Todd Pettengill started bowling in team leagues at Lucky Strike Georgetown, which is owned and operated by Bowlero, last year.
“League bowling is really fun,” Mr. Pettengill said. “I joined because I'm retired and my daughter kind of pushed me. She said, ‘You need to get out and just meet people.’ ” Mr. Pettengill was happy to report that he has made many great friends through bowling, more than he has through any other activity.
Bowling is considered one of the oldest sports in human history — with archeological evidence from Ancient Egypt that a version of the sport was played 5,000 years ago. The US was the first country to formalize it as a team sport in 1895; it became standard to have leagues with four to five players on each team. In modern-day Georgetown, there are a variety of bowling leagues. Mr. Pettengill started bowling last summer and has since gotten really into the sport.
Mr. Pettengill is part of four different leagues, including The Usual Suspects, Three Amigos and Lori, Damn 10 Pin and the Pin Strikers. Each league plays one day per week.
Mr. Pettengill said there’s a ‘handicap system’ that makes it so people who are newer to the game get points. However, there are no bumpers allowed. Before each round, Mr. Pettengill said, there is 15 minutes of practice. This allows players to test the ‘lane conditions’ and decide which ball to use.
“I'll stand in my normal spot and see what the ball is doing, because that lane may not be acting the same day to day,” he said. “The temperature is different, the humidity is different. Different things affect the condition of the lanes.” The lanes are oiled everyday by the alley, which means that there may be a different oil pattern which affects the way the ball rolls. Bowlero uses a standard oil pattern known as a “house shot,” which makes scoring easier for bowlers. This pattern features more oil in the middle of the lane and less on the outsides, creating a “wall” of oil. This helps guide the ball toward the pocket if it’s not thrown perfectly straight; the ball can hook back toward the center thanks to the difference in oil distribution.
“If you throw your ball in the dry, it's gonna hook more than if you leave it in the oil,” Mr. Pettengill explained. “In the oil— it'll slide a little bit more.”
Mr. Pettengill plans to go to a national bowling competition next year with a group of friends from the league. He is hoping to get better before then because the oil pattern on the lane makes it more difficult. However, he said aspects of the league are very much so fun oriented and not every player is so competitive.
“You walk by tables [at Bowlero]. You hear all conversations. People talking about sports, people talking about their grandkids, people talking about yard work. It's camaraderie,” he said.
Some players play a card game during the game or eat food from the bowling alley’s restaurant and get a beer. There’s a mystery score every game that players can enter for a dollar and can win some “fun money,” Mr. Pettengill said.
“The nice thing about bowling is you don't have to be an athlete,” he said. “You can bowl from eight to 90. There's two people over 90 in the league, and they're very good bowlers, because they've been bowling for 50 years.”
Mr. Pettengill has gotten his own grandchildren involved in bowling because it has become an accredited college sport with scholarship opportunities. “There are kids that started bowling really young and are now paying their college is being paid for—on a bowling scholarship,” Mr. Pettengill said excitedly.
To learn more about joining a league at Bowlero, email Jamie Grimes, the league coordinator at jgrimes@bowlero.com.