I just got back from Las Vegas and thought I'd share my experience. As far as the lanes go, we bowled on a fresh shot both days. For Team, I thought the lanes were tight as advertised. From the way I play the lanes, I had about 2 boards to hit and make it to the pocket. Anything inside was crossing over and anything outside was gone, out of bounds, with no recovery at all. I came out the first game with a reasonably good shot on 6-7. When the lanes transitioned I was left with not much room at all. The guys on the right side had about the same. Guys with more revs certainly had a little more room. Our group of 7 teams had a mix of league players and strong bowlers. A number of the high average guys didn't fare well. The mid range guys seem to have the better scores.
At 7:00 in the morning for D-S, we all came in thinking we had to play as we did for Team. That wasn't quite correct. The lanes seem to have a little more friction in the heads and a stronger backend. Outside 6 was still a mess but there seem to be more areas to play inside than for Team. The stronger players definitely were more dominant for this shift.
I would also like to comment on the spotting of the pins. I have bowled for 37 years and been involved with a bowling center for 27. We bowled on 11-12 for team and on 5 thru 8 for doubles and singles. Speaking from my experience, the pin spotting on those three pairs was abysmal. I got up a number of times with a large gap in my 1-2 pocket. I had two spares that I cherried because the pins were reset off spot, I also cleaned spares a number of other times when the pins were reset off spot. I think any excuse the USBC is making on their site, is lame at best. My non-bowling wife even commented on the way the pins were spotted.
Cashman is set up pretty well. A different layout from 86 but probably for the better. The people at the booths were pretty accommodating. There were no super deals on balls but a number of reasonably good deals on shoes.
The only problem was trying to get to Cashman on Thursday when there was a large crowd pouring in for the Cubs-Sox game. The cab ride for us was double due to the delay getting there.
We stayed downtown and had a blast. The Golden Nugget has a fairly new bar that hangs over the street ala New Orleans called Gold Diggers. They have beads at the bar for throwing down at the willing recipients. There were also some pretty hot young ladies giving it their all on the bar and dance floor on the other side of the night club. The Freemont experience is fun to watch. A Coyote Ugly knock off call Hogs and Heifers had high energy at times.
Stay away from Glitter Gulch (the Freemont Street strip joint unless you have a lot of money. The girls non-stop pester you for private dances and a couple of guys in my group couldn't get back from their private dance until they were nipped for $150 and $300. They said saying no to spending more was taken well by the girls.
It was fun but I'm pretty beat now that I'm home.
One thing I forgot to mention was the Columbia booth being run by K and K Bowling of Las Vegas. The staff is really friendly and helpful. They have a great feature they offer as well. If you sign up with basically just your name, address and e-mail address you get a K and K card that resembles a credit card. When you purchase something you get a discount. The card then has an amount put on it towards another purchase based on the amount you spent. That is the amount of discount for the next purchase. When you buy something else it gets a new amount. The card never goes to zero if you have handed them some cash as part of the transaction. I'm pretty sure Wendy Macpherson was working there the day we bowled team event.
Edited on 3/8/2009 2:17 PM
Edited on 3/8/2009 11:29 PM
