The first match had two former Collegiate All-Americans and Bowlers of the Year at Saginaw Valley State University in Bill O’Neill and Dan MacLelland. O’Neill was able to take over this match early and won decisively, 204-150. O’Neill went on to bowl against Ryan Shafer in the last Saturday night match. In a close match, Shafer was able to win, 193-183, as O’Neill left a split in the 10th frame. Shafer moved on to bowl against Mika Koivuniemi in the first Sunday match. Both bowlers scored well, but Mika was able to pull ahead and win the match, 236-222, and advance to the semifinals against Tommy Jones. Mika Koivuniemi continued to bowl well, as Jones struggled, and won the match, 241-158.

Mika Koivuniemi went on to face tournament leader Norm Duke in the finals. In a close match that went back and forth, it came down to the 10th frame. Norm Duke threw all strikes in the 9th and 10th frames to force Mika to mark in the 10th. Mika threw a great shot in the 10th, but left a 10 pin. All that was left was to cover the spare and get 8 pins on the fill ball. Off his hand Mika knew he had made a bad shot, as the ball fell into the gutter in front of the 10 pin. Norm Duke had won the match, 225-216, and the tournament.

After the match was over, both bowlers were visibly sick to their stomachs. As Norm Duke was happy to win, his feelings of sympathy toward Mika Koivuniemi strongly overpowered his happiness.

“I sat there stunned, shocked,” Duke said. “I knew I had just won the U.S. Open, but at that moment, my only thought was Mika had just lost. I was just like a fan watching in the living room. How could you not feel badly for him.”

“Mika will be fine, he’ll bounce back. He’s going to be our Player of the Year,” Duke said. “But he’ll never forget that one.”

In winning the U.S. Open, Norm Duke has won his 34th career PBA title and his 7th career PBA Major title.

After 2 second round, the top 10 looks like this:

1, George Lambert IV, Canada, 2,356.
2, Bill O’Neill, Southampton, Pa., 2,345.
3, Tommy Jones, Greenville, S.C., 2,299.
4, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 2,297.
5, Nathan Bohr, Wichita, Kan., 2,274.
6, Mike Fagan, Patchogue, N.Y., 2,255.
7, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 2,253.
8, Jason Belmonte, Australia, 2,250.
9, Dino Castillo, Carrollton, Texas, 2,247.
10, Mika Koivuniemi, Hartland, Mich., 2,234.
10, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 2,234.

For full results, see the USBC Masters page.

Before this event, Chris Barnes had had some trouble bowling on TV. He had done great in the qualifying and matchplay rounds of several events, but couldn’t get over his “TV demons” and finish strong. Winning this event helped Barnes get over that. This is his 13th PBA title and now Barnes has won the “PBA Triple Crown” by winning the U.S. Open, Tournament of Champions, and now the World Championship.

This is Yong-Jin Gu’s first PBA title. He had not bowled any PBA events prior to the PBA World Series of Bowling this year.

Eleven of the sport’s top players and six United States Bowling Congress league bowlers will compete in the PBA Experience Showdown and the PBA Women’s Series Showdown, both presented by BOWL.COM, which will air on ESPN on Sundays April 11 and April 18 at 1 p.m. Eastern, respectively.

The made-for-TV events will begin with the PBA Experience Showdown on Sunday. The PBA Experience Showdown is a unique competition, tying together USBC’s grassroots PBA Experience league program with the five PBA Tour champions who won the five PBA Experience “animal pattern” lane condition championships during the World Series of Bowling in Detroit, kicking off the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.

The five champions are Norm Duke of Clermont, Fla. (Cheetah), Rhino Page (Viper), Bill O’Neill (Chameleon), Mike DeVaney (Scorpion) and Jack Jurek (Shark).

The PBA stars were joined in Arlington by six USBC PBA Experience league bowlers – one each representing the five “animal patterns” and a sixth representing any other Sport Bowling lane condition. The six USBC Sport Bowling members who earned trips to Arlington through a national online voting process, along with their respective league secretaries and the proprietor/manager of the center that hosted the league, were: Bill Motovina, Clearwater, Fla.; Joe Petrowski, East Syracuse, N.Y.; Kevin Reuer, Hoffman Estates, Ill.; Pattie Riddle, Palatine, Ill.; Brent Watson, Parkersburg, W. Va., and Bobby Wenger, Wooster, Ohio. In a preliminary event, the six players bowled one game on each of six different PBA Experience lane conditions, and Reuer won the qualifier, advancing to the television final where he will bowl with the five PBA stars.

Sunday’s unique Showdown format will involve all six bowlers bowling one frame on each of five lanes, each featuring a different PBA Experience pattern. In order, the frames will be Shark, Chameleon, Viper, Scorpion and Cheetah. After five frames, the group will be re-ordered, from lowest score to highest, and they’ll bowl another five frames. After one full game, the top two players will advance to a five-frame title match following the same order. The fifth frame will act as a 10th frame.

The field will now be cut to the top 16, with the cut score being at +774.  Scores have been high for this event with the lowest bowler in the round of 32 averaging 217.22 for the tournament.  The field of 16 will bowl today and the field will be cut to the top five for the TV finals.  The TV finals will be aired live on ESPN on Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 2:00 PM Eastern Time.

#1 seed Walter Ray Williams, Jr. lost in his opening match to Justin Warhol.  #3 seed Wes Malott lost his match to Ryan Abel.  #4 seed Chris Barnes lost his match to Alex Aguiar.  Barnes hopes to get his revenge this saturday in the Chris Barnes Challenge.

This event is being bowled on both the PBA Cheetah and PBA Shark patterns.  The rounds of 32, 16, and 8 will be bowled tomorrow, Friday, March, 19, 2010.