I guess I can agree with both sides here. While I would rather see tougher conditions laid out at tournaments, I also have come to understand that putting out house shots seems to attract more bowlers. I believe the reasoning for this is house shots basically level out the playing field, giving a wider range of bowlers a chance to win. If you think about it, really anyone halfway decent can average at least 200 on a house shot, but you put those same bowlers on a tougher condition, they won't average 180. This is due to the fact that tougher conditions usually force bowlers to play in specific parts of the lane, have a specific release, and throw straight at most spares, all of which you never really have to do on a house shot. So, as a tournament director, if you put a house shot out, you will rarely hear complaints about the conditions because you are usually never blocking out any type of style from scoring. But the minute you put anything somewhat difficult out, instead of bowlers just adjusting to whats out there, the complains begin rolling in about how unfair the condition was.
Overall, it's a really tough call for tournament directors and I feel your pain (I have ran a few tournaments and leagues), and it seems you can never really make everyone happy. I believe the only way to get around this is just mix it up and don't tell bowlers beforehand what the lane condition is going to be. Another option might be to use the Kegel Challenge Series patterns as they can usually be played from most areas of the lane, but require a decent amount of accuracy. These Kegel patterns are easy enough to score on, but not so easy that you have to average 230 to make money. Sorry about the rant, but this topic seems to come up a lot in tournament bowling.
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Dave Lughermo
Michigan State University Bowling Alumni
