Norm Duke Wins U.S. Open
The U.S. Open took place this past week, concluding on Sunday, February 27, 2011. This event is held on the toughest of all of the PBA patterns, the flat U.S. Open pattern. The difficulty of this pattern was shown in the TV finals this weekend.
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.
PBA Makes Big Announcements About 2010 – 2011 Season
The Professional Bowlers Association has made some big announcements about next season. The 2010 – 2011 season will have some big changes. As most already know, the PBA has had a pretty difficult year financially. They knew that they had to make some changes in order to save the future of our sport.
The biggest announcement is about the 2011 PBA Tournament of Champions. This event will feature a $1 Million prize fund, with first place being $250,000. This event will be open to any bowler who has won any PBA event (National, Regional, Senior, Women’s). The Tournament of Champions will air on ESPN on January 23, 2011.
The 2010 – 2011 ESPN schedule will include 23 original PBA programs, running from late November through April. ESPN will air PBA telecasts in HDTV. Several events will feature three consecutive days of coverage. The PBA World Championship and the U.S. Open will feature Friday, Saturday, Sunday presentations.
Lumber Liquidators has confirmed that it will remain the title sponsor through September 2011.
The PBA World Series of Bowling will return for the 2010 – 2011 season. This event will feature nine separate TV shows and will finish with the PBA World Championship.
The USBC Masters will take place in the Reno National Bowling Stadium and the TV finals will be aired live on ESPN.
A new PBA Playoffs series will conclude the season, taking up the final six weeks of TV shows. This series will have a separate prize fund and will be heavily weighted in the PBA Player of the Year standings.
A new “Xtra Frame Tour” will be created, having shows that only air on PBA Xtra Frame. These shows will not air on TV and will only be available to Xtra Frame subscribers.
Many people have mixed feelings about these announcements. The added prize money for the TOC is great, but the other side of the deal is that other tournaments will have a lowered prize fund. It will be interesting to see if bowlers are able to hang around with the lowered prize fund in other tournaments. Is this a step in the right direction for the PBA or is it the beginning of the end?
Bill O’Neill Wins U.S. Open
The opening match of the U.S. Open TV finals had Tommy Jones up against Jason Couch. Jones started off on fire, running the front six strikes to jump out to a big lead. Tommy’s lead was too big for Couch to make up. Tommy Jones won the match 245-192, making the Ebonite Mission look great, just like everyone else has done since its release. Match #2 had Tommy Jones Taking on Bill O’Neill. Jones started to lose his carry toward the end of his first match and made a ball change. Tommy Jones was not able to get his reaction back. Bill O’Neill had to grind out the beginning of the match, but was able to find a good reaction and finally string a few strikes together, winning the match 203-152. O’Neill went on to face Mike Scroggins in the final match. O’Neill caught fire in the middle of the match and jumped out to a huge lead. Scroggins tried to make a come back, but it was too late as Bill O’Neill finished striking out from the third frame to win 267-207. O’Neill won the tournament using a Hammer Black Widow Sting. See the equipment used by all of the pros in the TV finals on my InTheBag page for the U.S. Open.
U.S. Open TV Finals are set
Mike Scroggins made a great run during matchplay to move from 15th place all the way to the #1 spot for the TV stepladder finals of the U.S. Open. Bill O’Neill ended up getting the #2 seed, while Tommy Jones and Jason Couch took the #3 and #4 seeds. Couch and Jones will face off in the opening match of the stepladder finals. The winner of that match will face O’Neill in the semifinals. The winner of the semifinal match will go on to bowl Scroggins in the finals. Mike Scroggins averaged 216.80 and had a 16-8-0 record to earn the top position with a final score of 11537 (+1337, total pins + matchplay bonus points). The cut score ended up at 11282 (+1082, total pins + matchplay bonus points). A few bowlers came very close to making the TV finals, but fell just short. Walter Ray Williams, Jr. missed the cut by 2 pins, while Jason Belmonte couldn’t hold on to his lead and missed the show by 5 pins.
The U.S. Open TV finals will air live on ESPN at 12:30 PM tomorrow, Sunday, February 28, 2010.
Jason Belmonte Retains Lead in U.S. Open
Jason Belmonte used his 9 game score of 1934 (+134) to bring his total to 6051 (+651, 224.11 Average) and keep his lead in the U.S. Open. Belmonte will lead all bowlers going into match play this afternoon. Belmonte currently has an 85 pin lead on the second place bowler Andres Gomez’s score of 5966. Other bowlers currently in the top five include Bill O’Neill (5958), Jason Couch (5866), and Walter Ray Williams, Jr. (5850). The field will now be cut to the top 24 bowlers with a cut score of 5637 (+237, 208.78 Average). Matchplay will begin this afternoon and continue throughout the day tomorrow.
Jason Belmonte Takes Over Lead in U.S. Open
Jason Belmonte had a huge score of 1493 (+293, 248.83 Average) to take over the lead in the third round of qualifying in the U.S. Open. Belmonte’s final qualifying score was 4117 (+517, 228.72 Average). Qualifying second was David Beres with a score of 3939. Rounding out the top five were Andres Gomez (3920), Chris Barnes (3915), and Bill O’Neill (3914). The field will now be cut to the top 88 bowlers (25% of field) with the cut score being 3594 (-6, 199.67 Average)
The remaining bowlers will bowl 9 games on Friday and cut to the top 24. After cutting to the top 24 bowlers, the remaining bowlers will bowl 24 games of match play Friday night and Saturday.
Jack Jurek Leads after Round 2 of U.S. Open
Jack Jurek used a 1298 (+98) score in the second round of the U.S. Open to bring his 12 game total to 2672 (+272, 222.67 Average), which leads Amleto Monacelli’s 2659. Other bowlers rounding out the top five are David Beres (2656), Jason Wojnar (2652), and Robert Smith (2650). Bill O’Neill had the high score for the day of 1457, but currently sits in 13th place. As of right now, the cut score (top 25%, 88/352 bowlers) is at 2396 (-4, 199.67 Average). Today bowlers are bowling 6 more games, then the cut will be made to the top 88 of the 352 bowler field. Those who make the cut will come back on Friday for 9 more games, before cutting to the top 24. Then matchplay begins on Friday night and will continue throughout the day on Saturday.
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