those are all good suggestions, but don't forget about the used bowling balls. The used bowling balls are one of the best deals you can get if you're just starting because you can get a good quality bowling ball (from all ranges of performance) for cheap. If you want something new I would suggest the following:
STORM:
Hot Rod
Barbed Wire
Razor Wire
Big Hit (The regular hit might not hook as much)
COLUMBIA 300:
Spirit
Spirit II
Beast
-any one of the scouts (most likely the green pearlized one)
Flipside Fear
Flipside Wild
Jekyll
Hyde
-any of the messengers
BRUNSWICK:
-any of the grooves (excellent performance for the money)
Monster Slay/R
Monster Frenzy
EBONITE:
Fire
Ice
any of the Tornado's
ROTO GRIP:
Sonic Boom
Sonic X
Super Sonic
Retro Resurrection
TRACK:
Dry Heat
Crash
Crunch Time
P.S. Just make sure not to choose a urethane ball unless you want the ball to go pretty much straight. Sorry if I missed any other balls. All the companies are good and have quality bowling balls that fit each individuals game. The only reason why people get picky when it comes to different companies is because they might have a bad experience with "one" ball so they go to another company that a ball works better for them (in actuality, it can be more of the ball drillers fault for not drilling the bowling ball to that person's bowling style and just drilled according to generalization). Some of the most popular bowling companies are Storm, Columbia, Track, and Brunswick. Although Roto Grips is starting to make a steady comeback. If your girlfriend wants to bowl but just throw the bowling ball straight then going with a polyester (plastic) bowling ball would be more reasonable for cost and for her game. If she got a higher performance bowling ball and just used it to throw straight, then it would be like buying a race car and driving Miss Daisy around all day without racing.
Edited on 8/2/2004 3:47 AM