The first ever Sunway Super Clash will be happening on the 26th of June (Thursday), and we’re excited to bring the fun to our valuable customers - More prize money!!

To make things even more interesting, the 2025 USBC Masters pattern is the pattern of choice for this event, featuring a 44 feet flat and inverted pattern - in which many bowlers refer to it as the “Hourglass” pattern. What makes this pattern so difficult, and why? Is there any way to score in one of the toughest featured USBC oil patterns up to date?

More about this pattern - The Hourglass pattern was the official oil pattern throughout the 2025 USBC Masters tournament, in which the top 63 bowlers in the 15-game qualifying will bowl a double-elimination bracket, a 3-game total pinfall series to determine the winner. Scores were very fluctuating from pair to pair, and bowler to bowler. But remember, the good news is that no matter how hard the pattern is, there will always be a strategy to tackle the oil pattern by matching up your bowling style with your equipment, creating a strategy/gameplan. This significantly improves your chances of a more consistent breakdown, leading to more consistent and higher scores. 

Majority of the PBA bowlers started around the 1st half arrow with some surface and big engine balls.. before shifting in to the oil (2nd-3rd arrow) with more symmetrical pieces. This helped them to create some friction on the right, maintaining their first game score and having some area on the second game onwards. Those that broke down the lane well had impressive series - 700 to 750 series, on a flat 1 to 1.5 ratio oil pattern. The takeaway is as mentioned - there will always be a way to match up to the lane no matter how difficult the pattern is, but understanding your own style and your equipment.

Now that we know more information on the pattern, what are the strategies that can be used on the 44 feet pattern? Here are some suggestions, this will vary from bowler to bowler, so to make it easy to understand, I will segregate it into two groups - the speed dominant and the rev dominant bowlers.

Speed dominant

Fresh - Strong core and cover asymmetrical bowling balls are the ball or choice, playing the outside part at 1 half and keeping it real tight to the pocket, looking at breakpoint 10-11-12 should be the play, as the pattern is long and flat, having a bit of belly or swing may result in more washouts or 7-counts from the right. It is recommended to always keep straighter angles when the lanes are fresh, to encourage a more predictable transition during the upcoming games.

Breakdown - Strong cores with pearlized or polished hybrid or solids will work better when moving in, giving the ball more length and keeping the pocket in play. Parallel moves are more recommended, with abit of miss area to the right, there should be some area when adjusting parallel rather than opening angles.

Rev dominant bowlers

Fresh - Rev dominant bowlers typically struggle to keep the ball in line due to their higher rev rate. A symmetrical piece with a solid cover will work well on the track (10 board), making the ball more predictable reaching the breakpoint.

Breakdown - once the lanes have broken down better, area opens up and the higher revs will enjoy some hook to the right (not too right till the out of bounce at 8 board), and some hold on the left. Symmetricals would be the play too.

Disclaimer : The above strategies are only suggestions, and it will vary from bowler to bowler based on their speed, rev rate, axis tilt, equipment, etc. 

The 2025 USBC Masters pattern is one of the toughest USBC patterns up to date, and brings a new level of challenge to bowlers from different skill levels. 

We wish everyone participating in the Sunway Super Clash a very happy and enjoyable tournament, testing your skills and improving your tactics and equipment, as well as plenty of strikes from your gameplan and strategies!