Letter from the Editor

Interesting, Unique and Entertaining

If you didn’t watch the PBA Women’s Series Showdown on Easter Sunday; which subsequently aired partially against the Master’s: you really did miss a treat of a bowling show.

First, the format of the show was interesting and entertaining. Three of the six ladies bowled the first match with the winner advancing automatically to the finals. The remaining three bowled the second match with that winner also advancing to the finals. Of the four remaining players, the top three scores moved to the wild card match. The winner of the wild card match moved on to the winner take all final.

Secondly, the environment was unique. For those who have never had the opportunity to visit the Kegel Training Center, you really are missing out on a true bowling experience. The Kegel Training Center is a unique scoring environment as when it was built, it was designed with optimum scoring conditions in mind. Additionally, there is CATS (Computer Aided Tracking Systems) on every lane allowing one to get real time data for each shot thrown. There are also cameras mounted on each pair for coaching analysis of a player’s physical game from various angles.

Lastly, the Showdown used a unique scoring system similar to golf scoring. Rather than counting the number of pins knocked down, the score reflects the number of shots required to knock down all of the pins in each frame. A strike in a frame would be a score of one; a spare would be a two; a split might be a three or even more. A perfect score in this; the Petraglia scoring system; would be a 10.

Because of the unique scoring, the format and the environment, the show was very entertaining (read a full recap of the event inside on pages four and five). Additionally, it was great to see the women on TV featured in their own competition. One can only hope that the women were able to pull good ratings as this writer for one would love to see more women’s bowling on TV.