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Shafer to compete at Bell-Wick
Veteran bowler hopes to contend
Ryan Shafer snapped a nearly 12-year drought when he won the Gene Carter Pro Shop Classic in August in Middletown, Del.
The 49-year-old who joined the PBA Tour in 1986 is hoping his next victory will be soon — like this weekend at the regional level when the 2016 Hubbard Open is held at Bell-Wick Bowl.
“Cheetah’s not my favorite pattern, but I bowled OK in Hubbard,” Shafer said of his appearance at Bell-Wick in 2015, when he missed the top 16 by one pin.
“I struck out from the eighth frame on in the last game and everybody thought I was the number [16], then I was not. They miscounted and I was 17th. Hopefully, I can change that around and have a good tournament.”
Shafer did not enter the inaugural Hubbard Open in 2011, but bowled in the next four. His best finish was fourth after losing to eventual 2013 champion Joe Ciccone when an elimination format was in place. Ciccone eventually beat Ryan Ciminelli, who is another tour player scheduled to enter the Hubbard Open, said tournament organizer Jim Bryant, a co-host along with Bell-Wick proprietor Francis Zitnik.
Bryant also confirmed that E.J. Tackett and defending champion Kelly Jordon are also expected.
Shafer thinks that the Cheetah pattern at Bell-Wick will result in a high-scoring weekend.
Although Eugene McCune isn’t entered, Shafer threw McCune’s hat in the ring as a possible entry.
“I’d expect [to see] Eugene McCune,” Shafer said, “especially because the Hubbard Open is Cheetah, which McCune does well on. I’d think he’s got to be there and he’s got to be one of the favorites,” Shafer said of McCune, who won the 2014 HO, then finished runnerup to Jordon last March.
Shafer’s appearance in Hubbard this time follows his last PBA event a month ago: the Players Championship in Columbus in mid-February when he placed 17th.
The Gene Carter Classic win was Shafer’s fifth national tour title.
For the $15,000 first-place prize, Shafer beat Marshall Kent, 255-144.
“He bowled good until that point, then he lost his shot,” Shafer said of Kent in the championship match. “It was nice to win by the seventh frame; it’s so relaxing,” he said of a rare coast to the crown.
Shafer explained that, despite being an Xtra Frame event and not a national TV event, the Gene Carter Classic was, nonetheless, a PBA Tour title.
“The PBA needed to have some national events on the schedule, so they took some of the bigger regionals and added some money to them and labeled them Xtra Frame events, so they were live-streamed on Extra Frame and they attracted a pretty good field,” Shafer said, stressing that the tournament’s quality wasn’t compromised.
“It wasn’t a title like the old days because all those guys bowled every week in the old days, but these Xtra Frame events — I’d say the field was about half the strength of an old event — was stronger than some of the overseas events that people get titles for, so I’m not going to give it back,” Shafer said of his win in Middletown. “The field was 180 players and it was a tough lane condition and I won. If they want to give me a national title for it, I’ll take it.”
He said that the World Championship pattern in Delaware was more in line with what tournaments used to be like when Shafer first went on tour.
“I like when the lanes are a little more difficult and has medium-to-low scoring,” he said of the Carter event’s pattern. “I think it definitely favored me. I keep the ball around the pocket and I’m a pretty good spare shooter, so I like to grind out games and I like when they’re tough. We bowl 16 games on Sunday, so it kind of benefited me.”
Prior to Hubbard, Shafer will be in Richmond and Fredericksburg, Va., where he’ll do Demo Days for Ebonite.
“Helping customers, coaching them, helping them decide which ball they want to buy,” he said.
Shafer’s best payday was $50,000 at the U.S. Open in 2006.
At Bell-Wick, Shafer and the other touring pros will have some stiff competition from Ciminelli, a 29-year-old left-hander and the PBA Tour’s only three-time title winner in 2015, including the U.S. Open.
At last month’s U.S. Open, Ciminelli was runnerup.
Shafer said he didn’t bowl very well at the Masters in Indianapolis, also in February, but he recently instituted a grip change [at Players Championship in Columbus] and thinks it has made a big difference.
“I’m pretty optimistic and pretty excited to give it a try in tournament competition,” Shafer said of the grip change he first used in Columbus.
“It worked pretty well and I’ve gotten a little more used to it, so I’m kind of excited.”