Jason Belmonte has taken the 14 game lead in the PBA GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship.  After 14 games, Belmonte is leading the field with a score of 3366 (+566, 240.43 Average).  Jason has thrown two 300 games and finished his second block with 811 for his last three games.

Walter Ray Williams, Jr. is currently in second with 3339. Others in the top 5 include Mike Fagan (3320), Wayne Garber (3293), and Brian Ziesig (3241).  The field will now be cut to the top 32, with the cut score at 3035 (+235, 216.79 Average).

Scores have been pretty high so far for this event, with only one bowler averaging under 200.  This event is being bowled on a modified version of the PBA Shark pattern.  This pattern is the same length, but has a lighter volume of oil.  This volume makes up for the weaker surface of the polyester bowling balls.

England’s Rob Thurlby is the champion of the Brunswick Euro Challenge 2010.  Thurlby went into the stepladder finals in the #2 position, needing to win two matches.  The first stepladder match was between Malaysia’s Zulmazran Zulkifli and Venezuela’s Ildemaro Ruiz.  Zulkifli won the match 230-202 and went on to face Rob Thurlby.  Thurlby won the match 233-194 and earned his spot in the final match against Malaysia’s Adrian Ang.  Thurlby won the close match 253-248 to win the tournament.

Several U.S. bowlers had good showings at this event.  Mike Fagan finished 5th, while Norm Duke finished 7th.  Finnish bowlers Osku Palermaa and Kimmo Lehtonen finished 6th and 8th in the tournament.  Congratulations to Rob Thurlby!

In the opening stepladder match of the 2009-2010 PBA One A Day Dick Weber Open, Bill O’Neill took on Ryan Shafer.  O’Neill won the match, 226-200.  Bill O’Neill went on to face #3 qualifier Pete Weber.  Weber won the match, 214-202, to go on and face #2 qualifier Walter Ray Williams, Jr.  Walter Ray won the match, 234-178, and advanced to bowl in the championship match against #1 qualifier Mike Fagan.  Fagan continued to bowl well, as he had done all week, and beat Walter Ray, 241-213.

This is Mike Fagan’s first individual PBA Tour title.  He has one doubles title, in the 2007-2008 PBA Exempt Doubles tournament with his teammate Danny Wiseman.  Fagan came close to winning this same tournament last year, but fell just short, losing to Norm Duke in the championship match.  The Chris Paul PBA Celebrity SNL Invitational will be taking place next week.

Mike Fagan used an Ebonite The Mission to win the tournament.  See the rest of his equipment and the other pros’ equipment at my InTheBag page for the Dick Weber Open.

Mike Fagan has been the top qualifier for the TV finals of the 2009-2010 PBA One A Day Dick Weber Open.  Fagan finished with a total of 9136 (39 Games + Bonus Pins).  This gave him a 172 pin lead over second qualifier Walter Ray Williams, Jr.  Other qualifiers include Pete Weber (#3), Ryan Shafer (#4), and Bill O’Neill (#5).

The TV Finals will consist of stepladder matches, starting with O’Neill taking on Shafer, with the winner going on to bowl against Pete Weber.  The show will be aired live on ESPN2 at 1:00, rather than ESPN this week.  This tournament is being bowled on the 39 foot Dick Weber Open pattern, which was designed to force bowlers into making constant moves because of ongoing lane transitions.

John Janawicz became a Team USA member for the third time by winning in the Team Trials this year.  Janawicz had a 100+ pin lead going into the final two games of the tournament.  He shot 159 and 183 to finish out the tournament with a final 36-game score of 8168 (+968, 226.8 Average).  Mike Fagan made a late run to try to take over the lead, but left a 7-pin in the tenth to fall three pins short.  This years team will include Janawicz (1st), Fagan (2nd), Craig Hanson (3rd), Cassidy Schaub (Selection), and John Szczerbinski (Selection).

Over on the women’s side things weren’t quite as close.  Brenda Edwards finished with a 36-game score of 7890 (+690, 219.1 Average) to make the team for her third time.  Edwards led the field by 169 pins with Kendra Gaines finishing in second.  This years team will include Edwards (1st), Gaines (2nd), Emily Maier (3rd), Tennelle Milligan (Selection), and Diandra Asbaty (Selection).

Heading into the Team USA Trials, 13 players had already secured spots by virtue of their selection earlier this year. Walter Ray Williams Jr., Chris Barnes, Wes Malott, Tommy Jones, Patrick Allen, Rhino Page and Bill O’Neill make up the remainder of the men’s team. On the women’s side, Stefanie Nation, Shannon O’Keefe, Shannon Pluhowsky, Liz Johnson, Kelly Kulick and Carolyn Dorin-Ballard were selected.

The full results can be found on bowl.com

The Pepsi Red, White and Blue Open presented by USBC was created to show bowlers the differences between PBA oil patterns and typical house oil patterns.  This tournament used different patterns, with the “red” pattern being the easiest and highest scoring and the “blue” pattern being the toughest.  The Pepsi Red, White and Blue Open did a good job of showing exactly how easy these patterns are.  There were lots of high scores this week, with several bowlers averaging well over 250 on the red pattern.

Patrick Allen led all bowlers for the week, finishing in first after 48 games, with a total score of 12,308 (+2708, 247.67 Average).  The cut to the top 6 was 12,138 (+2538, 243.5 Average).  In the round of 4 (Bowlers #3 – #6), Walter Ray Williams, Jr. defeated Mike Machuga, 257-244, and Mike Scroggins defeated Michael Fagan, 218-183.  Scroggins went on to bowl against tournament leader Patrick Allen.  Scroggins won the match, 227-215.  In the other semifinal match, Wayne Garber took on Walter Ray Williams, Jr.  The two tied with a score of 237.  Garber won the rolloff with a score of 19 to Williams’ 17.

Scroggins and Garber went on to face each other in the finals.  Scroggins started the game off great and didn’t look back.  He ran the front nine strikes and had a nine-spare-nine in the tenth for a 278 game to beat Garber’s 229 Game.  Congratulations to Mike Scroggins!

See which equipment the bowlers were using at MyBowlingBlog.com/InTheBag.

Jack Jurek defeated Wes Malott, 255-213, to earn his way to the finals of the PBA Shark Championship. Michael Fagan defeated Jason Couch in the semifinals, 224-201. Jurek and Fagan squared off in the finals match, tying with a score of 218. In a one ball rolloff, Jurek beat Fagan by throwing a strike to Fagan’s 8 count.

This is Jurek’s first PBA title of the season, and second of his career.

View the full results on PBA.com

The bowlers will now have a break until December, when the season will pick back up.

The TV finals are set for the PBA Shark Championship. The four men bowling in the finals are Michael Fagan, Jason Couch, Jack Jurek, and Wes Malott. 2008 Player of the Year Wes Malott lost in the finals of the Shark Championship in 2008 against Rhino Page, so he is looking to take advantage of another opportunity to win it this year.

For the women, Kelly Kulick and Carolyn Dorin-Ballard are the two finalists. Kulick won a close semifinal match against Liz Johnson.

The PBA Shark Championship finals will be bowled on Saturday, September 6 and aired on ESPN on Sunday, December 6.

See PBA.com for the full results.