Make sure to watch the PBA Cheetah Championship Sunday Nov. 8 on ESPN at 1p.m. Eastern, it's the first ever "reality" show featuring an entire PBA event.
Monday, November 2, 2009
PBA Show as Reality TV
Make sure to watch the PBA Cheetah Championship Sunday Nov. 8 on ESPN at 1p.m. Eastern, it's the first ever "reality" show featuring an entire PBA event.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Williams Adds 46th Title
Walter Ray Williams Jr. has already ventured into territory no bowler in history
has seen, but when he rallied to defeat Chris Barnes, 238-230, and win the
Professional Bowlers Association (PBA)’s Motor City Open at Thunderbowl
Lanes, he broke new ground even for himself.
Williams, who turned 50 on Oct. 6, won a record 46th title in a PBA Tour career
that began in 1983, and he extended his PBA record for winning at least one
title to 17 consecutive seasons. The Ocala, FL resident, who is now eligible
to bowl on the PBA Senior Tour as well as the so-called “Junior Tour,” threw
seven strikes and converted four single-pin spares in the Motor City Open finals
that aired Sunday on ESPN. But his nearly flawless performance almost wasn’t
enough.
Barnes, with strikes on seven of his first eight shots, left the 3-6-9-10 in the
ninth frame and failed to convert the spare, giving Williams the lead for the
first time in the title match. Then, needing a double and eight pins in the 10th
frame to overtake Williams, Barnes left a 7 pin on his first shot.
“I left a lot of nine counts,” Williams said. “In the first frame, I threw a
great shot and left a ringing 10 pin. The one I left in the third frame (a 6
pin), I pinched the shot a little left, but I’ll throw the ball the same way
every time after leaving ringing 10s. Sometimes you’ll strike, sometimes not.
Fortunately today I didn’t get too many taps.”
The title match was a strike-fest compared to the earlier matches, when
conditions were challenging. Bill O’Neill of Southampton, PA, needed a late
strike surge to escape Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, SC, 201-169, in the
opening match.
O’Neill then got lined up and blew past Pete Weber of St. Ann, MO, 257-224. But
as the lane conditions changed, the transition caught up to O’Neill in the
semifinal match, when Barnes out-lasted him, 183-169, to set up a title match
between the top two qualifiers in the event.
Barnes made a critical adjustment to find the pocket in the championship game,
but Williams had an even better answer.
“At one time in my career, I was 0-9 on TV,” Williams said, “but things turned
around. For a long time, I couldn’t do anything right. Since things turned around,
TV has been going good for me.”
Even as he approaches his debut on the PBA Senior Tour at the end of the 2009
-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, Williams isn’t showing any signs of
slowing down.
“As long as I feel good and stay competitive, I’ll keep on bowling,” he said. “I
don’t want to be out here if I’m not competitive; I’d be too frustrated. When I
can’t compete, when it’s isn’t fun, I’ll retire. I have no issue with that. But
I feel like I’m still doing pretty well.”
He also has set no goals or aspirations for whatever happens before he retires
his bowling shoes.
“I keep saying one more (title), and now it’s 46,” he laughed. “Winning a
tournament is the best thing in the world, but you never know when it’s going to
be the last one.”
LUMBER LIQUIDATORS PBA TOUR MOTOR CITY OPEN
Thunderbowl, Allen Park, Michigan
Final Standings
1, Walter Ray Williams, Jr., Ocala, FL, $25,000
2, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, TX, $13,000
3, Bill O’Neill, Southampton, PA, $9,000
4, Pete Weber, St. Ann, MO, $7,000
5, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, SC, $6,000
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
PBA Motor City Open This Sunday on ESPN
PBA Motor City Open stepladder finalists on ESPN at 1:00pm Eastern time in qualifying order:
1, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla.
2, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas
3, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo.
4, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C.
5, Bill O’Neill, Southampton, Pa.
● This was an open field event consisting of 131 entrants.
● First event of 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.
● 103 titles represented among finalists: Williams (45), Barnes (12), Weber (34), Jones (12).
O’Neill is looking for his first win.
● Williams looking to extend his record for most PBA Tour career titles and his record for most
consecutive years with at least one title (currently at 16).
● Williams has never won the first PBA Tour event of the season.
● First time in Weber’s 30-year career he has made a TV final in the first event of season.
● O’Neill earned his spot in the stepladder final by defeating Rhino Page, 190-171, in a one-game
roll-off to break a tie for fifth place.
Prize Money: 1. $25,000 2. $13,000 3, $9,000 4, $7,000 5, $6,000
Tournament Recap:
First round leader (after 5 games): Weber, 1,219
Second round leader (after 15 games): Fero Williams, 2,390
Third round leader (after 15 games): Weber, 3,466
First round match play leader (after 23 games): Barnes, 5-2-1, 5,376
Second round match play leader (after 31 games): Barnes, 11-4-1, 7,388
Final match play standings (39 games): Williams, 15-8-1, 9,302; Barnes, 16-7-1, 9,260;
Weber, 16-8, 9,169; Jones, 13-11, 8,935; O’Neill, 13-11, 8,907
Monday, October 26, 2009
Kulick and Sullins Win World Championships
Kelly Kulick of Union, N.J., earned the right to become the first woman to bowl in the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tournament of Champions thanks to her victory in the inaugural PBA Women’s World Championship at Thunderbowl Lanes in suburban Detroit.
Kulick’s historic victory aired Sunday on ESPN. The first of eight PBA World Series of Bowling telecasts also included a long-awaited win for Detroit area favorite Harry Sullins, who ended a 15-year winless dry spell in the resurrected PBA Senior World Championship.
Kulick, the only woman ever to earn an exemption to bowl full-time on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour, defeated Shannon Pluhowsky of Phoenix, 219-204, to win the newly-created major championship for women bowlers.
In addition to her berth in the PBA Tournament of Champions Jan. 19-24 at Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas, Kulick earned $15,000 and a spot in the end-of-season PBA Women’s Showdown presented by BOWL.COM.
Kulick bowled a clean game including a late string of three strikes to build a 35-pin lead in the eighth frame. Pluhowsky finished with four strikes in a row, but it wasn’t enough to overcome an unconverted 8-10 split in her third frame.
“It’s a long overdue win,” Kulick said. “I’ve been knocking on the door for awhile. I came close in the USBC (United States Bowling Congress) Queens earlier in the year.” Kulick finished second to Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, N.Y., in the Queens in Reno, Nev.
“Last year I wasn’t exempt for the PBA Women’s Series and that really gave me things to think about. I was kinda depressed at first and then I really refocused,” Kulick added. “I asked myself if I belonged out here, but I went back to my routines – worked out, exercised, practiced a lot – and ever since the Queens, things have gotten better and better.
“Getting a chance to bowl in the Tournament of Champions is the icing on the cake. You blow out the candle and your wish comes true. My focus was on winning the title,” she continued, “but now I not only get to go to Las Vegas, but I get to bowl with the guys, which I’ve enjoyed doing in the past.
“My only failure on the men’s tour (during the 2006-07 season) was that I hit the pocket as often as they did, but I didn’t knock down as many pins because I don’t have as high of a rev rate. That said, if you want to be the best, you have to bowl against the best players, so the only way I’m going to get better is to bowl against them. I’ll enjoy the experience in the Tournament of Champions and we’ll see what happens.”
Sullins, who won his fifth and last PBA Tour title in 1994 in Windsor Locks, Conn., defeated Hugh Miller of Mercer Island, Wash., 222-192, for a $15,000 prize, his first PBA Senior Tour title and a berth of his own in the Tournament of Champions.
The PBA Senior World Championship was resurrected as a part of the new PBA World Series of Bowling after lying dormant since 2002.
“It feels great,” Sullins said. “I’ll be glad to go back to the Tournament of Champions.” Sullins admitted to being nervous. “It’s been almost 11 years between TV shows, 15 years since I’ve won a title. You try to stay as calm as you can,” he said. “Some guys might say they don’t get butterflies, but I don’t care who you are – you get ‘em.
The question is, how much pressure can you take and still move your feet, swing your arm, roll the ball and hit what you’re throwing at? It worked out.
“The difference was I made all my spares,” he continued. “That keeps the pressure on. It kept me 19-20 pins ahead the whole match. I threw two strikes in a row twice early in the game and that was huge. I could tell Hugh was trying to figure out which ball to use, so I kept telling myself, just get a double, and fortunately I was able to do that.”
Sullins felt like the title was his for the taking after he was warmly greeted by the Detroit area fans attending the finals in a center where he had honed his game for years. “I’ve bowled at Thunderbowl for 30 years,” the Chesterfield Township, Mich., resident said, “but when we came out for the introductions, I actually had the fans with me. That was so pleasing. It was like, it’s my time to win.”
It was also rewarding because he made a less-than-satisfying debut on the Senior Tour a year earlier. “I wanted to come out full blast last year,” the 52-year-old Michigan native said. “I had big goals – rookie of the year, all of that – but I went out to the west coast and didn’t do so well. In the Senior U.S. Open I threw my elbow out, so I wound up missing the whole balance of the season.
“This year I had a different outlook. I wanted to start strong in Jackson (Mich.), but I got a job with the U.S. Census Bureau. I hadn’t had a job in three years, so I decided the seniors could wait. I wound up staying home and bowling in the Regional Players Championship at Thunderbowl, which gave me an edge to get ready for the Senior Tour and for the World Series.
In the six Senior Tour events I did bowl, I had four championship round appearances including a win and a second. So I’m happy.”
The opening event of the PBA’s 2009-10 season on ESPN also included a PBA Trick Shot Invitational, won by PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke of Clermont, Fla. Duke performed a series of trick shots to top a field including fellow Hall of Famers Parker Bohn III and Brian Voss, PBA champions Chris Barnes and Sean Rash, and Finland’s two-handed sensation, Osku Palermaa, for a $5,000 prize.
The finals of the Motor City Open, the inaugural event of the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, will air next Sunday on ESPN at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Kulick’s historic victory aired Sunday on ESPN. The first of eight PBA World Series of Bowling telecasts also included a long-awaited win for Detroit area favorite Harry Sullins, who ended a 15-year winless dry spell in the resurrected PBA Senior World Championship.
Kulick, the only woman ever to earn an exemption to bowl full-time on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour, defeated Shannon Pluhowsky of Phoenix, 219-204, to win the newly-created major championship for women bowlers.
In addition to her berth in the PBA Tournament of Champions Jan. 19-24 at Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas, Kulick earned $15,000 and a spot in the end-of-season PBA Women’s Showdown presented by BOWL.COM.
Kulick bowled a clean game including a late string of three strikes to build a 35-pin lead in the eighth frame. Pluhowsky finished with four strikes in a row, but it wasn’t enough to overcome an unconverted 8-10 split in her third frame.
“It’s a long overdue win,” Kulick said. “I’ve been knocking on the door for awhile. I came close in the USBC (United States Bowling Congress) Queens earlier in the year.” Kulick finished second to Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, N.Y., in the Queens in Reno, Nev.
“Last year I wasn’t exempt for the PBA Women’s Series and that really gave me things to think about. I was kinda depressed at first and then I really refocused,” Kulick added. “I asked myself if I belonged out here, but I went back to my routines – worked out, exercised, practiced a lot – and ever since the Queens, things have gotten better and better.
“Getting a chance to bowl in the Tournament of Champions is the icing on the cake. You blow out the candle and your wish comes true. My focus was on winning the title,” she continued, “but now I not only get to go to Las Vegas, but I get to bowl with the guys, which I’ve enjoyed doing in the past.
“My only failure on the men’s tour (during the 2006-07 season) was that I hit the pocket as often as they did, but I didn’t knock down as many pins because I don’t have as high of a rev rate. That said, if you want to be the best, you have to bowl against the best players, so the only way I’m going to get better is to bowl against them. I’ll enjoy the experience in the Tournament of Champions and we’ll see what happens.”
Sullins, who won his fifth and last PBA Tour title in 1994 in Windsor Locks, Conn., defeated Hugh Miller of Mercer Island, Wash., 222-192, for a $15,000 prize, his first PBA Senior Tour title and a berth of his own in the Tournament of Champions.
The PBA Senior World Championship was resurrected as a part of the new PBA World Series of Bowling after lying dormant since 2002.
“It feels great,” Sullins said. “I’ll be glad to go back to the Tournament of Champions.” Sullins admitted to being nervous. “It’s been almost 11 years between TV shows, 15 years since I’ve won a title. You try to stay as calm as you can,” he said. “Some guys might say they don’t get butterflies, but I don’t care who you are – you get ‘em.
The question is, how much pressure can you take and still move your feet, swing your arm, roll the ball and hit what you’re throwing at? It worked out.
“The difference was I made all my spares,” he continued. “That keeps the pressure on. It kept me 19-20 pins ahead the whole match. I threw two strikes in a row twice early in the game and that was huge. I could tell Hugh was trying to figure out which ball to use, so I kept telling myself, just get a double, and fortunately I was able to do that.”
Sullins felt like the title was his for the taking after he was warmly greeted by the Detroit area fans attending the finals in a center where he had honed his game for years. “I’ve bowled at Thunderbowl for 30 years,” the Chesterfield Township, Mich., resident said, “but when we came out for the introductions, I actually had the fans with me. That was so pleasing. It was like, it’s my time to win.”
It was also rewarding because he made a less-than-satisfying debut on the Senior Tour a year earlier. “I wanted to come out full blast last year,” the 52-year-old Michigan native said. “I had big goals – rookie of the year, all of that – but I went out to the west coast and didn’t do so well. In the Senior U.S. Open I threw my elbow out, so I wound up missing the whole balance of the season.
“This year I had a different outlook. I wanted to start strong in Jackson (Mich.), but I got a job with the U.S. Census Bureau. I hadn’t had a job in three years, so I decided the seniors could wait. I wound up staying home and bowling in the Regional Players Championship at Thunderbowl, which gave me an edge to get ready for the Senior Tour and for the World Series.
In the six Senior Tour events I did bowl, I had four championship round appearances including a win and a second. So I’m happy.”
The opening event of the PBA’s 2009-10 season on ESPN also included a PBA Trick Shot Invitational, won by PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke of Clermont, Fla. Duke performed a series of trick shots to top a field including fellow Hall of Famers Parker Bohn III and Brian Voss, PBA champions Chris Barnes and Sean Rash, and Finland’s two-handed sensation, Osku Palermaa, for a $5,000 prize.
The finals of the Motor City Open, the inaugural event of the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, will air next Sunday on ESPN at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
PBA 's Schreyer Recouping
Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Commissioner Fred Schreyer is back at home, resting and beginning his recovery from an angioplasty procedure last week in Phoenix.
"Thanks everyone for your wishes and concern over the last week. I am happy to be home and thankful to have come through this episode as well as I did. I can certainly tell you it is humbling to realize how precious life is and how quickly it can change." Schreyer commented.
"I am feeling good and regaining my strength and hope to resume a full schedule within the next week or so. In the meantime, I thank each of you for your commitment to the organization and your passion for the PBA. Let’s make this season our best one yet."
"Thanks everyone for your wishes and concern over the last week. I am happy to be home and thankful to have come through this episode as well as I did. I can certainly tell you it is humbling to realize how precious life is and how quickly it can change." Schreyer commented.
"I am feeling good and regaining my strength and hope to resume a full schedule within the next week or so. In the meantime, I thank each of you for your commitment to the organization and your passion for the PBA. Let’s make this season our best one yet."
Belmonte and Asbaty Appearing in Vernon Hills
Join two-handed bowling sensation Jason Belmonte of Australia and Team USA member Diandra Asbaty as they roll into Chicago (Brunswick Zone Hawthorn in Vernon Hills, IL,) to show off their skills and help you with your game.
First, Jason and Diandra will square off in an exhibition match that will pit two hands against one. Then, it will be your turn to get on the lanes and work with the dynamic duo to improve your game. During that time, you'll have the opportunity to get to know Jason and Diandra, ask them questions and get an autograph.
On site Brunswick product demos will also be featured. To sign up, download the entry form below and return it with payment directly to Brunswick Zone Hawthorn. Entries are limited.
Click here to download the registration form.
Friday, October 23, 2009
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