Simple math suggests rolling the ball straight up 3 board requires 14 boards hook to reach the pocket at 17 board. That's a pretty tight shot. A more typical house shot would require swinging the ball from 15 at the foul line to 10 at the arrows which would be about 22 boards hook out and back to the pocket.

I never would have thought I would only get 9 boards hook from my most aggressive equipment on the 32-foot Wolf pattern. The urethane ball and lev/diff drilled rubber ball I packed never saw the light of day. In practice, I was expecting to see my ball hook sharply off the end of this pattern, but instead it skid like it had been soaking in a bucket of WD-40. My first few shots with an Ascent Pearl at 4000 grit polished skid straight up 3 and never hooked back to the pocket.

It took 3-1/2 games to get over my disbelief. I finally got lined up standing 35, rolling the ball over 20, a line I might play on a longer, heavier pattern, and managed a couple strikes for my best game of the night, 180. Argh!

The general manager, also a lefty, was bowling a few lanes over. He was struggling to hook the ball, too. When I asked him what was going on, he mumbled something about the pattern being heavy up front. I am not buying it. I don't think the lanes were stripped, or there would have been SOME ball reaction. C'mon, 28 feet of dry lane and only 9 boards hook with a Raptor P7 sanded 1000 dull? Really?