Relative Cash...Bowling vs. Golf

[DGS49]

This afternoon on the Telly, one could watch the finals of the PBA Tournament of Champions, one of the biggest bowling tournaments of the year. The PBA includes bowlers from around the world and it probably features the top bowlers anywhere. Jason Belmonte ("Belmo") is not exactly the "Tiger Woods" of bowling, but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to compare him with Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer. He won five consecutive one-game matches to win this tournament, and its $101k prize money.

The PGA tournament this week was the Valspar Open, which is nice, but definitely a second tier event. The golfer who took away the championship, one Taylor Moore, went home with a check for a million and a half. The lower-level finishers won amounts that would be laughable in golf. Not sure what the LIV champion this week, but it was certainly more than Moore won at Valspar.

I would guess that there are as many bowlers in the U.S. as there are golfers, but revenue is what it is. Not many of us are interested in watching it on television.

 

[Anomalism]

Man, we got kids out here winning multimillions playing a video game. 100k? Professional bowling needs to up its game.

 

[Moonglow]

The last time I watched Arnold Palmer had blonde hair and was skinny.

 

[Moonglow]

Man, we got kids out here winning multimillions playing a video game. 100k? Professional bowling needs to up it's game.

They are still in the league with roller derby pay.

 

[toobfreak]

Jason Belmonte ("Belmo") is not exactly the "Tiger Woods" of bowling, but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to compare him with Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer.

WAIT. Are you claiming that Woods is a whole magnitude better above Palmer or Nicklaus?

 

[konradv]

This afternoon on the Telly, one could watch the finals of the PBA Tournament of Champions, one of the biggest bowling tournaments of the year. The PBA includes bowlers from around the world and it probably features the top bowlers anywhere. Jason Belmonte ("Belmo") is not exactly the "Tiger Woods" of bowling, but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to compare him with Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer. He won five consecutive one-game matches to win this tournament, and its $101k prize money.

The PGA tournament this week was the Valspar Open, which is nice, but definitely a second tier event. The golfer who took away the championship, one Taylor Moore, went home with a check for a million and a half. The lower-level finishers won amounts that would be laughable in golf. Not sure what the LIV champion this week, but it was certainly more than Moore won at Valspar.

I would guess that there are as many bowlers in the U.S. as there are golfers, but revenue is what it is. Not many of us are interested in watching it on television.

The problem with bowling is that it's always the same ten pins at the end of the same lane, Golf can get a lot more creative with its venue and it's outside. The PBA will never be close.

 

[toobfreak]

The problem with bowling is that it's always the same ten pins at the end of the same lane, Golf can get a lot more creative with its venue and it's outside. The PBA will never be close.

Oddly, I caught pro bowling on TV today and watched a little bit. The pins are set up like dominoes that your best chance of a strike would be to hit the pins head on, yet, player after player came up throwing these crazy spins that almost had the ball go into the right gutter to recover just in time to hit the stack from the right side curving in toward the left! And almost every time, they missed getting the strike, leaving 1-3 pins on the right missed because the ball was headed the other way.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Oddly, I caught pro bowling on TV today and watched a little bit. The pins are set up like dominoes that your best chance of a strike would be to hit the pins head on, yet, player after player came up throwing these crazy spins that almost had the ball go into the right gutter to recover just in time to hit the stack from the right side curving in toward the left! And almost every time, they missed getting the strike, leaving 1-3 pins on the right missed because the ball was headed the other way.

Actually no. Hitting the pins head on is the surest way to a 7/10 split. The ideal is to "hit the "pocket" just to the right side of the head pin if you are a righty, and the left side if you are a lefty.

 

[toobfreak]

Actually no. Hitting the pins head on is the surest way to a 7/10 split.

Well, when I bowled, it worked for me far more than for these "professionals."

The ideal is to "hit the "pocket" just to the right side of the head pin if you are a righty, and the left side if you are a lefty.

Well, that may be what they were trying, but from what I saw, they were having a harder time of getting THAT right than old bowlers of my day just smashing the pins head on.

 

[1srelluc]

I remember in the early days of TV bowling was very popular.



Back in the early 60s there was a duck-pin bowling show on WBAL out of Mudermore/DC.