Cold Start to City Tournament
With temperatures cold enough to freeze your hair off, Madison Bowling Association members hit the lanes to kick off the first weekend of the annual Association Championship tournament.
The USBC White 2 condition proved very challenging to the competitors. The condition was selected for its additional volume to combat the high friction surface at Badger Bowl. Other USBC White conditions have been used in tournaments at Badger, but reportedly have insufficient volume to hold up over the course of event. This will not be the case for the city tournament.
The current standings can be viewed here.
Negative numbers abound in the standings, many even occupying first place in a number of categories. The condition did yield plenty of strikes – even a couple of 300 games – but strings of strikes were atypical as bowlers contended with little miss room to the right or left. Remember, you can’t compare your tournament scores to your league average, an “average” day at the city tournament may be worth cash this year! Keeping the ball in play, leaving (and converting) spares, and staying focused will be keys to cashing in the tournament this year.
If you win a championship or title this year, you will have certainly earned it. Which, really, is the point of using a moderately challenging condition for the Association Tournament. We want to reward good bowling, not good scoring.
