I've lived in Sacramento since late 2004. Reno's National Bowling Stadium has hosted the USBC Open Championships three times since I've lived here. The National Bowling Stadium is only 131 miles away from my driveway, according to Google Maps. Yet, despite the fact that some travel thousands of miles to bowl the Open, I've never bowled "nationals," and I won't be bowling this year either. Why is that?
Well, for one thing, I'm too darn lousy a bowler to waste that much money on a tournament. If there's one thing I've learned from doing this blog, watching Xtra Frame, and from my humiliating experience this interminable season in a travel scratch league, it's that even though I never thought I was very good, I'm a lot, lot worse than I thought. The fact that I didn't bowl well in the two tournaments I've bowled at the National Stadium also doesn't light my fire to bowl the Open there this year.
And if that's not enough to keep me away, I see guys like Matt McNiel bowling monster scores there. And lest you say, "Well, he's a lefty. Maybe you can't beat the lefties at the Stadium, but you can hang with your fellow righties," I counter with, "Well what about Matt Weggen?"
Matt Weggen (see photo above) is a 31-year-old right-hander who took the singles and all-events lead at the Open this year by shooting 806 in doubles and 826 in singles yesterday, April 19. Now, how the hell can mere mortals like me compete with that and all the other 800 series, 300 games, and 2100+ all-events totals that have already been shot?
And what's with with all these astronomical scores? I don't expect the USBC Open to put out a U.S. Open oil pattern, but it's still supposed to be a "sport" condition, and people tell me it's tough. So why are all these guys I've never heard of before shooting these monstrous scores? And if they can do it, why can't I? Well, because if I can't even average 200 in a travel league on house conditions, how am I going to average 230+ on a "sport" pattern in the biggest bowling tournament on earth, no matter how loosely the term "sport" may apply to the lane conditions in Reno right now?
How about you? Are you bowling nationals this year, even if your name isn't Matt? If so, how do you feel about going up against these incredible scores?
