SPRING HILL – Anthony Caso wasn’t exactly thrilled with the way things played out at Spring Hill Lanes over the weekend. Yet the 21-year-old from Spring Hill wasn’t completely disappointed, either. Placing 14th in the 27th annual Spring Hill Open, a Professional Bowlers Association South Region tournament sponsored by Crystal Automotive, wasn’t good enough for Caso to advance to Sunday’s match play.
However, he was the highest finisher out of the handful of local bowlers who took part in the three-day event. “Not very happy about it,” Caso said. “Seemed like either a lot of people whacked it, other people didn’t. I was kind of right in that little zone where I kind of had a good look, then it’d go away and I’d throw some bad shots. Right in the middle, nothing really spectacular about it, but it is what it is.” The lefty totaled 1,753 pins across eight qualifying games on Saturday and ended up collecting $425. However, only the top 12 moved on.
Last year, he ranked fourth through qualifying with a 2,021 and ended up seventh after match play, his best performance in his short professional career. “For the PBA stuff, it’s been going very well,” Caso said. “I’ve been able to cash in pretty much every event I’ve bowled, made match play four times so far. Getting your feet wet, everything is a new learning experience. I learned (Saturday) to not think ahead of the scores. That kind of got in my head a little bit and I didn’t perform as well as I’d have liked… But overall, the PBA is treating me very well. I’m just trying to get out there and prove that I can compete. So far I’ve been able to compete pretty consistently, so I’m really happy about that.”
Despite his age, Caso is already an amazingly accomplished bowler. He has rolled 21 300 games, 22 800 series, and on May 18, 2014 set a new county record with an 879. He also has the county mark for youth bowlers with an 813 as a 14-year-old in 2009. During league play his average has ranged in the high 230s and low 240s the past two seasons. He has become an assistant manager of the BowlersMart pro shop in Spring Hill Lanes. In addition, he works with the company’s website and at its warehouse. “Right now I’m still trying to earn my chops on the regional tour,” Caso said. “I don’t really quite feel like I’m there yet. I still have a lot more to learn and a lot more competition to go through before I feel like I’m up to that level… But I definitely want to pursue this, I don’t really want to say as a career because it’s a little harder to make money in this sport now. But I definitely want to pursue this 100 percent, but I need to make sure I’m financially set first before I can do something like that.”
Caso also sees some mechanical tweaks to make in order to improve his game. “There’s some shot-making and physical-game issues that I need to work out to get me more competitive on multiple (oil) patterns,” Caso said. “Physically, I feel like I compete with anybody. It’s mentally where I’m lacking a little bit… I really need to work on my mental game, which the only time you can work on that is when you bowl these tournaments, you get close and you either pull through or you don’t. You can’t simulate that in practice.”
As for the Spring Hill Open, given it’s his home turf and he has witnessed his friend, Spring Hill’s Jason Mahr, win the tournament twice in 2007 and 2012, it’s one event that’ll always have something extra behind it. “This means a little bit more. The hometown crowd is awesome,” Caso said. “Even when I was qualifying they were behind me every single shot. My little buddy Noah (Saul), he won the pro-am, he literally carried my stuff from pair to pair for me. “Winning in front of them would mean a lot for me, but it’s kind of cool to know that they’re behind me so much. It’d be awesome to win here. There is next year and I’m coming for that trophy next year.”