I understand this topic has been touched on before, and I am just curious on a few things. Maybe someone who has experience bowling PBA tournaments/PTQs can enlighten me a little more. Looking at this weeks TQR, it will most likely take around a 240+ average to make the cut into the round of 64. Now, these guys/gals have alot of talent and resources, that is completely understood. But, if someone like me (I am about 220 on house 200 on sport) were to go out there and compete in these things, how do you think I would manage. I mean, normally, i cannot even average 240+ on a house shot, let alone anything more difficult (mostly carry problems). Bowling on a college team, i compete on difficult conditions nearly twice a week, and it seems to me a bowler must have at least a couple boards of area in order to whack them like the touring pros do week to week. But, at least for me, I do not manage to average above 200 on every single difficult condition I bowl on, let alone 220+ which the pros do from week to week. So, is it more a matter of matching up on these conditions and making quality shots, or are the pros that good that they can hit the same spot over and over for 7 games? In addition, do the patterns on tour play similar to the patterns laid out for the PBA Experience Leagues you bowl on? Thoughts?

My understanding is that the collegiate patterns are a little tougher than the tour patterns? Ive been on plenty of collegiate patterns but no pba-esque patterns. Ive looked at some past/present collegiate bowlers on pba.com, enter TQR's and their averages are higher than what they were used to putting up at say the hoosier or the christmas tourneys. It's all assumption and I'm just throwing ideas out there.

I was reading Jeff Carter's blog about the US Open and he mentioned his grief with how the lane plays when you have inexperienced traffic on it. It is hard to bowl well when the traffic is altering the pattern in crazy ways. The same topic was exhaustively mentioned in the player blogs for Team USA if you look on bowl.com. The women bowled really well compared to the men because they attacked I believe the Shark, a little smarter?

Your best scoring condition might be dictated by the the level of skill of your opponent. Strange isnt it?



Edited on 3/14/2007 2:06 PM

Edited on 3/14/2007 2:10 PM

It also has to do with oiling the lanes.  When the ptq bowlers first oil the pattern, there is still some of the residual house shot on the lanes.  That would allow a little more hold and scores will increase.  As the pattern is oiled more and more the house shot's "hold" is removed from the lanes and the pattern is more and more pure.  Its also shown in the regional tour. I almost always try to grab the first squad because its always "easier."  The scores for the second squad are almost always lower than the previous squad.  Going into sunday, you have the real  pro shot with no house shot hold.
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