After his brother failed to beat the eventual runner up, Rick Adams, Dick Saliba turned and said “I give it to the lefty”, meaning that since Cliff won't become a three time champion, that Lee Burnett will be this year's champion. And after a second title match, he was right as Lee Burnett fired strike after strike in his final game against Rick Adams of Rome, shooting a lofty 258 game.
The advantage that Lee had over anyone else is the opportunity to lose a match and make an adjustment for the next match. He did just that when losing the first game against Rick Adams. After the end of the first match, Lee said “I knew I wasn't out of it, I had to come from behind on most of my matches this year.” Then he made his adjustment during the commercial break by throwing a few practice balls with his green Vibe. What a difference that made for him as he carried strikes that probably wouldn't have with the Virtual Energy. During the semi-finals, Lee said that he had a good look with the Energy on the tournament pair as well as the practice pair, so he decided to start with that ball. It's his number one ball in his bag after shooting two 300's, 814, and a number of other large scores with it already.
Speaking of the semi finals, Lee was the only bowler waiting on the practice pair while his team mate, Steve Suslik bowled. It was an eternity just waiting for his turn to come as he “got nerved up while waiting for TV”. I can't imagine how he was feeling during those 15 minutes of waiting. Anyway, Steve looked pretty good to start the match even 
though he said that he wasn't comfortable up there until the fourth frame. And if you know Steve, you know the match will come down to the tenth frame. It was at a point where Steve needed to strike out just to tie the game but leaving a bucket on lane 15, which was the tighter of the two lanes, it cost him a chance at a Rainbow vs. Rainbow finale. I asked Steve his feelings about TV and he said “It's like a new rollercoaster. You really want to ride it but you don't.” I'm sure the anxiety of the whole setting is a bit overwhelming with the hot lights, cameras, announcers and the crowd all around you.
When you get a chance, stop into Rainbow Lanes and check out the Bud Vander Veer plaque that will be hanging on a wall. It's a plaque that lists all of the previous champions of this tournament. The current champion gets to display this plaque for a year and Lee chose to bring it to Ron and Kay Rizzo's establishment. What's even nicer is that Lee made the qualifying cut by one pin this year. He wasn't sure at all if he was going to make it after he bowled his three games at Strike and Spare Lanes with a 615 series. Congratulations Lee Burnett on earning a title that will go in the history books and one that we all will never forget.
Auburn USBC bowler Lee Burnett is the P-S Masters Champ!
