Notice the day by day scores on the PBA Tour lately? Apparently the 'tweaking' of the patterns two weeks before the USBC Masters has hit the jackpot much more than expected. Much like the real estate mantra, location, location, location, lane surface appears to be getting much more attention, something lane men have known about for years. Here's a way to look at it: On the PBA oil patterns we have seen so far, the strike ball appears to have more skid, producing a slightly harder break than before. That increases the ball's entry angle into the pins which in turn increases pin action and scoring. An early peak of this phenomena was the week at Hawthorn Lanes. The Scorpion pattern was chosen (as it was last year), but this version played a lot tighter. Watching the second 7-game qualifying round, I noticed something I hadn't seen in recent memory on tour, especially late in the round. No one stood in front of the ball return to begin an approach. That may not seem like a big deal, but considering the rev rates and major-league torque applied to today's high friction bowling balls, it is very common for the bigger hook players to arrive at that shorter approach start point much earlier than most. There appeared to be much more oil applied in the front 20 feet or so allowing the ball to skid further down the lane which allows for the aforementioned increased entry angle and pin carry. One source told me the gutter to gutter oil taper was 4:1 but could not confirm the front to back taper reading. The lane surface at Hawthorn is a bit beaten up from 17 years of bowling (opened 1989) and on most patterns, moving to the middle of the lane with the ball trajectory is common, including our Tuesday Sport League (currently a 1.8 to 1 gutter to gutter taper). But to see this group playing the gutter with the pin carry as great as it is, it was not surprising to see five 300 games in this round, including Ryan Shafer's back to back 300s. One thing I would have not been surprised to see was a 300 game on the TV show. Two 300s would have not surprised me, either.

      Now back to the oil pattern testing before the Masters two months ago. The common thread among pros I talked to was last year's patterns played too similar. The Brunswick Authority 22 replaced the Kegel Custodian as the tour's lane machine and with its newer technology in oil application some adjustments were made on the fall swing. A second round of adjustments were made prior to the Masters trying to make each pattern play different as they did when they were introduced five years ago. Each of the five regular patterns have three different total amounts of oil and each has a different front to back oil taper, once again depending on the lane surface. What my point boils down to is this, if the lane surface is in outstanding shape, almost any pattern can be applied yielding higher scores. If the surface is not maintained properly, a high scoring pattern would not help the scoring pace at all. What happened at Hawthorn was a higher scoring pattern was applied at a higher-scoring house. This group of bowlers is good enough to pick it apart pin by pin. If the other patterns have a bigger front to back taper (meaning more head oil), the straighter players like Mika, WRW, and Norm may have a much more profitable season.

     For more views on this particular tournament and the rest, you can read the blogs by two of the tours ball reps. Chris Schlemer's report can be seen at stormbowling.com while Rick Benoit writes his views at his own site, brunswickinsiders.com. Schlemer to date writes one report for the whole tournament while Benoit gives his insights from round to round including the TV show.

     The week before the Hawthorn stop was one of those warm fuzzies that the media love to tell all about. Someone who should not have any chance to make a show did just that. There are a few thousand PBA members who bowl regional stops on the weekends plus the occasional national stop. And if we get a wild hair, then its several national stops in a row. These days, "several national stops" means rolling the pre-tournament qualifier, then hoping to survive the all-exempt qualifier into the Round of 32. Something happened in Hammond that weekend. Steve Rogers of Bourbonnais qualified 4th in the PTQ. Then he made the cut into the Round of 32 by 54 pins. OK, so far so good and now time to regroup for a possible three matches on Friday. Almost shoots 1000 to shut out Rick Steelsmith, 4-0. OK, who's next, Dino Castillo, the third seed, baddaboom, baddabing, wins 4-2. Gosh, this is the Round of 16, only 4 wins away from the show and part 1 is completed. After starting 2-2, he rolls 513 for the last two games, drops to his knees while sliding on the approach and yells, "Showtime!" And no Bartman to be found, either. Talking about making the show is one thing, but actuallydoing it is entirely something else. When he began to bowl PBA Midwest Regional stops back in the late 80's, he had that jacket the guys talked about on the air Sunday. White satin, a waving U.S. flag on the back, words above the flag were, "Support The Dream." He was looking for sponsors, of course. It sure did attract attention, as we found out, remains to this day. He may not have won his match, but he didn't shoot 160 in his first TV game like many others have. Those of us who knew his story were cracking up reading entries in the PBA Forums wonder who this guy was and worse yet, how did he get here? It does happen occasionally. Win or lose, it's always fun with "The Dream, " in Steve Rogers' neighborhood.

     A phone call came in around 12:30 one recent afternoon. The phone digital display read "Bowling Inc." The USBC is calling and they want me for something. Sanction card trouble? Wait a minute, that would come from the local office. This was an entirely different matter.

     Never thought I could do something like this at age 44. I started bowling sport leagues to get better and stay sharp for PBA Regionals. It's been about six weeks now since that call, and the smile is still on my face. I am deeply honored.

      Next month, we begin 2007 with a look back on the 20th anniversary of one of the most remarkable TV 300s and the story you may not have heard.

      Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy 2007 to you and yours.