Is the Greek Church (4-6-7-9-10) Really the Hardest Split in Bowling?

Short answer: by the numbers, yes.

Not the 7-10. Not the Big Four. The 4-6-7-9-10, the one your league calls the Greek Church, is the least-converted leave in professional bowling.

Pros make it about 0.2 percent of the time. Roughly once every 390 tries.

That number comes from the biggest public study anyone has done on this. Ben Blatt pulled more than 447,000 PBA frames off PBA.com going back to 2003, threw out the strikes, and studied the 180,000 frames where somebody had a leave to shoot at. The Greek Church came out dead last. You can read his full breakdown at Slate, and the USBC cites the same data on bowl.com.

So the movie was wrong. Kingpin told a generation that the 7-10 is “by far the most difficult.” It isn’t even top three.

Here’s the part nobody covers, though. Knowing the Greek Church is the hardest split does not help you on league night. What helps is knowing why you left it, how to stop leaving it, and what to actually shoot when it’s staring at you in the eighth frame of a tie game.

That’s what the rest of this is.

What the Greek Church Actually Is

The classic Greek Church is the 4-6-7-9-10.

Five pins standing. Two on the left (4 and 7). Three on the right (6, 9, 10). Nothing in the middle.

It has a mirror twin, the 4-6-7-8-10, which flips the count: three on the left, two on the right. Same family, same name.

The PBA’s official bowling lingo glossary actually lists two definitions, and both are worth knowing:

1. A five-pin split like the 4-6-7-9-10, named because it looks like an old cathedral church with spires.
2. Any split with three pins on one side of the lane and two on the other.

So if a teammate calls a 4-6-8-10 a Greek Church, they’re not wrong under definition two. But when people argue about the hardest shot in bowling, they mean the five-pin version.

The name is pure visual. Stand behind the rack and the outside pins read like towers with the center hollowed out. Somebody decades ago thought it looked like an Orthodox cathedral, and it stuck.

The Numbers: Greek Church vs 7-10 vs Big Four

Here’s how the worst leaves in pro bowling actually stack up, from Blatt’s sample of PBA frames:

A few things jump out.

The 7-10 is third. Famous, but third.

More pins does not mean easier. The 4-6-7 is harder than the 7-10 even though there’s an extra pin to work with. Pins only help you if they can travel sideways, and on these leaves they mostly don’t.

The mirror images are not equal. The 4-6-7-9-10 converts at 0.2 percent. Its twin, the 4-6-7-8-10, converts at 1.3 percent. That’s more than six times better for what looks like the same shot flipped. Blatt treated mirrors as separate shots for exactly this reason, and he was honest that some of the gap could be noise and some could be handedness. Combine both Greek Church variants and the rate lands at 0.4 percent, still the worst grouping on the board.

Why “Hardest” Is Closer Than the Chart Looks

We’re not going to hand you a stat and pretend it’s gospel.

The 4-6-7-9-10 showed up 785 times in that sample. At a 0.2 percent conversion rate, that means the pros made it once or twice in the entire data set. Two shots.

Two makes is not a lot to build a ranking on. Blatt said so himself. He set a floor of 50 occurrences for a leave to qualify, and he flagged that the top of the list is close enough that you can’t declare one shot definitively harder than another.

Then there’s the guy who actually bowls for a living. Blatt asked Parker Bohn III, sixth all time in PBA titles, what the hardest shot is. Bohn didn’t say the Greek Church. He said the Big Four. And he called the 7-10 a “very possible split” for a good bowler.

Both things can be true. The Greek Church converts least often in the data. The Big Four is the one pros hate seeing most, because it comes up more and it feels makeable right up until it isn’t.

Either way, you’re not making it. Plan accordingly.

Why You Leave the Greek Church in the First Place

This is the part the trivia pages skip, and it’s the only part that changes your average.

Look at what’s down when you leave a 4-6-7-9-10: the 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8.

That is the entire middle of the rack, in a straight line, with both outsides untouched. The ball went through the nose.

Here’s the chain of events. The ball hits the head pin flush instead of the pocket. The head pin sprays the 2 and the 3 straight back into the pit instead of sideways into the 4 and the 6. The ball keeps driving through the middle and takes out the 5 and the 8. Nothing ever gets sent to the corners, so the corners stay up.

The Greek Church is not a bad-luck leave. It’s a nose hit with dead ball motion.

The PBA glossary defines “high” as a ball hitting more toward the center of the head pin, and notes it often leaves a split. It defines “flat” as a ball that deflects too much with few revolutions. Put those two together and you have manufactured a Greek Church.

Two things usually cause it:

You’re hitting it too high. Your line is a board or two tight, or the lanes moved and you didn’t. Classic sign the pattern is breaking down and your ball is reading earlier than it did in game one.

Your ball has nothing left at the pins. Rolled out, burned up, or just too weak for the condition. It arrives straight, with no side rotation, and it plows through the middle instead of driving through the pocket at an angle. Weak entry angle is what turns a high hit into a five-pin split instead of a 4-pin tap.

If you leave one Greek Church in a season, it was a shot. If you leave two in a night, it’s a message about your line or your ball.

How to Stop Leaving It

You cannot prevent a leave you already have. You can stop the next one.

1. Move in, not out. If you’re going high, get your feet left (right for a lefty) and let the ball come back to the pocket instead of walking it in there. Small move first. One board with your feet, keep your target.

2. Check the ball, not just the line. If the ball is rolling out before the breakpoint, no line fix will save you. That’s a surface or a ball change. A cleaner, later-reading piece with a fresher surface will hold angle at the pins.

3. Ask what changed since game one. Nose hits late in a set are almost always transition. The heads are open, your ball is reading two feet earlier, and the line that struck in the first game is now a hair tight.

4. Slow down before you speed up. Bowlers who go high often try to muscle it. Adding speed with the same release usually just makes the ball flatter. Match speed to your revs first.

5. Don’t chase one shot. One high hit is not data. Two in a row on the same line is. Chasing a single bad rack is how a good night turns into a 170.

What to Actually Shoot When You Get One

Now the real question. It’s sitting there. What do you do?

Take the count.

Here’s the math, and it’s not close. On a Greek Church, five pins are already down. If you shoot the three-pin side and clean it, you score 8 for the frame. If you go hero at the four-pin and clip one, you score 6. Sometimes 7.

That’s a two-pin swing per attempt. Over a season of league, that’s real. Over a team game where you’re chasing 20 pins, it’s the difference.

So:

Take the three-pin side if you can cover it clean. On the 4-6-7-9-10, that’s the 6-9-10. Shoot it like you’d shoot a corner pin on that side and drive it flush so nothing chops.

Take the two-pin side if that’s the side your spare game actually covers. For a lot of right-handers, the 4-7 is the more repeatable shot than the 6-9-10, because it’s the same look as their 4 pin. Seven pins with your best shot beats eight pins with a shot you miss half the time. Know your own spare system and use it.

Never chop. Hitting the 6 and leaving the 9 or the 10 is the worst outcome on the board. Get the ball through the cluster, not around it.

When is the hero shot worth it? Only when the count genuinely does not matter. Last frame of a match you’ve already lost. A practice set where you’re learning what your ball does off the sidewall. Anything else, take the eight and go bowl the next frame.

If you want the full framework for the leaves you actually can make, we broke that down in how to pick up spares and convert splits and in the guide to baby splits.

One more thing that surprises people: missing a split is not scored as an error. The PBA glossary defines a blow as failing to convert a spare other than a split. Your frame is still open, but nobody’s charging you with a mistake. The scoresheet already knows that shot wasn’t fair.

The Only Two Men to Make It on Television

It has happened. Twice, on TV, ever.

Doug Kent converted the 4-6-7-9-10 on the telecast at the 1990 PBA National Championship. It was his first time on a televised show. He lost his next match and finished fourth, which is a very bowling way for that story to end.

Alan Bishop converted the mirror version, the 4-6-7-8-10, on the 1992 Quaker State Open telecast.

That’s the whole list. Decades of televised professional bowling, two Greek Churches.

For comparison, the 7-10 has been made on TV four times: Mark Roth in 1980, Jess Stayrook in 1991, John Mazza in 1992, and Anthony Neuer at the 2021 U.S. Open. Twice as many, and the 7-10 is the split people call impossible.

If you ever make one, film it. You’ll be joining a list that has two names on it.

Greek Church FAQ

What is the Greek Church split in bowling?

It’s the 4-6-7-9-10 leave, five pins with two on one side of the lane and three on the other, and a hole through the middle. The 4-6-7-8-10 is the mirror version and carries the same name. The PBA also uses “Greek Church” more loosely for any split with three pins on one side and two on the other.

Why is it called the Greek Church?

Because the standing pins look like an old cathedral with spires. The PBA’s own glossary says exactly that. It has nothing to do with any actual church or city.

Is the Greek Church harder than the 7-10 split?

Yes, based on the data. Pros convert the 4-6-7-9-10 about 0.2 percent of the time versus 0.7 percent for the 7-10. That’s the 7-10 being roughly three times more makeable. Fair warning though: the sample of Greek Church makes is tiny, so treat the ranking as strong evidence, not settled law.

Has anyone converted the Greek Church on TV?

Two bowlers. Doug Kent at the 1990 PBA National Championship (the 4-6-7-9-10) and Alan Bishop at the 1992 Quaker State Open (the 4-6-7-8-10).

How do you pick up the 4-6-7-9-10?

Realistically, you don’t. The percentage play is to shoot the three-pin cluster, the 6-9-10, and take 8 pins for the frame. If you insist on trying to convert it, you’re aiming to drive one corner pin flat across the deck into the other side, and you need a bounce off the sidewall or out of the pit to have any chance.

Is the 4-6-7-8-10 the same split as the 4-6-7-9-10?

Same name, different shot. It’s the mirror image, and it converts at about 1.3 percent versus 0.2 percent. Six times more makeable for what looks like the identical leave flipped over.

Does missing a split count as an error?

No. Under the standard definition, a blow or error is failing to convert a spare that isn’t a split. The frame is still open and it still costs you pins. It just isn’t charged as an error.

What ball should I use to shoot it?

Whatever you shoot corners with. This is a spare shot, not a strike shot. A plastic or urethane spare ball keeps the shot straight and predictable, which is exactly what you want when you’re covering three pins in a row. If you don’t own one, that’s the cheapest average bump in the game. Grab some gear in the Bowling Addicts pro shop while you’re at it.

10th Frame Final Thoughts

The Greek Church is the hardest leave in bowling, and the honest version of that sentence has an asterisk. It converts least often in the largest data set we have. The sample of successful conversions is two shots. Parker Bohn III would tell you the Big Four is worse. All of that is true at the same time.

But none of it is the useful part.

The useful part is that you left it because the ball went through the nose with nothing on it. That’s a fixable problem. Move in, check what your ball is doing at the breakpoint, and stop chasing a line the lanes already took away.

And when you do get one, take the eight. Hero shots feel great and cost pins. We’d rather you go down swinging on the shots you can actually make.

Stay hungry.