Par score for a bowling centre?

[GeorgeF]

With the influx of scores over the past 5 years and with the new technology ball and oil companies have brought to the sport there has been a sharp increase in bowling averages at certain centres. It has become obvious that some centres are easier than others and that bowlers averages don't necessarily reflect one's ability. This raises heaps of issues when rolling off for Walter Devere and other average based events.

I wonder if TBA has ever thought of introducing a PAR system for bowling centres??

eg. Take the centres top 20 bowlers averages and then divide it by 20 to get a mean average. This score would either be + or - 200. So if the mean average of the bowlers was 193 the PAR for the centre would be -7.

Just an idea, no one that I have read has ever tried this anywhere in the world even though it has been talked about for years. Is there a better formula?? Do we really need it?

 

[boybrowny]

Good Try...

Good to see some ideas coming out on this topic - however this one would not be fair...

What if you bowl in a center like Milton where the top 20 players include 1/2 a dozen or more elite bowlers - then on the other hand someone may bowl in a bowling alley where the highest league bowler is only a 180 avg (yes these bowls exist) - you suggest that Milton PAR average should be say 203 and this other one should be 170 ???

The only true way to get a par average is to have a common gauge - Perhaps national tournaments could be an indicator.

EG - Average required to cut or cash at a national ratings tournament could be used as PAR for that centre???

Again, there are a lot of variables - but this may be a little more accurate.


I dont believe there is any way to provide a 100% fair system to gauge PAR for a center. I think the only way to really provide a ranking/ ratings system is to have the actual bowlers competing bowl on the same lanes on the same day and see how they stack up against each other.

Even this is not flawless - but it is the best we have.

Unfortunately, we dont have an Australian Keggel Training Centre where we can all go and find out how accurate/ consistent and able to adjust we really are.


Why do you think we need a center to center handicap anyhow?

(Just curious) - Anyone who wants to put themselves up against the nations best bowlers will surely make the effort to actually compete against them - bowling well in one center (any center) is far easier than bowling well in many.....



My two cents worth.....

 

[wots_ina_name]

Quote from boybrowny:
What if you bowl in a center like Milton where the top 20 players include 1/2 a dozen or more elite bowlers - then on the other hand someone may bowl in a bowling alley where the highest league bowler is only a 180 avg (yes these bowls exist) - you suggest that Milton PAR average should be say 203 and this other one should be 170 ???

That is so true my average is 208 and noone else in my center is really over 190

anyway thats my bit

 

[wots_ina_name]

GeorgeF

are your george frilingos (sorry if i didn't spell it right)

it's a good idea though if you could find a way 2 allow for average differnces and such over different centers like boybrowny was saying

 

[Andrew S.]

I rather like the idea of a par figure for centres.
How do they calculate the par for a golf course? Exactly whose scores do they take into consideration? And is the par changed very often?

 

[RobbieB]

As I have noted before on this subject, this idea has been kicked around a fair bit off & on on the newsgroup alt.sport.bowling, and it's also something I think will eventually happen (centre ratings). As for how, there are a number of ways I feel it could be done. The basic idea would be to compare the averages/scores of bowlers who bowl across a number of centres, either in league or tournaments. Marys' Twin Tour is the classic example, compare the averages shot at Caboolture to say Mount Warren for the whole field. Hopefully there should be enough bowlers who play league at different centres to get a reliable idea of typical scoring differences between centres.

Now, some places only have one centre (eg Cairns, Darwin), and for these places it may be possible to use tournament averages or averages from State/Nationals of bowlers from that centre to rate them. I don't think it would be that hard to get a general 'par' rating for centres, within say 5 pin bands. How that rating would be used or applied is another matter.