Striking Spotlight

Bill Vint | PBA Media Relations

Professional Bowlers Association | 55 E. Jackson Blvd., Suite 401 | Chicago, IL 60604

bill.vint@pba.com | cell: 414.339.0404

PBA Spare Shots

BUSY MONTH OF LIVE XTRA FRAME COVERAGE ON TAP IN APRIL

PBA’s online bowling channel, Xtra Frame, returns in April with a full schedule of programming including preliminary rounds of the USBC Masters, a PBA Xtra Frame Tour event in Maine, the first three PBA50 Tour events of 2018 and the 2018 season’s first PWBA events.

The April schedule, available for the monthly Xtra Frame subscription rate of $7.99, includes the following. Three-day and full season subscription plans are also available. To enroll as an Xtra Frame viewer, visit xtraframe.tv:

● April 10-14 – USBC Masters qualifying and elimination match play rounds, The Oncenter Convention Center, Syracuse, N.Y. (defending champion: Jason Belmonte).

● April 16-18 – Port Property Management PBA Xtra Frame Maine Shootout, Bayside Bowl, Portland, Maine (defending champion: Ryan Ciminelli).

● April 20 – Oceanview at Falmouth PBA League Team seeding tournament, Bayside Bowl, Portland, Maine.

● April 22-23 – PBA50 Florida Open, Lane Glo Bowl, New Port Richey, Fla. (defending champion: Brian LeClair)

● April 25-28 – PBA50 UnitedHealthcare National Championship presented by Spanish Springs Lanes & Radical, Spanish Springs Lanes, The Villages, Fla. (defending champion: Lennie Boresch Jr.)

● April 27-28 – PWBA Las Vegas Open, South Point Bowling Plaza, Las Vegas (new event).

● April 30-May 2 – PBA50 Mooresville Ford Open presented by Columbia 300, George Pappas Victory Lanes, Mooresville, N.C. (defending champion: Norm Duke).

BRUNSWICK EURO CHALLENGE FINALS SET FOR SUNDAY

The finals of the Brunswick Euro Challenge, a PBA International-World Bowling Tour event, will be live streamed Sunday from Dream-Bowl Palace in Munich, Germany, by StreamForce4Bowling(https://www.youtube.com/user/StreamForce4Bowling).

Sunday’s finals begin at 3:30 a.m. Eastern. In Step One, qualifiers 13 through 64 will bowl six games with the top 16 advancing to Step Two along with qualifiers 1-12 for another six-game round, beginning at 6:15 a.m. The top eight from Step Two will move on to Step Three, an eight-game round-robin match play round with 30 bonus pins to match winners, at 8:45 a.m. Step Four, based on combined pinfall totals from Step Two and Three, will produce three players for the championship round beginning at 11:45 a.m. The No. 3 qualifier will bowl one game against No. 2. The winner takes on the top qualifier in the one-game title match.

First prize will be roughly $14,150 plus a PBA Tour title if the winner is a PBA member (women who accept handicap pins are not eligible for a PBA title). England’sDom Barrett is defending champion.

PBA’S “60 MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS” UNVEILING CONTINUES: 51 THRU 55

The countdown to unveil the complete list of the PBA”s “60 most memorable moments” in its 60-year history continues, one a day, Monday through Friday, on all PBA Network outlets. The top 10 moments were announced on PBA’s ESPN telecast of the Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic. Last week, “memorable moments” 55 through 51 were unveiled. Here are those five moments as the countdown continues:

51) Prior to the 1974 PBA Midas Open finals, a lane breakdown forced the PBA to use lanes from non-adjoining pairs for the finals. In the second game, Jim Stefanich threw the PBA’s third perfect game on TV, the first and only time that feat occurred. Dick Ritger won the title, but Stefanich won a $10,000 bonus plus a new Lincoln-Mercury Cougar.

52) At age 57, John Handegard defeated Mark Williams, 278-247, to win the 1995 PBA Northwest Classic in Kennewick, Wash., becoming the oldest player to win a PBA Tour title.

53) Michael Haugen Jr. overcame a 53-pin deficit through six frames to win the 2008 PBA Tournament of Champions, 215-214, over Chris Barnes at Red Rock Lanes in Las Vegas. Haugen’s five-strike rally forced Barnes to get 20 pins in the 10th to force a tie. After converting a spare, Barnes left the 4 pin on his last shot.

54) In 1962, Don Carter won four titles, earned $49,972 in prize money and recorded an incredible 18 top-five finishes.

55) Mike Durbin became the first bowler to win the Firestone PBA Tournament of Champions three times when he defeated Mike Aulby, 246-163, at Riviera Lanes in Fairlawn, Ohio. Durbin, who also won the event in 1972 and 1982, was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame earlier that week.

To check on releases of subsequent “moments” as they are revealed, check the PBA Network: PBA on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ProfessionalBowlersAssociation)or Instagram (pbatour); subscribe to the PBA channel on YouTube (PBABowling); tweet along on Twitter (@pbatour), and on the web:https://www.pba.com/PBANetwork/MostMemorableMoments.

PBA REGIONAL UPDATE: WALTER RAY BOOST TITLES TOTAL TO 106

PBA Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr. (featured photo) of Oxford, Fla., defeated fellow Hall Of FamerTom Baker of King, N.C., 279-157, to win his 106th PBA title in the PBA50 Fayetteville Southern Open at LaFayette Lanes in Fayetteville, N.C., Sunday.

Williams, who was defending his 2017 title, won easily after Baker started his game with a pocket 7-10 split and could never recover. Williams earned $1,600.

Williams’ PBA titles include a composite total of PBA Tour (47), PBA Regional (32), PBA50 Tour (11) and PBA50 Regional (16) victories.

In the semifinal round, Williams eliminated Mike Hastings of Millsboro, Del., 246-178, while Baker took out Scott Thomsen of Sumter, S.C., 232-192.

● David Haynes of Las Vegas posted an 8-4 match play record and a 20-game total of 4,653 pins Sunday to win his 12th career PBA Regional title in the PBA Sands Regency West/Northwest Winter Classic Open presented by Storm.

Haynes, who earned $2,000, defeated PJ Haggerty of Roseville, Calif., by three pins at the National Bowling Stadium.

In Sunday’s companion PBA50 Open, Dennis Horan Jr.of Oakley, Calif., went 6-3-1 in match play and knocked down 4,270 total pins in his PBA50 debut to defeat Ron Mohr of Las Vegas by 123 pins. Mohr had 4,147 pins for his 18 games, including match play bonus pins. In addition to his first PBA50 title, Horan earned $1,500 while Mohr received $1,000

Leading into the weekend, Scott Boyle of Salida, Calif., was almost perfect in defeating David Allen of Las Vegas, 299-202, to win Friday’s PBA Sands Regency Winter Challenge presented by Storm along with the $1,500 first prize and his first PBA Regional title.

PBA Challenge tournaments are open to players who have never won a PBA title.

In the semifinal round, Boyle defeated Matt McGill of Grants Pass, Ore., 254-218, and Allen defeated Mark DelCerro of Hayward, Calif., 277-179, to set up the championship match.

● Former PBA and PBA Southwest Region Rookie of the Year Francois Lavoie, a Canadian citizen now living in Wichita, Kan., defeated non-member Frankie Guccione of Castle Rock, Colo., 255-244, to win the $5,000 first prize in the fourth annual PBA Colorado Springs Southwest Super Regional at Harmony Lanes in Colorado Springs Sunday.

Needing two strikes in the 10th frame to clinch the victory, Lavoie struck on the first shot, but failed on his second, giving Guccione a chance to win his first PBA tournament. Needing 20 pins in his 10th frame, Guccione left a 7 pin on his first shot and then missed the spare, allowing Lavoie to claim his fifth PBA Regional victory.

Lavoie qualified seventh, earning a bye into the best-of-three-game Round of 12 elimination matches where he defeated amateur Jeffrey Carter of Westminster, Colo., 2-0; No. 2 qualifier Sean Lavery-Spahr of Pasadena, Texas, 2-0, and PBA50 Tour champion Mike Dias of Lafayette, Colo., 214-210, in the semifinal round. Guccione also earned a bye before defeating collegiate amateur Nick Burgess of Jersey Village, Texas, 2-0; tournament leader Devin Bidwell of Wichita, 2-1, andRonald Johnson III of Durango, Colo., 210-182, in his semifinal match.

● A busy weekend is on tap for PBA Regional competitors over the March 16-18 weekend when the schedule includes the Trumbull County Tourism Bureau Central/East Open presented by Radical at Bell-Wick Bowl in Hubbard, Ohio; the PBA50 Showtime Lanes Midwest/Central Open in Virden, Ill.; the Jac’s Lanes Valdosta South Open in Valdosta, Ga., and the Odessa Southwest Open at Astro Bowl in Odessa, Texas.

● PBA’s March 23-25 regional tournament schedule includes the PBA50 Rossi Lanes Open in Elmira, N.Y.; the PBA50 Monte Skeels Allstate Midwest/Central Open at Liberty Lanes in Carpentersville, Ill.. and the Caveman Bowl Northwest/West Open presented by DV8 in Grants Pass, Ore.

● Closing out the March PBA Regional schedule will be the Copperfield Bowl Southwest Challenge for non-title winners over the March 30-April 1 weekend in Houston, Texas.

● For complete PBA Regional schedules, rules and entry information, visit pba.com, open the “schedules” tab and click on PBA Regional Tours to find the event(s) in your area…and remember, you can follow “live scoring” for all PBA Regional events on pba.com(easily accessible for Apple device users using the PBA app).

QUICK NOTES

● Upon further review, the PBA has discovered Patrick Allen is tied with Dennis Horan and Jeff Richgels for 10th place on the PBA Regional titles list, each with 30 wins.

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