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For those of you who do not know Nick he is on Brunswick's Regional staff. He is a Pro Shop operator in California and a very witty poster on Ballreviews.com. I just thought some of you might like to get an inside view on Nicks' experiences at the Dick Weber Open. Nick's week was a real roller coaster ride. I would walk by to check up on him every now and then and I would see his numbers change colors as if they were a blinking light. I am sure he is feeling the same frustration many bowlers are right now. The conditions they competed on are not anything you can prepare for. I saw some real upside in Nick's game and don't want him to be too hard on himself. But here is your opportunity to get back at him for all those witty comments. Go ahead Verbs, Ric, Robert and others...have fun with it.
As I wander around the center I can't help but hear bits and pieces of conversations. I thought you might want to get a little insight on what seems to be the: Topic of the Day The topic of the day seems to be the format comparisons. I try and keep an open mind when I listen. The most obvious thing I notice is the passion at which people discuss this issue, most discussions sound more like arguments. It is as if you have to make a choice between one or the other. Keep one throw the other away...Door number one or Door number two. Right or wrong. Black or White. I listen to both sides and question both. Why do you have to have just one tournament format? We all know variety in lane conditions is important at this level of bowling. It is ok when conditional bowlers achieve star status in our sport but we should never let them become the Icons of our sport. True icons of the sport can compete and win on anything. The true icons of our sport are very few. There are a lot of great bowlers when they are on their condition but there are less than a handful who can win on anything. We all know how important lane conditions are in the results of a tournament. In my opinion the format is just as important. The results of a tournament have as much to do with the format as the applied patterns. All considerations need to based on the fact that applied patterns turn into what the field makes of it. The more games you bowl you have to realize what the field of bowlers are going to do to the playing surface. Some players understand how to use this to their advantage other players do not. Who is better? The one who understands how to use it or the one who doesn't. Is professional bowling about choosing a particular style and being able to repeat it? Is repetition all there is about being a Professional bowler. If being a professional bowler is just about being repetitive there are way more than a handful of candidates. It is amazing how good bowlers across the world have become. We have to look beyond the ability to repeat shots to separate the bowlers. The only way I know to separate them is to challenge them with variety and see who is at the top when the smoke clears. I look through the field of professional bowlers and try and pick who I think would stand the tallest at the end of a season of true variety. The names are few but whoever the group of bowlers are they are the true Icons of our sport. I see opportunity not an argument between what is right and wrong. Why not take the number of tournaments we have right now and make every fourth one of them an open long format tournament in a different region across the country. That would give the PBA, the players and the fans an opportunity to expand the variety. That would be 7 or so tournaments a year that would be open to anybody wanting to challenge their skills against the world's greatest bowlers. The PBA would have 7 tournaments with a larger number of entries. To the players it gives every bowler wanting the challenge an opportunity, To the fans it gives them a greater opportunity to see more than one day of all the bowlers. To me I just see the variety. This week is an opportunity to expand the variety the PBA needs in its desire to bring respectability and recognition to the true icons of our sport. This week we are seeing a truly different pattern, and some more variety in the format. I hope when everybody sits down and begins to strategize they don't get caught up in the same passionate right vs left, black vs white, old vs new arguments I heard this week. Without variety we will have conditional superstars being presented as Icons of our sport. The PBA Dick Weber Open can be a fork in the road to greater PBA success or just another U-turn that leads us back to where we came from.
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