RENO, Nev. - Brian Burkhardt of St. Louis and Rick Gatlin of Eureka, Mo., didn't have much room for error in their final few frames of doubles at the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships, and they calmly delivered under pressure to claim the Regular Doubles lead with a 1,440 total Tuesday night.

Burkhardt picked up the 3-4-6-7 split in the ninth frame, and Gatlin closed with seven strikes to lift the pair past Alex Aguiar of Dartmouth, Mass., and Brian LeClair of Albany, N.Y., who previously held the lead with 1,422.

The two have bowled doubles together all but once during their 11-year careers at the USBC Open Championships, and this time, Gatlin led the way with a 736 series, while Burkhardt contributed 704.

As doubles came to a close, Gatlin had no idea how close they were to taking the lead. He simply was focused on shooting his first 700 on the championship lanes.

"We broke the lanes down perfectly, and I had a good shot as long as I stayed down and rolled the ball," said Gatlin, a 52-year-old right-hander and two-time state champion in Missouri. "I really didn't know what we needed, and they wouldn't tell me. I just knew we were close to 1,400, and I really wanted to get there."
 


Burkhardt, who grew up around bowling, spends much of his time around the sport these days behind the scenes as the Chief Technology Officer for InsideBowling.com, which is dedicated to promoting the game through user interaction, social media, live streaming and running bowling events.

The 39-year-old right-hander has been in Reno since last week and used that time to watch many of the talented bowlers who have come through, including USBC Hall of Famer Jeff Richgels, whose 11thFrame.com teams will be featured in an upcoming InsideBowling.com montage.

Despite the chance to watch different game plans unfold, Burkhardt said most of his learning this week happened while bowling in the Storm Bowlers Journal Championships presented by USBC and the 900 Global Two-Game Challenge downstairs on the 900 Global Showcase Lanes.

"I've basically bowled around the clock in the different events just to get sharp and get the feeling back," said Burkhardt, who hasn't bowled much in recent weeks because of tendonitis in his knee. "I also felt like the side events helped me narrow down my ball selection, and I really only used one ball at all the events at the Stadium."

The Bowlers Journal Championships has been held in conjunction with the Open Championships for nearly seven decades, but this is the first year the two events are being held in the same venue. The Open Championships is being contested on the first 64 lanes of the 78-lane NBS, while the Bowlers Journal is being held on lanes 69-78 and features the same lane condition being used for doubles and singles at the Open Championships.

"I was pretty worried after bowling the BJ a few times and never really having a great look," said Burkhardt, who owns BowlSpot.com, which helps InsideBowling.com's network of bowling sites operate together. "Then, I started the first game of doubles with two splits, one of which was the 3-4-6-7. But, if I hadn't left it there, I wouldn't have made the adjustment I made to pick it up at the end of doubles."

Gatlin and Burkhardt have bowled together long enough to know each other's games and demeanors, and while success is an obvious goal, so is having a good time on the lanes.

"Every time we bowl, my goal is just to beat Brian," Gatlin said. "It's all good-natured fun, but that's what we do within our group. We definitely have a good time out there. And right now, it feels amazing to be up there in the standings, at least for an evening. We know there's a lot of great bowlers still coming through, but we'll see what happens."

Gatlin added 720 in singles and 614 in team for a career-best all-events total of 2,070, edging out Burkhardt, who had 710 in singles and 650 in team for 2,064, also a career-high.

Presenting sponsors for the 2013 USBC Open Championships include Circus Circus Reno, Eldorado Hotel Casino Reno and Silver Legacy Resort Casino Reno.