Tuesday, June 16, 2009

PBA Announces Remaining Exemptions

Two Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Hall of Famers and an international star from Korea
have been granted exemptions for the
2009 PBA World Series of Bowling and, for one, the
2009-10 Lumber Liquidators
PBA Tour season.

PBA Hall of Famer and 24-time Tour titlist Brian Voss of Alpharetta, Ga., has been awarded the
Tour’s new “Golden Parachute” exemption, a ticket which will
allow the PBA Senior Tour “rookie” the
opportunity to bowl for the entire
season.

PBA Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli of Venezuela and Korean Professional Bowlers Association
(KPBA)
star Tae-Hwa Jeong will join Finnish two-handed star Osku
Palermaa—who had already
received an international exemption—in the exempt field
for the upcoming PBA World Series of
Bowling
in suburban Detroit.


Voss’ 24 Tour titles ranks 10th all-time. He won at least one title in 12 straight PBA Tour seasons
and won the 1988 PBA National Championship for his
only major win. The 1988 PBA Player of
the Year
also was the Harry Smith Point
Leader in 1987 and ’88. Now 50, he joined the PBA
Senior Tour
in 2009 and has
recorded a pair of second-place finishes in the Senior U.S. Open and
Dayton
Classic.

Monacelli is the only foreign-born player in the PBA Hall of Fame and owns 19 PBA Tour titles. He
was also the first foreign-born player to win the Player of
the Year award, winning in back-to-back
seasons in 1989 and ‘90. He finished
fifth in the 2009 Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open.

Jeong is a 10-time Korean PBA Tour winner and a five-time Japan PBA Tour titlist. He is one of
three players to bowl a televised 300 game on the KPBA
Tour.

Palermaa earned his place in the World Series of Bowling (WSOB) earlier in the spring as the
European Bowling Tour
points leader. His best previous PBA Tour finish
was fifth in the 2004 U.S.
Open
. The 2006 World Bowler of the Year was also the
winner of the 2009 World Ranking
Masters
and the 2006 QubicaAMF World Cup.


With the announcement, all of the exemptions have been filled for the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators
PBA Tour
season, which include 41 from the 2008-09 point
list, eight from the PBA Tour Trials,
seven from the Regional Players
Invitational, the 2008-09 Tournament Qualifier Round points
leader and one
medical deferment. The remaining spots in each standard tournament field (which is
comprised of 64 entries) will be filled each week by Tournament Qualifier Rounds (TQR) qualifiers,
who will
vie for a minimum of five spots.

The inaugural PBA World Series of Bowling, which begins Aug. 2 and runs through Sept. 6, 2009,
will be a revolutionary festival of competitive bowling boasting
a $2 million prize fund and seven
ESPN
telecasts. For the 72-player closed-field
WSOB events, a minimum of 10 non-exempt players
can advance through the
TQR system.

The PBA Motor City Open will kick off the season at longtime PBA host center Taylor Lanes in
Taylor, Mich., from Aug. 2-6. The remainder of the World Series
of Bowling, including six exempt
PBA Tour
events, the return of the PBA Women’s
Series presented by USBC and a revamped
PBA Senior Tour World Championship
will
be held at Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Mich.,
just outside Detroit. The
World Series of Bowling will culminate with the PBA World Championship
open
field event, the first major championship of the 2009-10 season.

The Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour will pick up its traditional schedule in the second half of the
season beginning with the Pepsi Red, White and Blue Open
presented by the USBC Dec. 7-13 in
Wichita, Kan.

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