The Guaranteed Rate Professional Bowlers Tour Starts Sunday with The West Finals

 

The First Champion of 2021 of the PWBA Bowlers Journal Championship

ARLINGTON, Texas - In case anyone had questions about how the events of the last year affected Shannon O'Keefe and her momentum on the Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour, the two-time reigning PWBA Player of the Year offered a quick reminder that she's still the player to beat by winning the 2021 Bowlers Journal Classic, the first event of the new season.

It also was fitting that the title match Thursday night at the International Training and Research Center featured the tour's top two players - O'Keefe and top seed Danielle McEwan of Stony Point, New York - in another epic showdown.

O'Keefe, of Shiloh, Illinois, bounced back from a second-frame split and closed the title tilt with eight consecutive strikes to defeat her longtime Team USA teammate, 243-225. The win was the 14th of O'Keefe's career and earned her a $10,000 top prize. 

The Bowlers Journal Classic was the first event of the PWBA Kickoff Classic Series, which will feature three national tour stops and one regional event during its seven-day run at the ITRC, the home of Team USA.

The PWBA Tour's historic return to the spotlight was broadcast live on BowlTV.com and marked the first time since September 2019 a PWBA Tour title had been awarded. The 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19.

"This feels so amazing for multiple reasons," said O'Keefe, a 41-year-old right-hander. "It has been so long since we competed, but I was trying hard not to get wrapped up in that. I just wanted to make sure I could turn off my practice brain after all this time and get back into a competitive mindset. And, it's never about comparing one calendar year to the next. Instead, I always try to focus on the process and being appreciative of each opportunity to compete. To pick up where I left off and start this year with a win is incredible."

McEwan had the early momentum in the match, striking on three of her first four shots, but she did not strike again until the ninth frame. O'Keefe started the finale teetering between two bowling balls and some subtle moves based on how her semifinal win ended, but after leaving the 4-6-7-9-10 split in the second frame, she forced herself to commit to a game plan and was able to regain control.

O'Keefe also was the last person to claim a championship trophy, which she did at the 2019 PWBA Tour Championship for her third career major title. That victory was the final piece of a five-win season that included her second consecutive PWBA Player of the Year Award.

In both 2018 and 2019, McEwan was the runner-up in the player-of-the-year race, and she has been among the top five on the PWBA Tour's points list each year since the organization's relaunch in 2015.

During the same span, McEwan has collected five PWBA Tour titles, one in each of her five seasons, and her success includes two major victories. Her first win, also her first major, came at the 2015 PWBA Tour Championship, the last PWBA event to be held at the ITRC.

The last time McEwan and O'Keefe faced off for a PWBA title was at the 2019 BowlerX.com Orlando Open, where O'Keefe escaped with a 207-202 victory. A week later, McEwan topped O'Keefe for the singles gold medal at the 2019 World Bowling Women's Championships. 

"Bittersweet is the best way to put it," McEwan said of her second-place finish Thursday. "I was anxious and nervous going into this event because I wasn't even sure if I would remember what to do and how to be Danielle again, but things fell into place. To work through everything and have it end how it did was disappointing, but Shannon is an amazing champion and the player to beat. If I'm going to beat her, I need to be better."

To set up the championship meeting with McEwan on Thursday, O'Keefe turned in a 10-strike, 245-212 performance against their red-hot Team USA teammate Missy Parkin of Laguna Hills, California. After opening with five strikes, O'Keefe was slowed only by a 2-10 split in the sixth frame and an 8 pin in the ninth frame.

In the opening match, Parkin was able to continue the momentum that helped her into the stepladder, and she delivered a final-frame strike to sneak past fellow PWBA Tour champion Erin McCarthy of Omaha, Nebraska, 238-227.

Parkin catapulted into the top four by finishing match play with games of 258 and 238. The late surge, plus 30 bonus pins for winning each game, helped her erase a sizeable deficit that still was 72 pins heading into the position round.

Competition at the ITRC will resume Friday with the start of the PWBA ITRC Classic, which will feature qualifying rounds at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern. Nine-game pin-fall totals will determine the 12 players who advance to match play from the 36-player field.

All of the qualifying and match-play rounds at the Kickoff Classic Series are being broadcast live at BowlTV.com, free of charge to visitors who create a login for the site. Each of the four events will conclude with formal stepladder finals, which will require a BowlTV subscription to watch live.

The third event of the Kickoff Classic Series will be the PWBA Arlington Regional, taking center stage Sunday, and the excitement will conclude with the PWBA Hall of Fame Classic on Monday and Tuesday. 

The Hall of Fame Classic will feature the week's top 24 performers, based on their 18-game pin-fall totals from the Bowlers Journal Classic and ITRC Classic. Each event also will feature a different lane condition.

The prize fund for each of the three national tour stops will be $65,000, with $10,000 going to each champion.

The 2021 PWBA Tour season will feature 20 events, highlighted by the introduction of the Classic Series events and an increase in the season's overall prize fund by nearly $400,000.

PBA PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP TELEVISION SCHEDULE

 PBA PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP TELEVISION SCHEDULE

Bowlero Jupiter – Jupiter, Fla.

Sunday, Jan. 24 at 12 p.m. ET on FS1 – West Region Finals
Sunday, Jan. 31 at 2 p.m. ET on FS1 – Southwest Region Finals
Saturday, Feb. 6 at 4 p.m. ET on FS1 – Midwest Region Finals
Sunday, Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. ET on FS1 – East Region Finals
Sunday, Feb. 14 at 1 p.m. ET on FS1 – South Region Finals
Sunday, Feb. 21 at 12:30 p.m. ET on FOX – PBA Players Championship Finals

And the players qualifing at the regions are: 

WEST REGION STEPLADDER FINALISTS

Bowlero Christown – Phoenix, Ariz.

1. Anthony Simonsen
2. Wesley Low Jr.
3. Jakob Butturff
4. Darren Tang
5. Kris Koeltzow

Full West Region standings: https://www.pba.com/node/117446

SOUTHWEST REGION STEPLADDER FINALISTS

AMF Garland Lanes – Garland, Texas

1. François Lavoie
2. Packy Hanrahan
3. Keven Williams
4. Benjamin Martinez
5. AJ Chapman

Full Southwest Region standings: https://www.pba.com/node/117441

CENTRAL REGION STEPLADDER FINALISTS

Bowlero Wauwatosa – Wauwatosa, Wis.

1. Tom Smallwood
2. Andrew Anderson
3. Ronnie Russell
4. Wes Malott
5. Zach Weidman

Full Central Region standings: https://www.pba.com/node/117436

EAST REGION STEPLADDER FINALISTS

Bowlero West End – Richmond, Va.

1. Kyle Troup
2. Brandon Novak
3. Michael Davidson
4. Chris Via
5. Bill O’Neill

Full East Region standings: https://www.pba.com/node/117431

SOUTH REGION STEPLADDER FINALISTS

AMF University Lanes – Tampa, Fla.

1. Jesper Svensson
2. Cristian Azcona
3. Ryan Ciminelli
4. Tom Daugherty
5. Dick Allen

Full South Region standings: https://www.pba.com/node/117426

Storm Introduces the Incite and Hy-Road Max

HY-ROAD MAX

The Inverted Fe2 weight block has historically had a higher RG orientation. The higher the RG, the more resistant the ball will be to changing direction as it travels down the lane. NeX first made its debut on the Axiom™, the newest touchstone from which all other balls are compared. The finishing touches clock in at 3000-grit Abralon, which has become the benchmark standard of surface profiles. As you can see, there’s more to every ball than meets the eye..

Available: February 19, 2021

Color: Emerald/Lime
Fragrance: Green Apple



INCITE

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Color: Goldenrod/Graphite/Crimson
Fragrance: Cherry Vanilla

Available: February 19, 2021

The 2021 USBC Masters and US Open Will Move to Reno

 ARLINGTON, Texas - With COVID-19 still impacting event operations, the United States Bowling Congress has decided to adjust the competition locations for the 2021 USBC Masters and U.S. Open.

The two events, both considered majors on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour, now will be held in consecutive weeks at the 78-lane National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada, allowing competitors planning to bowl in both tournaments to make just one trip, rather than journey to two destinations at different times.

The Masters will be held first, taking place on its original dates from March 29-April 4, now with room for an additional 55 competitors. The field had been limited to 245 entries, but the move to the NBS allows for a capacity of 300 entries.

The U.S. Open will follow, with the 108-competitor field taking to the iconic lanes April 4-11. 

Qualifying and match play for both tournaments will be livestreamed on BowlTV, before the action shifts to Fox Sports' FS1 as part of the PBA Tour television schedule. The live TV finals of each event will air from 2-4 p.m. Eastern on April 4 and April 11, respectively. 

Prior to the move, the U.S. Open was scheduled to be held at The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley in Green Bay, Wisconsin, from Feb. 21-28, and the Masters was slated to return to the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

"We are committed to running these events in 2021," USBC Executive Director Chad Murphy said. "By moving the tournaments to Reno and back in the calendar, we are better positioned to receive approval from health officials to conduct the events, while also adding additional lanes for more competitors."

The Masters traditionally attracts hundreds of bowlers from all over the world and has sold out for the last seven years. The 2019 event at the Gold Coast Bowling Center, won by left-hander Jakob Butturff, featured 450 competitors.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions and best-practice recommendations, however, the Masters field in 2021 initially had to be limited. The event sold out in just a few days, and the waiting list quickly grew to more than 150 eager competitors. USBC will continue to monitor the restrictions and social-distancing recommendations in Nevada and expand the field again, if appropriate.

Masters bowlers will join Butturff on the lanes at the NBS for 15 games of qualifying, before the top 63, plus Butturff, advance to the double-elimination match-play portion of the event.

The 2021 U.S. Open will be a collaborative effort between USBC and the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America, featuring a limited field of the world's best bowlers, most of whom earned their spots in the event based on their recent on-lane performances. The list includes leaders on the PBA Tour points list and top performers at USBC events and PBA majors.

The U.S. Open format features qualifying across multiple oil patterns and round-robin match play, before the top five competitors advance to the TV stepladder, based on their 56-game pinfall totals. 

Bowlers who did not receive invitations to compete in the 2021 event can earn spots through an on-site pre-tournament qualifier, which will take place April 4.

The 2020 U.S. Open was held in Lincoln, Nebraska, in February and won by Australia's Jason Belmonte for the 12th of his record 13 major titles. 

For more information about the U.S. Open and USBC Masters, visit BOWL.com/Tournaments.

EJ Tackett signs 10-year contract with MOTIV®

Tackett, a 13-time PBA® Tour champion, has been the face of the MOTIV® brand for seven years. The first seven years of EJ’s career are historic, seeing him win Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, compete on Team USA in international competition and at the Weber Cup, and most recently releasing a bowling ball bearing his ExJ brand logo. 

MOTIV® Staff Manager Brett Spangler said, “It is a huge point of pride for me that every shot EJ Tackett has ever thrown as a PBA Tour member has been as a MOTIV® staff player. I could not be happier than I am right now knowing that he is going to be with us for ten more years.” 

This latest contract guarantees that Tackett will be on staff with
MOTIV® through at least the 2030 season. When asked what a ten-year contract with MOTIV® meant to him, EJ responded, “the people at MOTIV® are like family to me. Ten years means I don’t have to worry about anything but going out there and winning for another decade. I love throwing the best balls in the world and representing such amazing people.” 

“EJ’s magazine cover says, ‘I’m the guy, you come get me’. We just responded with ‘Ok, we would love to, here is a contract for ten years…now let’s go set the bowling world on fire together!’”, commented Scott Wilbur, President of MOTIV® Bowling. “Truly it was an easy decision to make. He is a premier athlete, our true friend, and part of the corporate family here at MOTIV®”. 

Professional Bowlers Association Unveils the PBA Junior National Championships

Website is: https://www.pba.com/junior