These Guys Are Good

Perception vs. Reality
Remember the PGA marketing campaign; These guys are good? Everyone understands that PGA golfers are better than the scratch guys on the public links. Is there really a misconception that your association's top bowlers are just as good as PBA bowlers? ESPN and USBC seem to think that the general public thinks so. There may be some truth to that, but the PBA television audience is smarter than that. When I practice at Redstone Lanes and string 5 or 6 strikes in a row during lunch rush, I draw a crowd and a few compliments. I have to explain that the pros on television would average 250-260 at Redstone. If you ask your 220-230 average league bowler, they have a healthy respect for professionals and know it would be tough to compete against them on easy or hard conditions.

Ultimate Scoring
At the PBA Ultimate Scoring Championship, 4 of the 64 exempt players averaged over 240. Over two thirds of the field averaged over 220. What? That sounds like a Bowlers Advantage scratch tournament at Plamor on a house shot. According to bowl.com:

Typical league oil patterns usually are 38 to 42 feet in length and feature ratios in the 8-to-1 or 12-to-1 range. That means the oil pattern used during the Ultimate Scoring Championship, while easy by PBA standards, was approximately twice as difficult as most league oil patterns.

The PBA Ultimate Scoring patter featured a an oil ratio of 6-to-1 at 22 feet and 4-to-1 at 40 feet. Since PBA experience (and most Sport patterns) feature 3-to-1 ratios, the Ultimate Scoring pattern was still twice as easy as the typical PBA tournament pattern. The article shows the lane graphs of Ultimate Scoring pattern and the Chameleon pattern.

Who can read these things?
Can someone who understands how to read lane pattern graphs explain how this works? These graphs are posted at the USBC Open. At the last few Open Championships, I did not play where I thought I would after I "read" the lane graph. Also, opinions would be welcome about how the Kegel Challenge Series patterns compare to the PBA Ultimate Scoring pattern. The ratio for both series of patterns are the same at 3-to-1. Kegel describes the Challenge series as an intermediate set of patterns; harder than house shots, but easier than sport patterns.