Koivuniemi Wins European Bowling Tour Qatar Open

Two-time Professional Bowlers Association Player of the Year Mika Koivuniemi, a native of Finland now living in the United States, continued to expand his unprecedented international bowling portfolio when he won the 12th annual Qatar Open Saturday at Qatar Bowling Center, making Qatar the 19th different country in which he has won a bowling title.

Koivuniemi defeated fellow Finn Tony Ranta, 544-471, in the two-game total pinfall title match to win a first prize of US$39,480.

 

The tournament was part of the growing World Tenpin Bowling Association-PBA International Tour series, and it was the final event of the 2012 European Bowling Tour season.

Koivuniemi, who led the Qatar field of 142 players from 26 countries through the preliminary qualifying rounds, defeated Sweden’s Martin Larsen, 442-385, to advance to the title match while Ranta eliminated 13-time PBA Tour titlist Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, S.C., 389-361.

"This is my first title in this part of the world and I'm glad I finally broke that jinx," the 45-year-old Koivuniemi said.

Koivuniemi, a long-time member of Finland’s national bowling team before joining the PBA and moving to Hartland, MI, had previously won titles in his home country, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, China, Colombia, Spain, France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, England and Germany as well as the United States. The 2003-04 and 2010-11 PBA Player of the Year and Venezuela’s Amleto Monacelli (1989 and 1990) are the only international players to win Player of the Year honors twice.

The WTBA-PBA International Tour’s next tournament will be the International Bowling Championships presented by DHC in Aichi-ken, Japan, Jan. 17-19.

QATAR OPEN

Qatar Bowling Center, Doha, Qatar, Dec. 16

Championship (two games total pinfall): Mika Koivuniemi, Finland ($39,480) def. Tony Ranta, Finland ($18,950), 544-471.

Semifinal Round (two games total pinfall, losers earned $6,580): Koivuniemi def. Martin Larsen, Sweden, 442-385. Ranta def. Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 389-361.

Other PBA Finalists (after 6 games): 5, Mike Fagan, Dallas, 1,330, $3,290. 6, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 1,325, $3,290. 7, Josh Blanchard, Gilbert, Ariz., 1,324, $3,290. 8, Yousif Falah, Bahrain, 1,318, $3,290. 10, Dom Barrett, England, 1,299, $3,290.

13, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 1,283, $2,360. 15, Bill O’Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 1,268, $2,360. 16, Thomas Larsen, Denmark, 1,254, $2,360. 17, Jesper Agerbo, Denmark, 1,248, $2,360. 18, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 1,242, $2,360.

Barnes and Parkin Win World Bowlers Tour Finals

Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, and Missy Parkin of Lake Forest, CA, successfully concluded two years of international travel when they captured Bayer Advanced Aspirin World Bowling Tour (WBT) men’s and women’s finals titles to kick off the 2012-13 Professional Bowlers Association television season at South Point Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV.

Barnes, a 14-time PBA Tour champion, defeated reigning WBT men’s champion Mika Koivuniemi of Finland, 244-228, while Parkin defeated Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, NY, 238-190, in the women’s finals during the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling (WSOB). Both finals, which featured three players who qualified by earning points in World Tenpin Bowling Association-PBA International Tour events over a span of two years, aired Sunday on ESPN. Both champions earned $20,000.

Barnes, who won the Columbia 300 Vienna Open in Austria in October to lock up his berth in the WBT men’s finals, edged Mike Fagan of Dallas, 258-244, in the semifinal match before closing with a string of six strikes for a come-from-behind victory over his close friend, Koivuniemi, in the title match.

“Any win feels good,” Barnes said. “Mika and I always have good matches. I’ve been fortunate the last three times, but I’m pretty sure it’ll even out whether I like it or not.”

The key to Barnes’ victory was three 10 pins left by his long-time international rival on the right lane in the third, seventh and ninth frames.

“I left a couple of solid 10s on that lane myself,” Barnes said. “I knew that lane was tighter. I threw one shot that I thought was pretty good that didn’t even get back to the pocket.”

Forced to finish his game on the tricky right lane after Koivuniemi’s misfortune in the ninth frame gave him an opening, Barnes made a critical adjustment and threw three strikes in the 10th frame. The first strike was the one that iced the title.

“I knew I was going to move right and have to stay firm with the shot,” Barnes said. “Earlier on in my career I didn’t commit to that shot very well, but I committed to it, and made the shot I wanted to throw. It didn’t quite get up to high flush, but it was good enough today.”

As part of their ongoing rivalry on television, Barnes and Koivuniemi make a side bet that has involved things like the gaudy Madras plaid pair of pants Koivuniemi was forced to wear on television the last time he lost.

“We had a jersey bet on this one,” Barnes said of his WBT win. “I, or my fans, or his daughters will get to design a jersey that he’ll get to wear on a future TV show. And pretty much anything goes as long as it’s legal for TV.”

In the women’s finals, Johnson advanced to the title match after a thrilling 267-260 victory over PBA Tour titlist Kelly Kulick of Union, NJ. But Johnson’s strike shot evaporated in the title match. A 4-6-7 split in the second frame and a 4-6 in the fourth put her in a hole she couldn’t escape.

“I’ve come in second a lot lately,” said Parkin, who lost to Chicago’s Diandra Asbaty in the Australian Masters title match prior to the WSOB and finished second to Kulick in the U.S. Women’s Open earlier in the year. “Today I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I kind of went out with a mindset that I was going to make the pins strike. I know you can’t do that, but it was the mindset I had.

“I only had one game, and I needed to throw 10 really good shots, and I feel like I did. Luckily the pins fell my way and it was enough to win.”

But for Parkin, the victory made her international travels worth the effort.

“This year all of the travel has been particularly hard being away from family and friends,” she said. “It’s really hard; a lot of people don’t understand how much we travel. Winning this tournament after two years and having to accumulate all those points means so much.”

The second annual Bayer Advanced Aspirin WBT Finals presented by the PBA also signaled the start of a new points cycle for the international series. Points earned in WTBA-PBA International Tour events over the next 12 months will replace points earned in the first year of the qualifying cycle, leading into the third WBT Finals which will be part of PBA WSOB V in November 2013.

The 2012-13 PBA Tour season on ESPN continues next Sunday at 1 p.m. ET with the finals of the Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Cheetah Championship. Stepladder finalists will include Bill O’Neill, Langhorne, PA; Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio; Jeff Roche, Dearborn, MI, and top qualifier Mike Wolfe, New Albany, IN.

 

Pre- and post-telecast shows for all PBA-ESPN telecasts will be available on Xtra Frame, PBA’s online bowling channel.

Professional Bowlers Association Announces Expanded Schedule

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) has been super-sized.

The upcoming 55th annual PBA Tour season will be longer. The number of titles up for grabs will be greater. The fields will be larger. Even the length of many TV shows will be increased. 

PBA Commissioner Tom Clark made the announcement Tuesday that the PBA’s historic 2012-13 campaign will run from November's PBA World Series of Bowling IV at South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas through December 2013 and include up to 40 opportunities for players to win PBA Tour titles. 

"This season will be big," Clark said. "Every year the greatest players in the world produce unforgettable moments in their quest for PBA titles, but the PBA and its fans wanted more. The stage is now set."

The PBA schedule will include two World Series of Bowling, five major championships, new Winter and Summer Swing open events with multiple titles at stake, and an estimated 15 World Bowling Tour stops that will award PBA Tour titles if won by PBA members and PBA International members.

Approximately 50 hours of action will be televised nationally during the season. Additionally, the PBA's online bowling channel Xtra Frame plans more than 200 hours of live coverage.

Clark said the 14-month season will also mean a move towards a regular calendar-year PBA season starting in January, 2014. 

Significant highlights from the 2012-13 schedule include:

● The United States Bowling Congress Masters will be held at Brunswick Zone Carolier Lanes in North Brunswick, NJ, in February, the PBA Tournament of Champions will be hosted by long-time PBA host Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis in March, and the 70th U.S. Open will be held at a site to be announced in July 2013.

● The new PBA Winter Swing will be contested in January at Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, MI, host of WSOB I. In addition to four national titles including a revamped PBA Players Championship, the Winter Swing will introduce a significant new format to be announced.

● Ten of the scheduled nationally-televised shows have been increased from 90 minutes to two hours, which means the USBC Masters and PBA Tournament of Champions, among others, will feature five-player stepladder finals instead of four.

● All World Series event finals will return to stepladder formats.

● The PBA Tournament of Champions will return to a traditional limited-field invitational event.

● The World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA)’s World Bowling Tour points list – based on cumulative totals over a span of two years - will determine the finalists for the men's and women's WBT Finals presented by the PBA which will be held at both WSOB IV and WSOB V.

Also to be announced will be the annual PBA Chris Paul Celebrity Invitational.

Future news releases will also detail the full ESPN and Xtra Frame coverage slates. Additional updates will be posted on pba.com. Also follow the PBA on Twitter @pbatour and on its Facebook page Professional Bowlers Association (PBA).  To subscribe to Xtra Frame, visit pba.com.

2012-13 PBA TOUR SCHEDULE

(Tentative: certain elements subject to change; PBA Tour and PBA International members only are eligible to win PBA Tour titles in World Bowling Tour events. Additional WBT events are expected to be added later.)

Nov. 2-11 - PBA World Series of Bowling IV, South Point Bowling Center, Las Vegas  Men’s and Women’s World Bowling Tour Finals presented by the PBA; Cheetah Championship; Viper Championship; Chameleon Championship; Scorpion Championship; PBA World Championship (major). WBT Women’s Final also will be included, but is not a PBA Tour title event. (Open to all PBA members).

Nov. 29-Dec. 1 - Round One's International Japan Cup, Japan (invitational).

Dec. 4-8 - WBT Dubai Open, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (open field).

Dec. 9-15 - WBT Qatar Open, Doha, Qatar (open field). 

Jan. 4-13 – WBT Brunswick BallMaster Open, Helsinki, Finland (open field). 

Jan. 15-19 - WBT International Bowling Championship, Nagoya, Japan (open field). 

Jan. 19-28 - PBA Winter Swing, Thunderbowl, Allen Park, MI.          Carmen Salvino Classic; Mark Roth Classic; Don Carter Classic; PBA Players Championship (open to all PBA members).

Feb. 18-24 - United States Bowling Congress Masters, Brunswick Zone Carolier, North Brunswick, N.J. (major championship; open field).

March 3-9 - WBT Bahrain Open, Oman, Bahrain (open field).

March 13-17 - WBT Kuwait Open, Kuwait City, Kuwait (open field).

March 15-24 - WBT Brunswick EuroChallenge, St. Maximim, France (open field).

March 26-31 - PBA Tournament of Champions, Woodland Bowl, Indianapolis (major championship; invitational). 

May 20-27 – PBA Summer Swing, site to be announced

Four PBA Tour titles to be announced (open to all PBA members).

July 21-28 - 70th U.S. Open, to be announced (major championship; open field).

Aug. 31-Sept. 4 - WBT Las Vegas International Open, site to be announced, Las Vegas (open field; follows WTBA World Championships).

Sept. 24-30 - WBT Thailand Open, Bangkok, Thailand (open field).

TBA - WBT Vienna Open, Vienna, Austria (open field).

Oct. 21-26 - WBT Australian Masters, Sydney, Australia (open field).

Nov. 1-10, 2013 - PBA World Series of Bowling V, Las Vegas

Men’s and Women’s World Bowling Tour Finals presented by the PBA; four PBA “pattern championships”; PBA World Championship (major). WBT Women’s Final also will be included, but is not a PBA Tour title event. (Open to all PBA members).

Nov. 27-30, 2013 - Round One's International Japan Cup, Japan (invitational).

First Ever World Bowling Tour Champions Crowned

Mika Koivuniemi reinforced his position as an international bowling 
star, defeating Sean Rash of suburban Chicago (Montgomery,) IL, 237-224, to win the inaugural 
GEICO World Bowling Tour (WBT) Finals title at South Point Casino and Hotel. American 
women’s star Carolyn Dorin-Ballard of Keller, Texas, won the WBT women’s title, 
207-162, over Sweden’s Sandra Andersson.

Koivuniemi, a native of Finland who now resides in Hartland, MI, completed a 
10-month international quest to win the World Tenpin Bowling Association’s 
inaugural WBT title, presented by the Professional Bowlers Association, by 
reeling off a string of six strikes to erase Rash’s early 11-pin lead and taking 
advantage of Rash's missed 10 pin in the ninth frame.

Both finals, conducted as part of the third annual PBA World Series of Bowling, 
aired Sunday on ESPN.

Koivuniemi, a 44-year-old two-time PBA Player of the Year, has won titles in 15 
different countries during his career and easily won the WBT qualifying points 
title over Rash. World Bowling Tour points were awarded in eight tournaments 
held in Finland, the United States, France, Kuwait, Thailand, Korea and 
Australia.

“It has been a good year for me,” Koivuniemi, the reigning PBA Player of the 
Year, said. “I really feel like I bowled well and I deserved to win. It all 
started in Helsinki last January when I won the Brunswick Ballmaster Open. I’ve 
been battling for 10 months to get here, and it came full circle back in Las 
Vegas.”

The opening men’s match between Rash and Australian two-handed player Jason 
Belmonte had been highly anticipated after the two rivals had exchanged heated 
words during a summer GEICO PBA Team Shootout confrontation when Rash accused 
Belmonte of deliberately making distracting noises with his plastic water 
bottle. Their rivalry had intensified during WBT meetings since the June 
episode. But in their first televised showdown since that episode, Rash took 
advantage of a pair of open frames by Belmonte for a 214-204 victory. Belmonte 
had a chance to win, but needing two strikes in the 10th frame, he left a solid 
10 pin on his first try.

“Belmo and I are fierce competitors. We don’t think we can lose at any time when 
we’re on the lanes,” Rash said of the rivalry. “I hope the fans enjoyed the 
match. Jason threw a great shot in the 10th frame, but he left a ringing 10 pin 
which was good for me, bad for him.

“That bottlegate thing happened months ago. People need to move on," Rash 
continued. "Things happen. Jason and I are going to bowl against each other for 
many years to come. But when I’m on the lanes, no one is my friend. The only 
people cheering for me are my wife and my parents and Team Brunswick, and that’s 
all that matters to me.”

In the women’s finals, Dorin-Ballard, a PBA Women's Series champion and 20-time 
Professional Women's Bowling Association titlist, cruised to a 207-162 victory 
over Andersson after the 20-year-old Swedish player missed single-pin spares in 
her first two frames and failed to strike until the seventh frame. Andersson 
advanced to the title match by defeating her Swedish national teammate, Nina 
Flack, 190-160, in the opening match after Flack started her game with 
back-to-back splits.

Koivuniemi and Dorin-Ballard each won $10,000. Rash and Andersson won $6,000 as 
runners-up, and Belmonte and Flack earned $4,000 each.

The WTBA has announced the World Bowling Tour will return in 2012 with an 
expanded 14-event schedule.

Next Sunday the 2011-12 PBA Tour season officially gets underway with the first 
of four elimination rounds leading up to the Jan. 15 PBA World Championship 
finals. The Don Carter Division finals will air Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN. 
Carter Division finalists are England’s Stuart Williams and Dom Barrett, 
Finland’s Osku Palermaa and Jack Jurek of Lackawanna, NY.