Expert: - 12/31/2008

Question
I bowl on wood lanes in a small 12 lane house and have found that most nights no matter what pair of lanes I am on I find that the left lane is tighter than the right lane. With the conditioning machine running the same program for all the lanes how is this possible?

Answer
Alex,
The topography of the lane influences how a lane plays. When lanes are sanded, slight deviations can influence how a ball rolls on those lanes.

While there is only .0040 of an inch tolerance, dips and depressions can influence conditioner and ball reaction.

If your rolling on the outside edge of a depression, the ball will hook more because the ball is rolling downhill moving left toward the pins (for a righthander). If you are rolling on the inside edge, the ball is rolling uphill moving left toward the pins, it will hook less, skid further and be influenced by lane conditioner longer.

Thanks for the question.