Ohio veteran tops Patrick Allen to end 167-event winless streak
Brian Kretzer (pictured left) of Dayton, Ohio, ended his 167-event winless streak Sunday, defeating 13-time Professional Bowlers Association title winner Patrick Allen of Wesley Chapel, Fla., 629-566, in the three-game title match of the Go RVing Match Play Championship at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center Sunday. Kretzer, at age 43, became the sixth Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour competitor to win his first singles title during the 2009-10 season.
Former "action players" to meet in three-game, total pinfall match for $25,000 prize
Patrick Allen (l.), a 13-time PBA title winner from Wesley Chapel, Fla., and Brian Kretzer (r.) of Dayton, Ohio, a non-title winner, advanced to Sunday's Go RVing Match Play Championship title match at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center Saturday. Allen defeated No. 57 Ryan Ciminelli of Cheektowaga, N.Y., 601-530, in their three-game, total pinfall semifinal round match Saturday night, while Kretzer eliminated No. 50 Doug Kent, Newark, N.Y., 625-581.
Top 20 seeded players eliminated; Allen, Kent, Ciminelli, Kretzer advance to Saturday's semifinal round
Upsets are no surprise when "March Madness" sweeps the nation, but the NCAA basketball realm has never seen anything like the parade of upsets that hit the PBA Go RVing Match Play Championship Thursday and Friday at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center. Not a single player seeded among the top 20 made the show as No. 21 seed Patrick Allen, No. 27 Brian Kretzer, No. 50 Doug Kent (l.), and No. 57 Ryan Ciminelli (r.) advanced to the finals on Sunday.
Bowling has not escaped the nation's economic slowdown on many fronts and many have been predicting doom and gloom for bowling tournaments. The PBA ran into a lost sponsor and a lost tournament site during the current 2009-10 tour season. So rumor was rampant that the three former Microsoft executives who have lost an estimated $20 million since they purchased the PBA in 2000 might be pulling the plug on the 2010-11 season.
No. 1 Williams, defending champ Barnes, reigning Player of the Year Malott eliminated in opening round
Top-seeded Walter Ray Williams Jr. (l.), defending champion Chris Barnes and reigning Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Player of the Year Wes Malott were upset victims as the Go RVing Match Play Championship got underway Thursday at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center. Among the top four seeds in the PBA Tour's version of "March Madness," only No. 2 Bill O'Neill (right) of Southampton, Pa., survived the opening round.
Innovations in broadcast coverage, return of World Series of Bowling unveiled to Exempt Tour players
The Professional Bowlers Association laid out general plans for the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season Wednesday in a meeting with the Exempt Tour players in Norwich, Conn., site of this week's Go RVing PBA Match Play Championship."The PBA has weathered the most difficult economic year for professional sports of all kinds that most of us have ever seen," said PBA Tour Commissioner and CEO Fred Schreyer, "and we are continuing to reshape the future of professional bowling by introducing new concepts that are both necessary and exciting."
Fans have until 11 a.m. Eastern on Thursday to enter PBA Bracket Battle on pba.com
Ryan Ciminelli (pictured left) of Cheektowaga, N.Y., led a field eight players who advanced out of the Professional Bowlers Association’s Tour Qualifying Round Wednesday and completed the field of 64 for the Go RVing Match Play Championship which gets underway Thursday at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center. Ciminelli, who has already advanced to the television finals three times during the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, averaged 226.57 to finish the seven-game qualifying round with a 1,586 pinfall total.
PBA superstar plans to attend GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship in West Babylon, N.Y.
Over the past few weeks, the intensity and desire that carried Mark Roth to 34 PBA Tour titles has started to return. The 58-year-old hall of famer has been working harder than he has in years, trying to get ready for his next tournament. But when Mark Roth makes his appearance at the GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship at AMF Babylon Lanes in West Babylon, N.Y., March 24-28, it will be dramatically different than any he has ever made before. He will arrive at the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour event named in his honor in a wheelchair.
What if the PGA Tour required players to use persimmon woods or the USTA required its players to use wood-framed tennis rackets instead of today's equipment that incorporates high-tech titanium and graphite technology? The PBA GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship March 24-28 at AMF Babylon Lanes in West Babylon, N.Y., is the one event on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour that turns back the clock on bowling ball technology so that players will have less reliance on today's high-powered equipment.
With his second victory of the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, Mike Scroggins (l.) has turned the Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year race into a three-man sprint heading into the final three events of the season. By picking up 16 points with his win in the Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday, Scroggins now has 48 points, eight behind leader Bill O’Neill (r.) of and four behind Walter Ray Williams Jr.
Go RVing Match Play Championship lineup is set, online "pick the winners" contest now available
Let the games begin: the PBA's first "PBA Bracket Battle" is online and ready to go, giving bowling fans an opportunity to pick all of the winners in the Go RVing Match Play Championship which gets underway Wednesday, March 17, at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center in Norwich, Conn. The PBA Bracket Battle will seed the top 58 PBA Tour players and 8 players who emerge from the Tour Qualifying Round on March 17 in a 64-player single-elimination bracket competition.
The last thing Kelly Kulick could have imagined as she rolled her way to victory in the PBA Tournament of Champions in January was that her historic victory would lead to a visit to the White House. And beyond simply acknowledging her as the first woman to win a Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour title, Kulick found herself being honored as an American pioneer who had carved out a unique place in the nation's history as the first woman to win a major championship in a male-dominated professional sport.
Home-state favorite Kretzer fails to capitalize on gift opportunity in 10th frame
Mike Scroggins (l.) of Amarillo, Texas, won his eighth career title and second of the 2009-10 season in the PBA Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator finals at Sequoia Pro Bowl Sunday, surviving a 10th-frame error to edge home-state favorite Brian Kretzer (r.) of Dayton, Ohio, 206-195, in the championship match. The PBA Tour will take a week off before returning to action in ithe Go RVing Match Play Championship March 17-21 in Norwich, Conn.
Ohio native Brian Kretzer (l.) will take on a diverse field in the PBA Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator finals
at Sequoia Pro Bowl in Columbus, Ohio, Sunday, including reigning PBA
Player of the Year Wes Malott, U.S. Open runner-up Mike Scroggins and Finland's two-handed star, Osku Palermaa (r.). The finals will air at 12:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. The four emerged as survivors
of three rounds of elimination games by dominating their respective
four-player groups.
Barnes' bid for third consecutive title in Columbus falls short
Sean Rash (l.) of Wichita, Kan., charged out of sixth place to earn the top seeding position for Eliminator Rounds in the Professional Bowlers Association's Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator at Sequoia Pro Bowl Friday, averaging 229.5 over 28 qualifying games including a 300 game. Rash topped the field of 30 with a total of 6,426 pins, holding off Tommy Jones (r.) of Simpsonville, S.C., for the top qualifying position by 14 pins. Jones had a 6,412 total.
Despite closing with two sub-par games, Steve Harman (l.) of Indianapolis held onto the third round lead in the Professional Bowlers Association's Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator Friday at Sequoia Pro Bowl, averaging 230.1 over 21 qualifying games. Harman, a 36-year-old non-title winner, finished Friday's morning round with a 4,832 pinfall total and a 30-pin lead over Sean Rash (r.) of Wichita, Kan., who finished with games of 300 and 254 to advance from sixth to second.
First-round leader Haugen slips into second place; U.S. Open champ O’Neill is third
Third-year touring player Steve Harman (l.) jumped from 14th place into the lead in the Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator Thursday, averaging 240.86 over 14 qualifying games to take a 45–pin lead over first-round leader Michael Haugen Jr. (r.). Harman averaged 255 during the second round, finishing with a 3,372 pinfall total. The top 30 will bowl two more seven-game qualifying rounds Friday to
narrow the field to the 16 players for Saturday’s Eliminator Rounds.
U.S. Open champ O’Neill four pins behind heading into Thursday night’s second round
After battling injuries the past three seasons, Michael Haugen Jr. (l.) charged into the first round lead in the Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator Thursday at Sequoia Pro Bowl. Haugen averaged 247.43 for seven games to take a four-pin lead over 2010 U.S. Open champion Bill O’Neill (r.). The 43-year-old two-time Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour title winner posted a seven-game total of 1,732 pins in his bid for his first title since winning the 2008 PBA Tournament of Champions.
Kelly Kulick (pictured), the first woman to win a Professional Bowlers Association Tour title, has accepted an invitation to visit the White House for a reception to be hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The event, on Monday, March 8 at 4 p.m. Eastern, is in celebration of Women's History Month. Kulick won the PBA Tournament of Champions – the PBA's signature event and one of the Tour's four major events – on Jan. 24 in Las Vegas.
With only four "standard" events remaining in the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour regular season, newly-crowned U.S. Open champion Bill O'Neill (pictured) of Southampton, Pa., has taken a four-point lead over venerable Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., in the 2009-10 Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year points race. O'Neill, in making his tour-best fifth TV appearance of the season, earned 24 points for a total of 56 to take the lead from Williams.
Brian Kretzer (pictured left) of Dayton, Ohio, ended his 167-event winless streak Sunday, defeating 13-time Professional Bowlers Association title winner Patrick Allen of Wesley Chapel, Fla., 629-566, in the three-game title match of the Go RVing Match Play Championship at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center Sunday. Kretzer, at age 43, became the sixth Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour competitor to win his first singles title during the 2009-10 season.
Upsets are no surprise when "March Madness" sweeps the nation, but the NCAA basketball realm has never seen anything like the parade of upsets that hit the PBA Go RVing Match Play Championship Thursday and Friday at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center. Not a single player seeded among the top 20 made the show as No. 21 seed Patrick Allen, No. 27 Brian Kretzer, No. 50 Doug Kent (l.), and No. 57 Ryan Ciminelli (r.) advanced to the finals on Sunday.
Bowling has not escaped the nation's economic slowdown on many fronts and many have been predicting doom and gloom for bowling tournaments. The PBA ran into a lost sponsor and a lost tournament site during the current 2009-10 tour season. So rumor was rampant that the three former Microsoft executives who have lost an estimated $20 million since they purchased the PBA in 2000 might be pulling the plug on the 2010-11 season.
Top-seeded Walter Ray Williams Jr. (l.), defending champion Chris Barnes and reigning Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Player of the Year Wes Malott were upset victims as the Go RVing Match Play Championship got underway Thursday at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center. Among the top four seeds in the PBA Tour's version of "March Madness," only No. 2 Bill O'Neill (right) of Southampton, Pa., survived the opening round.
The Professional Bowlers Association laid out general plans for the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season Wednesday in a meeting with the Exempt Tour players in Norwich, Conn., site of this week's Go RVing PBA Match Play Championship."The PBA has weathered the most difficult economic year for professional sports of all kinds that most of us have ever seen," said PBA Tour Commissioner and CEO Fred Schreyer, "and we are continuing to reshape the future of professional bowling by introducing new concepts that are both necessary and exciting."
Over the past few weeks, the intensity and desire that carried Mark Roth to 34 PBA Tour titles has started to return. The 58-year-old hall of famer has been working harder than he has in years, trying to get ready for his next tournament. But when Mark Roth makes his appearance at the GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship at AMF Babylon Lanes in West Babylon, N.Y., March 24-28, it will be dramatically different than any he has ever made before. He will arrive at the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour event named in his honor in a wheelchair.
What if the PGA Tour required players to use persimmon woods or the USTA required its players to use wood-framed tennis rackets instead of today's equipment that incorporates high-tech titanium and graphite technology? The PBA GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship March 24-28 at AMF Babylon Lanes in West Babylon, N.Y., is the one event on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour that turns back the clock on bowling ball technology so that players will have less reliance on today's high-powered equipment.
With his second victory of the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, Mike Scroggins (l.) has turned the Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year race into a three-man sprint heading into the final three events of the season. By picking up 16 points with his win in the Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday, Scroggins now has 48 points, eight behind leader Bill O’Neill (r.) of and four behind Walter Ray Williams Jr. 
Let the games begin: the PBA's first "PBA Bracket Battle" is online and ready to go, giving bowling fans an opportunity to pick all of the winners in the Go RVing Match Play Championship which gets underway Wednesday, March 17, at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center in Norwich, Conn. The PBA Bracket Battle will seed the top 58 PBA Tour players and 8 players who emerge from the Tour Qualifying Round on March 17 in a 64-player single-elimination bracket competition. 
The last thing Kelly Kulick could have imagined as she rolled her way to victory in the PBA Tournament of Champions in January was that her historic victory would lead to a visit to the White House. And beyond simply acknowledging her as the first woman to win a Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour title, Kulick found herself being honored as an American pioneer who had carved out a unique place in the nation's history as the first woman to win a major championship in a male-dominated professional sport.
Ohio native Brian Kretzer (l.) will take on a diverse field in the PBA Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator finals
at Sequoia Pro Bowl in Columbus, Ohio, Sunday, including reigning PBA
Player of the Year Wes Malott, U.S. Open runner-up Mike Scroggins and Finland's two-handed star, Osku Palermaa (r.). The finals will air at 12:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. The four emerged as survivors
of three rounds of elimination games by dominating their respective
four-player groups.
Sean Rash (l.) of Wichita, Kan., charged out of sixth place to earn the top seeding position for Eliminator Rounds in the Professional Bowlers Association's Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator at Sequoia Pro Bowl Friday, averaging 229.5 over 28 qualifying games including a 300 game. Rash topped the field of 30 with a total of 6,426 pins, holding off Tommy Jones (r.) of Simpsonville, S.C., for the top qualifying position by 14 pins. Jones had a 6,412 total.
Third-year touring player Steve Harman (l.) jumped from 14th place into the lead in the Etonic Don Johnson Eliminator Thursday, averaging 240.86 over 14 qualifying games to take a 45–pin lead over first-round leader Michael Haugen Jr. (r.). Harman averaged 255 during the second round, finishing with a 3,372 pinfall total. The top 30 will bowl two more seven-game qualifying rounds Friday to
narrow the field to the 16 players for Saturday’s Eliminator Rounds.
Kelly Kulick (pictured), the first woman to win a Professional Bowlers Association Tour title, has accepted an invitation to visit the White House for a reception to be hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The event, on Monday, March 8 at 4 p.m. Eastern, is in celebration of Women's History Month. Kulick won the PBA Tournament of Champions – the PBA's signature event and one of the Tour's four major events – on Jan. 24 in Las Vegas.
With only four "standard" events remaining in the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour regular season, newly-crowned U.S. Open champion Bill O'Neill (pictured) of Southampton, Pa., has taken a four-point lead over venerable Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., in the 2009-10 Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year points race. O'Neill, in making his tour-best fifth TV appearance of the season, earned 24 points for a total of 56 to take the lead from Williams.