well i''''m rooting for my ball driller randy weiss to try and regain his exemption by finished atop the rpi this week.  He''''s doing all right i guess at +46 but he called me up and told me something interesting.  He said he practiced for 2 days on all 5 patterns, cheetah was today, and his ball was bouncing off the gutter every shot no problem, but when he started practiced, he threw a couple gutters, 3 off the right...wtf is going on?  Apparently the pba lane machine ran the viper pattern on the low end of the center while it ran cheetah on the high end of the center.  Not sure exactly where it stopped and it wasn''''t on purpose, but randy got a raw deal here starting on the longer pattern.  The guys were whacking the cheetah while he was shooting clean on viper.  He said he saw so many times where bowlers would go 250-250 and then come to the low end, dump a few gutters/washouts and go 140.  

Now, this is the way i see.  Yeah all bowlers have to eventually go to the lower end of the house, but at what point makes a big deal.  If they hit it early, like he did, 200 is a good score, but the other guys are whacking them on cheetah shooting 240. For some they caught viper when the lanes had opened up, and there wasn''''t much difference and word of mouth spreads through the center that the low end is tighter.  Advantage higher end starters, disadvantage lower end.  Now I know there are lots of games left, but it doesn''''t seem fair.  One of the biggest tournaments for the regional players and this happens?

I would also like to know how this could have happend.  I don''''t know much about lane machines, but i thought once you program the pattern in, it should be good to go.  The pba directors claimed half the house whined, while the others were fine with it so they kept the scores.  The later ran tapes on the lanes and it was in fact the viper pattern.

Just wanted to vent cause I want him to do well, sorry for the long post.  Any thoughts?

*Edit* On pba.com, the standing are up and there is an article talking with the leader today, you can kinda get what I''m talking about by reading it
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Move left, hook it more.....

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Edited on 12/16/2009 1:21 AM

Edited on 12/16/2009 1:25 AM

What did the bowlers do in the old days before they had computers to tell them what pattern is on the lanes? The bowlers watched their ball reaction and played the lanes accordingly. Accidents happen

Fair enough, chameleon is even tighter than viper is.  Its not about adjusting, its some bowlers had an unfair advantage that should have been avoided.  To high calibur guys like this, cheetah is almost a house shot.  How would you feel if you paid your plane ticket/hotel and went to nationals and bowled on the usbc shot, while the half of the field bowled on a modified house shot?  Loose example, but the point non the less.

And like i posted before, when you catch those other pairs is also a big deal. Some caught them very late after they had some play AND already heard through word of mouth that the pattern is completely different down here.  It wasn't fair.  Randy was grinding 200 on a fresh, tight chameleon, while someone else was peeling it off the gutter shooting 230-240 on cheetah.
--------------------
www.bowlingsolutions.com

Bowl to win!!!

Move left, hook it more.....

Tommy Jones and Kenny Simard are Gamecock fans...are you???