If you got a chance to watch the professional women bowl on ESPN today, you would have seen a new scoring format introduced to the sport of bowling. This new system is called the Petraglia scoring system. Created by PBA Hall of Famer Johnny Petraglia, the Petraglia Scoring System ignores pinfall, but counts the number of balls thrown to clear the deck in each frame. A strike thus equals a “1″ and a typical spare would result in a “2″ for the frame. A 7-10 split, however, might require three balls for a “3″ and a miss could escalate the score for the frame.
Under the Petraglia system, the lowest score wins. Players will bowl their entire game on one lane. The 10th frame will be treated like a normal frame. A perfect Petraglia game would be a “10″ for 10 strikes. Any ties will be broken by a one-ball sudden-death roll-off.
I think this is a great idea for a scoring system. Very similar to golf, the person with the lowest score wins. I think we’re going to start seeing this system used more often in leagues and tournaments. Eventually when someone asks you what your bowling average is, you can tell them proudly that you’re average is down to 18.
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I loved it! I cant wait to start it in one of my tournaments run in Oregon.
I am from Georgia and our 200 Club is going to hold a meeting to discuss a tournament using the Petraglia Scoring System. Sounds like great fun and then we can all show what we are made of. haha
That sounds like fun. I'm hoping we can get a tournament together with this format down here in Florida.
Please tell me exactly how the tournament was scored. I heard about it however do not understand how the strikes were scored along with the additional ball deliveries.
Linda Johnson
thumpr2@verizon.net
If you get a strike you will receive a "1", spare is "2", if it takes more than you count the number of balls thrown. All pins must be cleared off the deck. A perfect game is a "10". Another words, you keep throwing balls until they all go down. Lowest score wins.
How would you be able to implement this is a league, when the pinsetters reset a full rack after 2 shots?