"The shot played tough, the carry was terrible, and I split on most shots that did not hit the pocket." ~ Pete Couture
"I think a team commitment to playing the lanes together becomes more crucial the flatter the pattern becomes." ~ Jeff Richgels
For those of you brave or foolish (or brave AND foolish) enough to bowl the USBC Open Championships this year in Baton Rouge, four-time Open champion and USBC Hall of Famer Jeff Richgels has two primary points of advice for you based on his conversations with USBC head lane man Eric Pierson and his observations of the following video.
First, expect more challenging conditions than you've encountered the past few years; and, second, it's imperative that if you want to bowl well as a team, you all need to be on the same page as to how you play the lanes. You can't start out with some guys playing straight up five and others swinging 15 and expect to carve out a forgiving shot that generates competitive scores.
Bowling great Pete Couture's team apparently went the rugged individualist route, and Couture ended up lamenting, "I think it's time to retire from bowling the USBC National tournament" after struggling to shoot 539 in the team event in which his team managed a disappointing 2964.
You can check out Richgel's informative blogpost here and watch the USBC's first official webcast of the tournament below.
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