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).
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