The 32nd New York State Masters Championship will be staged on March 5, 2022 at the AMF Dewey Garden Lanes at Rochester.

The first place prize of $2,000 is based on 96 entries, and the champion wins a paid entry to the 2023 USBC Masters.

The entry fee is $100. You only bowl once as there is no re-entry.

From 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. bowlers will bowl five games in the qualifying squads and the head-to-head finals begins at 5:30 p.m.

$5 brackets will be conducted during the qualifying squads. The field is limited to the first 136 paid entries.

The oil pattern will be a Sport Condition custom designed by Kagel.

Entry forms may be obtained online and a check should be mailed to the New York State USBC, 9 Tanager Rd., Brewster, NY 10509. Make checks payable to NYS USBC.

Their email is bowlnysusbc@gmail.com and the phone number is 845-363-1374. The website is www.bowlny.com.

No Tap Tourney at Port Jervis Bowl

A singles 9-pin no-tap tournament will be held Sunday, November 14 at Port Jervis Bowl with a 10 a.m. start and registration from 9 to 9:30 in the morning.

There is a $30 pre-paid entry fee by November 7.

Go to Facebook and type in portjervisbowlingleagues to find the no-tap entry form, fill it out completely and either bring the form to Port Jervis Bowl by November 7 or email to pjbowlnotap@gmail.com and send payment via PayPal (friends/family option) to paypal.me/pjbowlnotap.

The walk-in day of tournament fee will be $35. Pre-registration is highly recommended.

Handicap will be 80% of 230. If no verified USBC average, 230 will be used.

Prize fund will be paid at a 1-16 ratio. Results will be listed at TournamentBowl.com

Ed’s Outlook

The 2022 Guaranteed Rate PBA Tour schedule has been released and an action packed season awaits the world's greatest bowlers.

The 64th Professional Bowlers Association Tour's road to the PBA Playoffs begins in January with the first of 13 official events.

Players will battle for titles and positioning until April, when the top 16 players on the points list earn a trip to the Playoffs.

Every match of the PBA Playoffs elimination bracket will be televised with the ultimate finals match on the Fox Broadcast Channel on Sunday, May 15, 2022.

Kyle Troup is the defending champion of the PBA Playoffs winning a record $496,900 in 2021.

Among the 13 regular season Tour events are the five major championships, each awarding $100,000 first place prizes.

Fox Sports Network is the primary television home of the PBA Tour season.

Guaranteed Rate, one of the 5 retail mortgage lenders in the United States, continues as title sponsor of the PBA Tour.

The entire PBA schedule is at www.PBA.com and click PBA National Tour.

Bowling Tip by Mike Luongo

Bowling has reached a real fork in the road. Never has the gap between league bowler and the elite professional bowler been larger.

Some league bowlers routinely average 230+ on lane conditions that are engineered by bowling centers to allow recreational bowlers to get maximum pleasure from their league experience by carrying inflated averages that mean absolutely nothing in the real bowling world.

The USBC does absolutely nothing to preserve the integrity of the game. They only minimally regulate bowling balls and allow bowling centers to put out conditions that are so forgiving that honor scores are really a thing of the past as they are so common today for league bowlers.

When these same league bowlers go to the USBC Nationals each year, they are routinely deflated when they have to bowl on a lane condition that requires accuracy and repeat ability to yield high scores.

On the other hand, you have the PBA. Each year the Professional Bowlers Association comes up with new and more difficult oil patterns to challenge the game's elite players.

The newest patterns, introduced a couple of years ago, challenge the players to unheard of degrees. From the 32 feet Wolf pattern that reduce the greatest players in the world to using non-aggressive urethane equipment, to the 54 feet Badger pattern that leaves only eight feet of friction past the pattern for the ball to react.

The new patterns have put elite bowlers in the unenviable position of looking like rank amateurs on televised matches that are routinely viewed by league bowlers who have no understanding of the impact of oil patterns on bowling performance.

Something needs to happen at this critical fork in the road for bowling. Either the USBC needs to start regulating oil patterns at the league level, or the PBA needs to start putting out variations of house shots and let the best bowlers in the world carry 260 averages.

As putting out tougher house shots would undoubtedly result in the loss of a large percentage of house bowlers, the PBA softening up the pro patterns is really the only viable alternative.