What is a good idea when brining equipment to bowl on a US Open type shot?  Do I want early agressive, skid/flip, hook stop?  I am thinking about bringing this to a tournament tomorrow: Gravity Shift 4.5 x 4.5, Street Rod Solid Rico, 2 T-Road Solids 6x4 Pin up, 5x3 pin down, Dimension 6x4, Gravity Shift 4.5x3.5, Rapid Fire Solid Pin above bridge cg in plam, and posibly drilling a Hy-Road today.  Any sugestions? Comments welcome.
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Me: "These lanes are tight. I have 2 boards!"
My buddy with front 8: "Me too!"
Me: "Yeah, but yours both have arrows on them, and an arrow in between!"

Thanks for the quick response. The rolly gravity shift won't work?  That gives me a few more ball choices.  Any other sugestions?
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Me: "These lanes are tight. I have 2 boards!"
My buddy with front 8: "Me too!"
Me: "Yeah, but yours both have arrows on them, and an arrow in between!"

Lane surface and how the pattern is layed is the most important. If the house shot isn't completely removed from the lane before the pattern is put down, you will need earlier rolling equipment to start.

I have bowled in the actual US Open and have bowled in tournaments where the pattern is used..plus a PBA Experience league. Everytime it played drastically different.

When in doubt, bring all balls or enough to cover all situations.

The Virtual might be a good option on the fresh as well.  Due to the usual light volume of the pattern, you usually do not want stuff to roll up too early, this will cause the ball to read the front of the lane, instead of the midlane. On this pattern you want the ball to clear the heads cleanly in order to maintain a consistent reaction downlane.  If you cannot get the ball through the heads with consistency, its going to be very difficult to gauge your ball reaction and know when to make your moves left.  By the end of the day (if it is a longer format), you may be playing so far left you could be lofting the gutter, as this is where the pattern will usually develop.  Once again, it depends on who is bowling, cause if they all start inside, you could be getting very deep early on.  If more people are playing out, the pattern will tend to hold up longer inside, and you wont have to move way inside until later on.  Basically, stay in play on the fresh, then once a burn spot develops (usually around 13-15 at the breakpoint, again depending on the bowlers), then "fade" the ball to the pocket, keeping your intended breakpoint a board or two left of the burn spot.  This will give you some push room, and possibly some pull room, depending on the carrydown which may develop.  Hope this helps.

Dave Lughermo
Michigan State University Bowling

Like A**.  I didn't throw it well and the kids ahead of me tore the lane up.  I followed the olny lane that had 3 bowlers on it.  That and not making quality shots.  If was real spotty.  Put down with a wick machine.  It was very tought.  But I learned something.  I need to work on repeating shots.  And need to get vacu grips in all my balls.  My fingers swelled BIG TIME.
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Me: "These lanes are tight. I have 2 boards!"
My buddy with front 8: "Me too!"
Me: "Yeah, but yours both have arrows on them, and an arrow in between!"

What was the lane surface, what types of balls were used and what type of lines were successful(for anyone)?  I'm curious because I've never played on the pattern before.  What I've found about longer patterns(Shark, Scorpion) so far is for some reason playing straight makes my ball go through the nose, which I don't get because it didn't do that to me on a shorter pattern(Viper).  So to stay in my comfort zone I try to swing it out to 5-7 from 10 at the arrows but the line is really tight and I just find that moving in gives me a little more margin for error.  It really bugs me because the ball will hook back from small swings outside if I throw a good shot but it just isn't the greatest idea.