Thursday, February 5, 2009

Weber leads The Dick Weber Open

Pete Weber averaged 227.4 to take the qualifying lead after two rounds Wednesday in the Professional Bowlers Association Denny’s Dick Weber Open at Fountain Bowl.

Weber, the son of the late Hall of Fame bowler Dick Weber, had a 2,274 10-game pinfall to hold a three-pin lead over reigning PBA Player of the Year Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, in second with 2,271. Norm Duke of Clermont, Fla., is third after two rounds with a 2,249 pinfall.

Weber, who is tied with Mark Roth for third all-time with 34 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour titles and is also a member of the PBA and United States Bowling Congress Halls of Fame, is looking for his first television appearance and victory of the 2008-09 season.

He credited some recent instruction from his brother Rich with fine-tuning his game.

“Actually I’m bowling better than my performances are showing this year, but I’ve been getting some advice from several people and I think it kind of confused me,” said the 46-year-old St. Ann, Mo., resident. “Recently I went to see my brother Rich and he was able to break down in simple terms what I needed to correct so I’m coming into this tournament with a lot of confidence.”

The Denny’s Dick Weber Open, the 13th stop on the 2008-09 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour features the “traditional” format used in the PBA’s early years with 15 games of qualifying determining the top 24 advancing to three eight-game blocks of round-robin match play. The top five players after match play advance to the stepladder finals.

“I really liked the old format,” Weber said. “I think I lot of the guys will tell you that they like bowling the longer formats.”

Other notables in the top 20 include Australian two-handed player Jason Belmonte, 10th; 2007 USBC Masters Champion Sean Rash, 12th, and the PBA’s all-time Tour titles leader Walter Ray Williams Jr., 16th.

The field of 158 bowlers will return Thursday for a final five-game qualifying block to determine the 24 players who advance to match play beginning Thursday afternoon.

Sunday’s ESPN finals get underway at 1 p.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Pacific).

No comments: