Five-pin bowling is a bowling

Bowling

Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...

 variant which is played only in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, where most bowling alleys offer it, either alone or in combination with ten-pin bowling

Ten-pin bowling

Ten-pin bowling is a competitive sport in which a player rolls a bowling ball down a wooden or synthetic lane with the objective of scoring points by knocking down as many pins as possible.-Summary:The lane is bordered along its length by semicylindrical channels Ten-pin bowling (commonly just...

. It was devised around 1909 by Thomas F. Ryan

Thomas F. Ryan

Thomas F. "Tommy" Ryan was a Canadian sportsman and entrepreneur who created five-pin bowling.Born in Guelph, Ontario, Ryan moved to Toronto at age 18...

 in Toronto, Ontario, at his Toronto Bowling Club, in response to customers who complained that the ten-pin game was too strenuous. He cut five tenpins down to about 75% of their size, and used hand-sized hard rubber balls, thus inventing the original version of five-pin bowling.
The balls in five pin bowling are small enough to fit in the hand and therefore have no fingerholes.