After three hours of bowling against the best in the world, Marshall Holman expressed a touch of frustration.
After four months of competing against the same players, Kelly Kulick was far more exasperated.
In an intriguing grouping in the round of 64 Thursday at Lava Lanes, Holman, the Hall of Famer who hails from here, and Kulick, the trail-blazing woman on the Denny's Professional Bowlers Association Tour, shared space.
Each was asked how the first of two seven-game blocks went in the Earl Anthony Medford Classic.
"Not bad," said Holman, "for a guy who has no clue."
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Both returned for the evening session, but neither made it through to match play today. Holman finished xxxx in the round of 64 with a pinfall of xxxxx. Kulick was xxxx with a mark of xxxx.
Holman has had more than his share of highlights on tour. What Kulick wouldn't give for just one.
Her play early Thursday was typical of the way her season's gone. While the men were discovering ways to get the ball to the pocket, she admitted to being lost. They were getting carry, she wasn't.
"This is a very high-scoring pattern," said Kulick, "and it seems like every guy out here can pick a ball out of his bag and start striking with it."
She wasn't so fortunate, compiling a pinfall of 1,510, putting her in 48th place in the field of 63 (Norm Duke withdrew because of an injured toe).
The session reminded Kulick of the last time the tour used the Scorpion oil pattern. That came in the Chicago area in November, and she was 40th in the first block and moved only as high as 36th by the end of the round of 64, missing match play by four spots.
It wasn't the only subpar showing by Kulick, who came into this event ranked 46th in earnings and 50th in points.
Kulick earned her way onto the tour last summer by finishing sixth in the tour trials. The top 10 players gained exemption on the tour for the 2006-07 season.
At the trials, bowlers rolled nine games each for five straight days over different oil patterns. On the last day, she had her first career 300 on the PBA and added a 265 to cement her standing.
Since then, she's struggled. Kulick has made it to match play only twice and realizes something's got to change.
"I feel like a real rookie out here," she admitted. "There's very much a big learning curve, and if you don't catch the gravy train early, you're going to be left behind."
Her two best games in the morning session were 237 and 234. She also had three games between 198 and 202.
"It's really frustrating, constantly frustrating," Kulick said of her tour experience. "One of these weeks, something has to happen differently. It has yet to. I have to bowl better. I have to make some cuts and win some matches. I have to start performing."
Holman had looked forward to playing alongside Kulick since he learned the lane assignments and enjoyed the experience.
"She's a very nice young lady and very talented," said Holman. "She had a tough time today trying to put strikes together, but she had a good finish (234 game). If any of these players get it going, they can make huge moves."
"I had heard lots of great things about her and saw her on all the news and morning shows," said Holman. "I thought she handled herself really well. She's a pioneer on the men's bowling tour. She's like Michelle Wie in golf, but she's out here doing it."
It's unfortunate, he said, the women no longer have their own pro tour. The Professional Women's Bowlers Association Tour folded in 2003.
Kulick was rookie of the year on that tour in 2001 and won the Women's U.S. Open the year it broke up.
It's been different on the PBA.
"It's going to be awfully difficult for her to be a threat week in and week out because there is a strength factor," said Holman.
There's a technological factor, too, and that's what Holman battled early Thursday. Unlike the touring pros, he wasn't sure which ball to switch to or when as the oil transitioned from player-to-player, frame-to-frame and game-to-game. The scores were expected to be even higher in the evening because there was time between blocks to make necessary equipment adjustments.
Holman, too, had another ball drilled during the break to give him another option into the pocket.
Physically, he threw the ball well and had good ball reaction.
"I really never had anything good or bad," he said, "except for 192 my last game."
He was steady through the first two games with scores of 235 and 222, then unleashed a 269.
"My ball was working well early," said Holman. "I had a 700-something the first three games, then I just treaded water."
Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail ttrower@mailtribune.com
