I try to set reasonable goals when it comes to bowling. My goal for my first USBC Open was simple: Don’t suck. I didn’t aspire to a 300 game, or an 800 or even 700 series. I simply didn’t want to stink up the place.
In that regard, I succeeded.
Over the three games of the 8:30 PM team squad, I rolled a 180, a 189 and a 191 for a 560 series–the team high series, as it happened. It was a major learning experience for me, because the USBC Open is on what’s called a sports pattern, meaning the lane oil is laid down in such a way that there’s a much higher premium on accuracy than, say, with a typical house shot (i.e., the way that most bowling alleys lay down oil for their league play). On a house shot, you can miss your mark by four or five boards and the ball will still snap back and reach the pocket. Not so with a sports pattern. Miss your mark by even a board on the inside and the ball hooks out of control; miss to the outside of the mark and the ball never comes back.
Kathleen and other wives (or dates) of the bowlers were a vocal cheering section in the stands behind us. Bowling with us on our pair of lanes were such notables as Senior Queens champion Lucy Sandelin and bowling hall of famer Mike Aulby. It’s a real confidence builder when people like Mike and Lucy are saying, “Nice shot!”
Overall a terrific experience, owed I should note once more to the greatest wife in the world (yes, mine, no, not yours.)
PAD
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