This installment of The One Board originally appeared in Bowlers Journal International, June, 2019
Lost in all the hubbub last month about his TaylorMade P7TW irons with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts, 9-degree M5 460 driver modified with a Mitsubishi Diamana D+ White Board 73TX shaft, 13-degree M5 3-wood with 83TX shaft, 19-degree M3 5-wood with 83TX shaft, Milled Grind wedges with True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 shafts, Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS putter and Bridgestone Tour B XS golf balls was the fact that Tiger Woods won his 15th career major golf championship at The Masters.
Also last month, in Bowlers Journal’s World Series of Bowling coverage, we discussed Jason Belmonte’s record-breaking 11th major bowling championship. Comparing him to greats from other sports, we referenced Woods’s 14 majors as he chases Jack Nicklaus’s record 18.
Two days after the issue went to the printers, leaving no room for changes, Woods won his 15th major. He hadn’t won a major in 11 years and opted to break that dubious streak a mere two days too late for us to update his stats.
Overall, this isn’t cataclysmic. Woods really had won 14 when the article about Belmonte was written and when it was being printed. Plus, the exact number didn’t matter in the context of the Belmonte story as much as the all-time greatness did. However, the timing of the whole incident was just inconvenient enough to be frustrating.
Doesn’t that tend to be the case in bowling?
In a sport that places such an immense value on timing to be successful, the irony of all surrounding timing being bad can at least be appreciated for its absurdity.
For instance, it’s impossible to write a story about Walter Ray Williams Jr. (there are three of them, maybe even four in this issue alone) with any confidence in his career stats being accurate at publication as he adds titles faster than a bowler can peel out of the parking lot after being eliminated from a regional.
On rare occasions, a lane breakdown will occur during practice, which seems like good timing because at least it wasn’t during competition. Nope—such a breakdown will always happen in the last minute of practice, thereby delaying the start of competition.
A string of lucky-break strikes builds a lead for a player who then leaves a pocket 7-10 on a shot for the win. A player making a run for the show hits a bad pair in the last game, costing him a chance at victory. A young fan eager to see his favorite player gets out of school just in time to find out his hero was on A squad. A bowler shows up to open bowling for practice just in time to see the last lane get filled. An effort to proactively move equipment from one city to the next ends in Albuquerque, which was neither one city nor the next.
Some of these examples are more catastrophic than others. Leaving a huge split on a potential winning shot is far more devastating than a typo that isn’t a typo. For the most part, these timing issues are funny enough to avoid being aggravating, even if they can be moderately annoying.
All that previous talk about whether Woods having 15 majors is moot, by the way. Shortly after this issue is sent to the printer, Woods will win the PGA Championship, thereby giving him 16 majors by the time this issue is stuffed into mailboxes.
Of course, planning for that to be the case also ensures it won’t be the case based on the same principles stated throughout. That’s the thing about bad bowling timing—as soon as you plan for it to be bad, it makes itself good.