If You’re a Serious Bowler, You Need to Know About Bowling Lane Oil
Lately, Kegel has been steadily improving its automation, to the point where today’s machines do the entire job without any human intervention. The lanes you and I bowl on as amateurs are oiled very differently from the ones pros use. At your local bowling center, public lanes are oiled in what’s referred to as a “high” ratio: The level of oil present in the middle of a lane is eight to 10 times higher than what’s on the outside. At the far left and right of the lane, many public bowling alleys have no oil at all. “On a normal pattern at your normal bowling center, there is some autocorrect,” Tackett says. Because the edges of the lane have very little oil, shots that drift to either side will slow down; if the ball has been thrown with the proper spin to guide it back toward the middle of the lane, it will curl more effectively on the drier surface. “It makes it easier to hit the pocket.” (By “the pocket,” Tacket means that sweet …
