Just my opinion of course but most of us here are good bowlers. Maybe not 210+ but probably 180+ in most cases. And most of the members of USBC are not.
They are 140-175 bowlers who dream about a 200 and a 300 is an imaginary place they will probably never get to.
I have bowled with bowlers who averaged 135 for the year and will never get better. She loves to bowl but just rolls her 12 lb ball straight down the middle with maybe 3-4 revs end over end. Her high game had been 188 and she had bowled for 10 years. Well she had her lucky game and shot 212. For her, she was on cloud 9. Bowling for 10 years and she finally bowled a 200.
That's the person we should remember when we are here arguing about awards. She got the local assn award for 200 and 75 pins over average. And she was so proud and happy when she got them.
She will probably never throw what we consider an honor score. For her, 200 was her honor score.
And there are way more of her type of bowlers that there are of us. As I have stated before; in reading a lot of these comments here, I see a lot of "WHAT DO I GET"?
Well maybe we should all be looking at what does everyone get and quit being so selfish.
Bingo! The vast majority of our members have been leaving every year for over a decade and no one seems to care. You guys and the USBC need to come down from your penthouse and think about the average league bowler that has never given a rats @ss about the "sport" of bowling. The die hard 1% are going to be there every year no matter what so why cater to them, we need a plan to grow membership. And please stop telling me how great youth is doing because their membership is declining too and has been for a very long time.
If you think these type of awards are causing the decline then you need to complain to your local association. It is they who provide those awards, not the national association.
The more I think about it, so what the membership has declined. According to those who hate USBC, they don't have to bowl in sanctioned events. Don't have to pay USBC any money, they still can bowl.
Perhaps the golden age was too big instead of today's bowling being too small. If you don't like the USBC then don't sanction. Even if the total membership goes to less than 100,000, I will still sanction because I feel USBC should be there to represent and support the sport of bowling.
