in the past years, the longer patterns tend to help out the lefties, rather than the shorter ones except for Chris Hayden (2003 Orlando Open, BoardWalk Lanes, Pattern E) this past season.
Jason Couch has dominated the past 3 T of C tournaments, as the patterns in the past years have been at least 46'. In (i believe) the 2001 Orleans Casino Open, the top 5 in the stepladder was an all-lefty show (a 40 foot + lane pattern from what I remember from Kegel). In the 2001 Silicon Valley Open, the pattern was 43', there were 4 lefties and one right-handed player.
Well, we're not physically there at the tournament and maybe it's the way the pattern plays with the lane surface. That counts a lot, too. I have also noticed that having a lot of axis tilt can cause some problems on the newer tour patterns. No offense to lefties, but I see a lot of them having a lot of axis rotation at times, and it becomes a problem.
It looks like the players in the top 32 are mostly of the straighter players... I can imagine that it helps to stay behind the ball on this pattern, too. You have to control the backends.
That is all.
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-Jeremy Vitug