Every year, some people claim that USBC Open scores are far too high, given the number of honor scores and the scores needed to win or place high in the standings.

However, even though the overall scores were a bit higher than those in recent years, only very few -- outside of the best players and shotmakers -- scored at high levels in the tournament.

This year, the entire field averaged 171.79 -- with a total pinfall of 68,401,949 over 398,179 games -- as compared to 168.3 over 461,357 games in 2013.

The Classified division -- including bowlers with entering averages of 180 or under -- averaged a composite 149.24 this year, while the composite average in the Regular Division was 178.38.

Keep in mind that the Regular Division includes bowlers with averages of 181 and higher -- and many of them average well over 200 -- so it's more than obvious that most bowlers shoot FAR LOWER scores than they do back home, but in the absence of THS conditions, that shouldn't be surprising.

Quote from: Jorge300 on July 29, 2014, 12:36:49 PM

And to Lefty Gomez....if you don't share the pattern, do you think it would be completly secret? How do you stop people who go the first days of the tournament from sharing the info with their friends who bowl later? How do you stop the local bowlers from going into the venue and learning the pattern prior to their bowling? This isn't the Oscar votes kept secret by a 3rd party. The pattern will get out. You think the "have nots" are at a disadvantage now...it would grow exponentially if you tried to keep the pattern secret. With the information announced publically, everyone has the same information. It is now up to them to take advantage of that or to ignore it. And to those who say your center won't put it down, have you gone to the manager with a real proposal or did you just ask one off? Get with your leaguemates, get a group together and show the manager that if he puts the shot down on a normally quiet time (like a Sunday Morning) he will get 5, 10, 15 etc people coming in to practice. That's x number of open games at $x.xx dollars, that's snack bar revenue for drinks and food, show them the money they are throwing away for not doing it. If they still refuse, then go to the owner and show him what his manager is throwing away. I would think that any smart businessman would see the value.

This tournament was bowled for 50 years without the pattern being made public. There's a difference between people getting info from people bowling saying "hey, the shot is around 15 this year, a lot of OB right of 8" versus an actual chart with the lane machine and exact oil pattern to practice on.

My argument isn't good bowlers vs bad bowlers ... why has the avg scores for the top 100 skyrocketed yet the field avg not skyrocketed?? Specifically in the team event. What's the difference? In my opinion teams practicing on the shot before hand is a huge factor and i think it's hurting the tournament.

Lefty,

I can give you one specific example.  The man who ultimately decides the pattern for the tournament, bowls in the tournament.  If the pattern was not "public", you think he hasn't told his teammates what the exact pattern is?  Or a few of his buddies.

Also, it pretty much stated in the opening stream that this years patterns are initially played with and tweaked at USBC headquarters at the ITRC lanes in Arlington TX.  I recognized them from the screen shots displaying the pattern.

That would mean that even if the pattern was not made public, I would venture a guess all of the USBC employees that work there would know the pattern and practice on it.  And considering a lot of team USA and team USA support lives here in the Dallas Ft. Worth area, that is a lot of skilled teams that would know the "not public" pattern.

No, not everyone lives in an area where they can get a local center to put out the shot.  But at least with the pattern being public, you have a chance.  95% of the bowlers have the info to practice on it.  Only the ones that bowl really early may not get the information in time or live in an area where they cannot get a center to put it out.

Make it private again, 99% will not know the pattern, but 1% will.  And that's the issue. 

Kudo's to the top bowlers for their high scores.

But I don't think it is a good thing for the tournament.

As the top scores go higher and higher but the average bowler is the same then it
makes them feel they have no chance even if they would catch fire in a bottle.

Sure they had no chance before either but there is a lot of difference between averaging 650 for the team versus 750.

The average Joe Bowler is what keeps the tournament running and I believe they are starting to give up. Between the high scores and going to Reno 2 out of 3 years.

I would like to know what the team numbers look like for El Paso.

Winning scores have been going up, but low to cash has only drifted up moderately, and has been up and down.  Biggest reason scores have gone up over the last 10 years is that guys are getting  more proficient on flatter patterns.  Also, the more oil they put out to hold up, no matter how flat, the more pronounced the track becomes as guys attack it with dull equipment early.