Club invites green bowlers

It’s harder than it looks.

Lawn bowling takes skill and patience ? and the bowlers at the Newport Harbor Lawn Bowling Club are more than happy to show visitors how.

In an open house held Saturday, members of the lawn bowling club showed off their sport to everyone, offering free lessons ? and pizza ? to young and old.

The object of the game is simple: Whoever rolls the most bowls ? the oblong ball-looking objects are called bowls ? closest to the white ball, known as the jack, wins.

“It’s all hand-eye coordination,” event Chairman John Groothuis said.

One side of the bowl is weighted differently than the other. Depending on which way the bowl is rolled, it will arc. The game can be played one-on-one, in doubles or in triples.

The Newport Harbor club was started in 1939, when the green was originally on the Balboa Peninsula. In the late ‘70s, the club moved to its current location at San Joaquin Hills Road and Crown Drive in Corona del Mar.

The club has more than 100 members, including beginners and top-notch competitive bowlers. The $125 yearly membership gets members unlimited access to the greens and the clubhouse.

More experienced members often give free lessons to new bowlers, and the club regularly holds barbecues, potlucks and other events, Groothuis said.

“We teach them in five minutes, and it takes them a lifetime to perfect,” Groothuis said.

Charlie and Cathie Herbert and friends Clinton Gaughran and Dave Stennes went to the open house for a group introduction to lawn bowling Saturday. They were pleasantly surprised.

“The people are just so welcoming and have such a great, genuine attitude,” said Charlie Herbert, taking a break from the game over a few slices of pizza inside the clubhouse.

“I didn’t expect the weighting; I though they’d be round,” Cathie Herbert said of the bowls.

The first-time lawn bowlers said the game was relatively easy to pick up, especially with the eager instruction of helpful club members.

“We’re hooked,” Stennes said, after a particularly good roll.

After an afternoon on the green, the Herberts and Stennes said they’re ready to sign up.dpt.25-bowling-BPhotoInfoLB1SATG120060625j1dxmfncMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)First-time lawn bowler Dave Stennes of Costa Mesa rolls his bowl during a lawn bowling open house at the Newport Harbor Lawn Bowling Club.