Even though you're not sandbagging, I think you might just have to deal with the fact that people may think you are.  If your league is sanctioned as a standard league, I don't see the tournament director re-rating you.  Maybe they will if you insist on it and you could probably go by the sport bowling conversion chart, but it's entirely up to you.

Consider this though.  You pay money to bowl in your league(s) and the house just happens to put out a tough shot.  You put up with it on a regular basis.  Handicap tournaments are the silver lining of that, and allow you to turn a negative into a positive.  Sure, you might have a bit of an advantage, but you didn't make it that way.

It is up to the tournament committee to rerate you, but they must do so at the beginning of the tournament and inform you of the rerate to give you an opportunity for refund.  

NO  I would not inform them that, IN YOUR OPINION, your house shot is tough and there fore your average might be considered too low for your ability.  The tournament knows the centers around the area.  They have your ID number ( if its all sanctioned) and they know where you are coming from.  

Now afterwards, should you bowl well, they might inform you that should you bowl in another of their tournaments they will be rerating you.  

Erin

Many thanks for the feedback.

A few additional points: the leagues that I’m in are not sanctioned, but the tournament is sanctioned. This season, I’ve subbed 27 games in one league and played over 80 games in the other. My average in the ‘sub’ is higher so I’m going to declare that one for my handicap.

There will also be a scratch division running parallel (i.e using the same score), and I intend to enter both.

A few years ago I played in a handicap tournament (doubles, 6-games, moving lanes after three games), where I encountered similar situation (home house tough shot, tournament shot easy-ish THS). I was doing well after three games, and my team was in a position to ‘cash’, then I overheard some bowler in the next pair saying that I must be sandbagging cos I was scoring too well for a high-ish handicap bowler. I tried to ignore the comments but it did have an effect on my last 3 games and our team failed to cash. I don’t want to have the same situation again, hence this thread.

Anyway, I’m probably going to crash and burn cos this is my first tournament in the last few years, but I sure will try my hardest!



Thanks again!

ps - MaidenheadBandit, I'll pm you

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I'm a THS hack and a ball junkie.

Your profile indicates you live in the UK.  That probably would be important information since the sanctioning bodies, I assume, are different than in the US.