My first thoughts are that neither pattern looks all that difficult. They said doubles and singles will play like last year's pattern, but softer. And the team pattern looks quite a bit softer than the doubles/single pattern. I would think scores are going to be up this year. Maybe not as high as 2011, but surely higher than 2012.

The early leaders:

Regular Division

Team: The Legend of Dung Ho (Cerritos, CA) 3,114
Doubles: Bo Johnson & Doug McHugh (Huron, SD) 1,300
Singles: Scott Salinas (Racine, WI) 731
All-Events: Richard Thomas (Middleton, WI) 2,051

Classified Division

Team: Merry Lanes 2 (Sanborn, IA) 2,489
Doubles: Richard Janicke (Lena, IL) & Richard Eisenhut (Downers Grove, IL) 1,134
Singles: James Kennedy (Plattsburg, MO) 631
All-Events: Tyler Stockeland (Hannaford, ND) 1,717

As of 5 PM local time yesterday, there have been just 5 700 series on the lanes, with Richard Thomas sharing the high series with Michael Snow (Windsor, ON), both with 737 in team.

Jeff Richgels on 11thFrame.com said the team pattern will probably play similar to the 2011 pattern. He also interviewed Kegel president Chris Chartrand about the new "Ice" conditioner being used in the tournament, which will be officially released in April to bowling centers.

Just seen on BowlTV...Jason Narlock threw a 299 in singles, leaving just the strong 7 (right-handed).

The new "Ice" conditioner is supposed to be thicker than most conditioners, and the Storm site is recommending using balls with some surface (2000-4000 or even as much as 1000). The ball that they laid out doing their Vector Layout System demo for one of their staffers had a fairly short pin to PAP (2 1/2"), a long mb to PAP (6 1/2") and a fairly short pin buffer (1 1/2") on a Sync. I'll have something similar with me when I go.

http://www.bowl.com/news/newsdetails.aspx?id=12884907304

Scott Hartnell (50, Kenosha, WI) teamed with his son Derek (25), a two-time All-American and the 2009-10 collegiate MVP for Newman, to take the Regular Doubles lead on Saturday, with Derek bowling 739 and Scott 602 for a 1,341 total.

http://www.bowl.com/news/newsdetails.aspx?id=12884907301

Also that day, Wally's Pau Hana Club (Honolulu, HI) bowled games of 813, 829, and 933 for the Classified Team lead with a 2,575 total, with Roy Umehara leading the way with a 643 set. The team took the lead from Adelmann Dentistry of North Miami, FL, which took the lead earlier in the day with 2,504.

http://www.bowl.com/news/newsdetails.aspx?id=12884907312

The write-up for Jason Narlock's 299 game...he's a 46 year old from Bronson, MI who was making his first Open appearance. He threw the game after starting singles with a 159 game and switching to a 20 year old ball. He finished w/ a 234 game and is 5th in Regular Singles with 692.

http://www.bowl.com/news/newsdetails.aspx?id=12884907309

As of yesterday, Dykeman's Farm (Pleasant Valley, NY) was leading Team All-Events with a total of 9,119.

My suggestion for anybody planning to bowl the USBC Open (or any other major tournament) is to find a place to practice on the pattern, preferably with downlane markers to check your accuracy. If not the same pattern, then sport patterns of similar length. Neither may play exactly like the actual tournament, but it will be helpful to practice on patterns more challenging than your typical house shot.

Agree with the poster above. Find this shot to practice on. I bowled on it Sunday at my local house and it's even different than most sport patterns I bowl. The team shot is very long and pretty tight. My two tips:

1) Make sure your team plays as a team to break down the pattern. Five different angles will not work well.
2) Speed kills. (this is a tough one for me because I naturally throw it 19.5-20 mph but slower the better otherwise you'll be leaving flat 10's all day).

Agreed, Joe- if you only bowl on house conditions, you're in for a rude awakening when you get out there. One of the centers I bowl in will put down the pattern for us to practice on, albeit with their oil, not "Ice" (at least not yet). As long as the length is there, and it's fairly flat, it will give you a good idea of how to attack them.

The Monday night league here will be using the team shot, but the closest thing we have to good OC bowlers are the two NEBA regulars I mentioned on the Cambridge 1 team. Speaking of which, I was browsing NEBA's website last night and noted that Bryan O'Keefe is also a past NEBA champion.