731 in doubles, 642 in singles and 629 in team for a 2,002 all-events total at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev.

With an emphasis on making spares, Book has relied on a regimen of practice and preparation to help him find repeated success on the lanes, and he hopes to continue along that path and stay at the top of his game.

"I have very simple practice sessions in which I never throw anything but my plastic ball," said Book, who just last month set the USBC six-game scoring record with 1,680. "Strikes won't win you titles, but spares do, and I don't want to burn up my high-performance bowling balls in practice. So, I really think that the key to my success of late is that I've been making more spares than the rest of the competition."

Presenting sponsors for the 2007 USBC Open Championships are Eldorado, Silver Legacy and Circus Circus Hotel/Casinos in Reno, Nev. Other participating sponsors are Kegel, official lane maintenance provider, Sands Regency Casino and Hotel, official brackets sponsor and supporting sponsors Atlantis Casino Resort and Spa and Harrah's Casino and Hotel.

By Matt Cannizzaro and David Ellis USBC Communications