I'm not sure why, but most houses I go are only of light-medium oil.
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I love my SlayR.

The easiest house here is a heavy oil house.  There is a ton of oil on the inside of the lane but the outside is wide open.  Always a ton of honor scores shot there every year.  When I first shot there, I took my Phenom Unleashed home and sanded it a little for next time.
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Evolutionary.  Revolutionary.

It is true that many of the balls that companies have out seem to be for heavy oil. The lane conditions are me vary enough that I can use them, and with the proper layout can make a heavy oil ball a medium oil ball.

The problem is not what the ball companies are releasing onto the market. Most of these companies do enough studies before releasing a ball that they know what the bowlers want.

I think a contributing problem is that bowlers do not change coverstocks enough. Meaning for example: The Phenom Unleashed. It is a heavy oil ball for most bowlers out there, but with the proper surface grit and polish it could be used as a medium/light ball. Just because a company releases a ball and puts a particular surface on it does not mean that they are telling you that you have to keep that surface on the ball.
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Owner/Operator
C-G Pro Shop


Edited on 5/30/2004 10:18 AM

Most of the houses I've bowled in around Massachusetts are medium oil shots at best. The summer league that I'm bowling in floods from inside 8 to 8, so there would be use for a heavy oil ball if you wanted to play that line. Otherwise most people swing outside of 8 with medium/heavy, medium and light oil balls and have no trouble scoring.

I think a heavy oil ball has it's place in sport shot/PBA pattern leagues and some tournaments, but most of the shots I see up here I rarely pull out the heavy oil ball.

Matt

The average league bowler wants a "heavy oil" ball because he can make it hook more on his Tuesday night mixed league with out learning the basic release and lane conditions that this ball was really intended to be used on. He can stand left, whing it right, and it'll come flying back for his 3 games a week. He'll throw more strikes, and have some big games, and go home thinking he's accomplished something. Very seldom do I see 'heavy' oil, but the manufactures know that the balls that sell are the ones that advertise to the general public that this ball "hooks", so seeing heavy oil is not the question. Most average league/recreation bowlers want bang for their buck. These are the sellers. Advanced bowlers, and high rev rate bowlers are the ones who want control and tamer balls so they can score on different conditions..but the average "Joe Bowler" is looking for the next big bomb...
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www.dynothane.com

It seems to me that lately the manufacturers have gone more for really strong reactives than high-load particle balls. That's logical considering that I very seldom run into really long and heavy patterns nowadays. I saw more of those a couple of years ago. Today, most of the tournaments I take part in range from 37 to 40 feet. A strong reactive lasts longer on these patterns.



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Regards,

jensm