Shayna Ng and the New PWBA Season

Hearty congratulations to Singapore's Shayna Ng for capturing the first title of the 2018 PWBA season at Las Vegas' South Point Bowling Plaza in the PWBA Las Vegas Open on April 28. As a paragon of consistency, she was in first place after the first and second rounds, third place after the third, and the second seed for the stepladder finals in which she defeated Hall-of-Famer Leanne Hulsenberg 193-167 and top seed Diana Zavjalova 231-211 for her first PWBA title.

After watching most of the action live on the webcasting service PBA Xtra Frame, all I can say is that players not on Team Singapore's 9-player juggernaut are fortunate that the Singapore Slingers, as I fondly call them, are scheduled to compete in only the first two tournaments of the season due to commitments back home. If not for that, they could very well crowd out many of their competitors for cash and titles. For in the Las Vegas Open, they held 7 of the top 32 spots above the cash line after the first round of eight games, six of the top 32 after the second round with two more players just out of the cut for the Cashers round of 32, and 3 spots in the final round of 12. Given the depth and quality of the field, I think that's pretty impressive.

I plan to drive to Rohnert Park, CA to watch the PWBA Sonoma County Open this Friday and Saturday, May 4 and 5, and blog about my experience there. I was very disappointed to learn that the PWBA wouldn't be stopping at my home (and much closer) house of Steve Cook's Fireside Lanes just outside Sacramento, CA this season as they did the past three seasons. But if the PWBA won't come to me, I guess I'll have to go to them at least once this season, because I love watching these awesome lady bowlers that much. And the fabulous Singapore ladies will garner a considerable share of my attention because they're THAT good.

If you can, I heartily recommend that you join me there. If you can't, please watch the livestreaming on PBA Xtra Frame. You'll be glad you did.

Is PBA Xtra Frame's Jason Thomas Psychic?

In case you don't have enough reasons already to subscribe to the PBA's webcasting service, Xtra Frame, here's another one. This week the PBA is in Indianapolis for the fabled Tournament of Champions, and Xtra Frame has been covering it from the opening frames of qualifying yesterday. This morning at 10 AM Eastern, Osku Palermaa, who was in either second or first place going in to today's final 8-game block of qualifying, stepped up in the first frame of his first game and left a pocket 7-10 split. Not an auspicious start, to say the least. But not to worry.

"I'm gonna to go out on a limb and say he's going to make this, Jeff," said "The Bowling Guy," Jason Thomas, to his co-announcer, About.com's Bowling Guide Jeff Goodger. "He's gonna give us something to scream about right out of the gate this morning." "Good," replied Goodger. "I trust the bowling guy's instincts."

Well, I was surprised at such a bold prediction. It didn't sound like a joke. It sounded serious. And it's no small thing to seriously predict the conversion of a split that most of us have never converted ourselves and rarely if ever seen anyone else convert. I've been bowling pretty regularly for almost 50 years, most of it at the scratch level, and have left hundreds of 7-10 splits over that time. I've never converted the 7-10 even once. And I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've seen it converted in front of me. I've seen it converted a few more times on TV and the Internet, but not THAT many more. 7-10 conversions are pretty rare no matter who's shooting at them. They don't call the 7-10 split "impossible" for nothing.

So, my first thought was, "I know it's Osku, but no way's he's going to make it." Then, immediately after that, I thought, "But Jason made that prediction so confidently that I'll bet Osku does make it. So, this coverage must not be live, and Jason has already seen Osku pick it up and then managed to make it sound like he made his prediction before Osku converted the split." But then I thought, "That's impossible. Jason may be smart, but he couldn't pull THAT off! Osku's going to miss that split, and Jason and Jeff are going to be proven wrong, and that's too bad."

Well, now that I've set the stage for you, check out the video below to see what happened, and then subscribe to PBA Xtra Frame and catch the next PBA miracle live, not to mention all the other great action you can get live, if at all, ONLY on Xtra Frame.

PBA Has YouTube Videos Removed

"So lame. The PBA should be doing all they can to promote the art of bowling, not stifle it. Instead, they have their own paid video subscription service on their website. I'm about as big a bowling fan as you can get, but I will not pay the PBA to have access to their video library." -- YouTube comment

The PBA has purportedly persuaded YouTube to remove one private source's posted videos of all recent televised championships because of copyright infringement. Now I'm the first to admit that I don't know how the copyrighting of televised sports content works. More particularly, I don't know what the legal technicalities happen to be concerning the uploading to YouTube of PBA telecasts carried by ESPN and other networks.

What I do know is that we bowling fans who miss the telecasts or who don't subscribe to cable or who live abroad could almost always find them on YouTube a day or so after the telecast. This suggests that even if it technically violated copyright law to place this content on YouTube without the PBA's consent, the powers-that-be, who were surely aware of what was going on, looked the other way instead of enforcing the law governing this matter.

And it stands to reason that they would. PBA telecasts, unlike movies and music that you buy and watch or listen to any time you wish, are generally shown once only ESPN or on whatever other network they might happen to appear, unless they reappear on an "oldies" channel years afterward. Of course, it's true that a bowling fan devoted enough to fork out the money for a paid subscription to PBA Xtra Frame can watch these telecasts on demand there. But what seems doubtful is that most people who want to see a PBA telecast after it airs are going to subscribe to Xtra Frame in order to watch it there.

So, why did the PBA do this? Did they think that if people can't watch these telecasts on TV when they air, they'll subscribe to Xtra Frame to watch them or that they'll be more motivated to watch them when they air instead of thinking they can always catch them later on YouTube? Or does the PBA plan to post them to YouTube themselves, as they have in the past, and they don't want any competition from private parties? I don't know, even though I'm going to try to find out.

At this point, I don't want to second guess the PBA. They are struggling to prosper in a marketplace filled with diverse competition for the public's time and money, and I don't blame them for doing what they think is best for the cause. I just hope it's wise to deny potential viewers the opportunity to view the telecasts after the fact on YouTube when it seems to me that the PBA wouldn't want to tick people off or reduce the public's exposure to their product. And if it isn't so wise, I hope they reverse course or at least post the videos in question to YouTube themselves via the PBA Channel before too long.

Stay tuned for further developments on this front.

Brian Valenta: Bowling's Lord of the Loft

Jason Belmonte and Osku Palermaa are the undisputed stars of two-handed bowling, but there's another two-hander out there who shouldn't be overlooked, even if, unlike me, you're not a big fan of the two-handed style. His name is Brian Valenta, and even though, unlike Belmonte and Palermaa, he puts his thumb in his strike ball, it doesn't noticeably diminish the awesome power he unleashes on the pins.

Since being a member of Junior Team USA, leading Lindenwood University to the Intercollegiate Team Championship in 2005, winning the Intercollegiate Singles Championship in 2006, and joining the PBA in 2008, Brian has cashed high in several Tour events, and he finished a respectable 42nd place in the recently concluded U.S. Open.

One way he managed to perform so well on the hugely challenging lane conditions of the U.S. Open was to draw upon his remarkable ability to move extremely far left (we're talking NEXT-LANE far left) on the approach when he needed to and loft the ball 30 feet down the lane with freakish consistency and accuracy to crush the pocket.

It's an amazing sight to behold, and, fortunately, the short video below provides a glimpse of what I'm talking about. It comes from PBA Xtra Frame's coverage of later cashier's round play in the U.S. Open. It just so happens that Mark Roth was sitting in as guest commentator on Xtra Frame at the time, and even Roth, who isn't particularly fond of the two-handed style and has seen and done so much in bowling that he seems forbiddingly difficult to impress with any style, appeared to be almost dumbfounded by Valenta's prodigious demonstration. It should also be noted that Valenta replicated the results shown on the video several times in that game en route to a 255 score. It was stunning!

It's true that modern oil patterns, reactive resin bowling balls, and high rev releases are prompting more and more right-handed players to move far left and loft the ball over the gutter cap and that guys like Belmo, Osku, and Mike Fagan do it routinely and very well in the latter games of rounds. Yet, I must say that I've never seen anyone do it quite as impressively as Valenta. And to put an exclamation point on his loftmeister skills, the second video shows him executing a tamer but still mighty impressive version of Osku Palermaa's now legendary loft-over-the-barchair trick shot strike of a few years ago.

I know that some people don't like this modern freakshow development in the sport, and I have to admit that I too am not thrilled that lane conditions and bowling equipment are such that anyone would ever need to take such drastic measures to score well. But necessity is the mother of invention, and I can't help but marvel at the mind-boggling loftmeister skills of a Brian Valenta.

How do you feel about this? Are you similarly impressed and enthralled, or do you recoil in repugnance and horror at this wholesale desecration of the traditional bowling game?

Stories Abound at 69th PBA U.S. Open

"At the U.S. Open, it's all about hitting your target and making spares, and I did pretty good at that." ~ Missy Parkin

The PBA U.S. Open may not pay out the most money to its top finishers of all the big bowling tournaments in the world, but it is arguably the most prestigious tournament of them all, and it is conducted on what are surely among the most demanding lane conditions of all elite bowling tournaments, the flat 42-foot U.S. Open pattern.

In this year's U.S. Open, 394 of the finest professional and amateur bowlers from several continents gathered at the fabled 82-lane Brunswick Zone Carolier in North Brunswick, N.J. on Tuesday to loft and grind their way through three 6-game blocks over three consecutive days of qualifying before the field was winnowed down to the cashier's round of 98 for another 8 games of qualifying Friday morning prior to being cut to the top 24. Those top 24 will now bowl one 8-game block of round-robin match play on Friday evening and two blocks Saturday to determine the four stepladder finalists for Sunday's live ESPN telecast at 3 pm ET.

If you've been watching PBA Xtra Frame this week, you've seen some remarkable bowling, enjoyed expert coverage by Mike J. Laneside, Jason Thomas, and Jackie Bowling, heard some great guest commentary from the likes of PBA legend Mark Roth, Johnny Petraglia Jr., PBA Commissioner Tom Clark, and 14-year-old bowling phenom Kamron Doyle, and you've no doubt gained a huge appreciation for just how incredibly difficult it is to cash in the U.S. Open and how tremendously well someone has to bowl to make it to the top 24 on those lane conditions.

You would have also seen the aforementioned Kamron Doyle become the youngest bowler ever to make the cashier's round of the U.S. Open, finishing in 61st place, ahead of a panoply of big name bowlers including Walter Ray Williams Jr., Tommy Jones, Kelly Kulick, Amletto Monacelli, Tom Baker, and Dick Allen in the cashier's round and a plethora of other outstanding bowlers who didn't cash.

You would have seen 64-year-old bowling legend Johnny Petraglia remarkably make the cut and finish in a very respectable 78th place.

You would have seen USBC Queens winner Missy Parkin bowl phenomenally well against her male counterparts to average 210.84 and finish 9th in the cashier's round, setting her up for match play and a possible TV appearance on Sunday. No woman has ever made it into match play in the PBA U.S.Open before. She also finished higher in the recent USBC Masters than any woman ever has before when she ended up in 11th place.

You would have seen multiple PBA titlists Jason Belmonte and Osku Palerma two-hand their way into the top 24, while lesser known but no less exciting two-hander Brian Valenta lofted the ball 30 feet down the lane while standing on the approach of the adjacent lane to crush the pins repeatedly and impress even the hard-to-impress Mark Roth who was a guest commentator at the time.

You would have seen Sean Rash shoot a desperation 289 to leap from well down the field into the top 24 with two games to go and then flail his way out of the cut.

You would have seen 50-year-old Pete Weber bid for an unprecedented 5th U.S. Open title by finishing 10th in the cashier's round.

You would have seen P.J. Sonday using mostly one strike ball all week to finish the cashier's round in 5th place, while defending champion Norm Duke, Masters Champion Mike Fagan, and a bevy of other great bowlers including Chris Barnes, Bill O'Neill, Dan McLelland, Rhino Page, and Jason Couch did what great bowlers do and make it to the top 24 for match play of the U.S. Open.

And last but not least, you would have seen Ryan Shafer show why he has to be far and away the best player never to win a major title. He ran away and hid from the rest of the field by averaging a blistering 224 on impossible lane conditions and leading second place Mike Fagan by 170 pins.

If you don't get PBA Xtra Frame, it's not too late to sign up and catch the 24 games of match play and expert commentary today and tomorrow. In any case, be sure to tune into ESPN on Sunday to watch the televised finals of the greatest bowling tournament of them all. And you can get the official scores and major backstories at the PBA website.

Chris Barnes Has No Competition in the Cheetah Challenge

Chris Barnes showed up today at Fountain Valley Bowl at 5:30 PM EST with $5000 cash in his pocket, but nobody dared to take him on. That's right, PBA Xtra Frame was all set to live stream a contest in which Barnes and one or possibly more challengers each tossed $5000 into the pot and the highest scorer for three games would walk away with all the money. Yet, not even last year's Cheetah monster and champion Eugene McCune rose to the challenge.

If you recall, McCune not only won last year's Cheetah championship but obliterated the nine-game block scoring record by averaging an unbelievable 274 along the way in match play. I've posted a short video of part of that mind-boggling performance below.

Maybe all the players, fresh off a practice round, were resting physically and psyching up mentally for tomorrow's opening of the PBA Cheetah Open and didn't want to be distracted by a preliminary match with Barnes. Yet, I'm still surprised that no one went after him. Yes, $5000 is a lot of money for most of us, and underpaid bowlers are decidedly no exception. But surely there are well-to-do sponsors out there who would have been willing to take a gamble. After all, Chris Barnes, as great as he is, has not exactly shown himself to be unbeatable here of late on any lane condition. Yes, he had an excellent year last season despite the fact that he didn't win any championships, but HE DIDN'T WIN ANY CHAMPIONSHIPS and was completely out of the running in quite a number of tournaments.

Well, even though Chris didn't get to bowl against anybody, he did throw some impressive practice balls and talk with Xtra Frame announcer Mike J. Laneside and Fountain Valley Bowl resident bowling coach extraordinaire Mark Baker about his game, his equipment, and how to handle the Cheetah pattern, and it was quite illuminating. Chris Barnes has encyclopedic knowledge of bowling and bowling equipment and is very articulate in discussing it.

Any serious bowler who wants to get better and can afford $7.95 a month or $65 a year for Xtra Frame is crazy not to subscribe and start soaking up like a thirsty sponge the incredible information offered. And if you do subscribe and miss events like what I just described, you can always catch them in the archives and go over them as many times as you wish to learn everything you can and want to learn from them.

Not only that, but this season the PBA Tour will run several national tournaments that will be carried only on Xtra Frame. In the past, it has used Xtra Frame to cover qualifying and match play rounds, leaving the finals to ESPN or, in one instance, ABC to televise. But this year, only Xtra Frame will be carrying some of the finals as well. And the Cheetah Championship beginning tomorrow at Fountain Valley Bowl will be one of those tournaments that will be carried only by Xtra Frame from start to finish. Qualifying rounds begin tomorrow at noon EST, and the scoring promises to be high on the highest scoring of all the PBA "animal" patterns.

By the way, one of the things Mark Baker revealed on today's webcast was that he's just sent a book to his publisher entitled "The Game Changer." It is his first instructional book, and he says he's proud of it. Since he is widely considered to be one of the best, if not the best, bowling coaches in the world, I'm guessing that serious bowlers will want to grab a copy of his book as soon as it comes out. Baker surmises that it will be out around March 15.

PBA Xtra Frame Now Indispensable to PBA Fans

If you're a big fan of the PBA but don't subscribe to the PBA's webcast service Xtra Frame, tis the season to sign up. I say this not only because Xtra Frame will continue offering incredibly incisive commentary during qualifying and match play leading up to the PBA finals televised on ESPN, but it will also feature coverage of entire PBA tournaments, including the finals, for the first time, that you'll be able to see only on Xtra Frame. Moreover you'll be able to catch regional and senior finals along with other tournament action, special events, and massively archived action that you can't see on TV.

In this podcast on Above 180, Xtra Frame announcer extraordinaire Mike J. "Laneside" discusses the PBA's growing reliance on Xtra Frame as its broadcast vehicle.

PBA Xtra Frame's Mike J. Laneside Interviews Mike Fagan at Bowl Expo

Preliminary Details on the PBA 2011-2012 Season

The PBA has just released its tournament schedule for the 2011-2012 season. There's no mention yet of prize funds for any of the tournaments, unlike last season when the unprecedented prize fund for the TOC was front and center news, but it appears that this coming season will supplement TV coverage with more online coverage via the PBA's excellent and ever-improving online video streaming service Xtra Frame. In fact, for the first time, some PBA Tour tournaments will be carried only by Xtra Frame.

Unfortunately, it also looks like there will be even fewer tour stops this season than last, with the majority of tournaments taking place as parts of a grand World Series of Bowling multi-event in Las Vegas in November and culminating in the fabled Tournament of Champions in Vegas in April.

I don't know what to say about any of this except that I'm glad there's still a PBA Tour, but I wonder how long it can continue to hang on for dear life.

Click here for Bill Vint's PBA.com story on the 2011-2012 season.

Xtra Frame Video of Ron Mohr-Hugh Miller Title Match

I blogged the other day about how Ron Mohr seems to be almost unbeatable on the PBA Senior Tour after winning his second consecutive tournament over the likes of Walter Ray Williams Jr., Mark Williams, Wayne Webb, and Hugh Miller.

Well, below is a video clip from PBA Xtra Frame of the last frame of the nailbiting title match between Mohr and Hugh Miller in this week's PBA Senior Northern California Senior Classic in Brentwood, CA. The clip is lower resolution, for some reason, than the actual video streaming that Xtra Frame provides its subscribers, but it still gives you a good look at Mohr's game and tremendous ability to perform under pressure, and at the quality of Xtra Frame's coverage.

Walter Ray Takes on Wayne Webb at PBA Northern California Senior Classic

If you have PBA Xtra Frame and a way to watch it this evening, check out the featured match coming up between Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Wayne Webb in the Round of 8 at the PBA Senior Northern California Classic. The match begins around 5 PM Pacific. I won't be able to see all of it before I have to leave for my sport bowling league tonight, but I look forward to catching all of this very promising match in the Xtra Frame archives later.

Wayne Webb looks very sharp coming off knee surgery and his outstanding showing last week in the PBA Senior U.S. Open, and he seems to be picking up from where he left off in this week's tournament in Brentwood, CA.

Catch him and Walter Ray if you can and let the PBA know that you value their Xtra Frame webcasting service and senior bowling.

Two-Handed Women and One-handed Thumbless Senior Bowlers

One of the great features of PBA Xtra Frame is that you can submit questions via the PBA Facebook page and get them answered almost immediately on the webcasts. Today, during Xtra Frame's coverage of the PBA Senior Northern California Classic, someone asked Jeff Mark and Jason Thomas if any seniors on tour bowl two-handed.

The answer was that no one, except for Walter Ray fiddling with it from time to time, does, probably because the two-handed delivery places too much strain on the lower back to lend itself to use by older bowlers. But, both Mark and Thomas opined that we might start seeing more elite female players using this style.

For, whereas a man using this style gets only a relatively small rev and speed advantage over the more powerful one-handed stylists on tour, an effective two-handed female bowler would have a tremendous power advantage over all but, perhaps, Michelle Feldman. So, if a woman were to start throwing the ball well two-handed, it could entice many other women to adopt the style, and this could have a huge impact on elite women's bowling.

I followed up this question by asking if any seniors on tour bowled with no thumb one-handed. Thomas answered that no one on the senior tour does now but that there's a guy in Southern California approaching seniorhood who might soon make a dent on the tour with his one-handed thumbless style and that Mike Miller, who cashed in the Tournament of Champions this year, would also be a senior soon and could be a thumbless force to be reckoned with.

If I don't beat him to it with my own thumbless style, that is. :-) Or maybe I should further develop my two-handed game.

Bowling Video of the Day--Roh Mohr Shoots 300 on PBA Xtra Frame

For those of you who have never seen the leading player on the PBA Senior Tour, Ron Mohr, bowl, or even for those of you who have but can't get enough of watching this great senior in action, especially when he shoots a 300 game in the PBA Senior U.S. Open, this one's for you.

Walter Ray Leads First Round of PBA Senior Northern California Classic

"I can’t complain because I’ve been bowling great overall. My mindset is always to move on to the next tournament and try to win that one."

--Walter Ray Williams Jr, speaking of his opening performance in the PBA Senior Northern California Classic after losing the title match last week to Ron Mohr in the Senior U.S. Open.

As the TV sitcom character Gomer Pyle used to say, "Surprise...surprise...surprise," Walter Ray Williams Jr. is leading after the first 8-game round of the PBA Senior Northern California Classic in Brentwood, CA. His very first game was a 300, and he followed it with games of 205, 249, 258, 225, 215, 259, and 277 for a 248 average.

Not far behind him is Sacramento's Noel Vazquez in second, Harry "The Legend" Sullins in eighth, Hugh Miller in ninth, the venerable 71-year-old Dave Soutar in thirteenth, Mark Williams in fifteenth, and last week's Senior U.S. Open winner and leader in the Senior Player of the Year race Ron Mohr in sixteenth place. You just know he's going to be in the thick of it at the end.

The players will bowl another 8-game round today, and the field of 100 will then be winnowed down to 32 for match play on Wednesday, with the Round of 8 followed by the championship match beginning around 5 PM Pacific. PBA Xtra Frame will be covering the action today and tomorrow, so be sure to tune in.

Click here for the full story and standings.

The Secret to Ron Mohr's Success?

There are many reasons to subscribe to the PBA's outstanding video streaming service Xtra Frame. One of them is, of course, the opportunity to see what is arguably the most important part of a PBA tournament--the match play (and sometimes even qualifying action) that leads up to what you see on TV on Sunday morning or afternoon.

Yes, the televised finals determine the top places and payouts, but what you miss without Xtra Frame is all the competition, adjustments, ups and downs, and drama that got the finalists on TV in the first place and kept the others off the show. And you miss the incredibly incisive commentary from the most knowledgeable people and, often times, most celebrated performers in the game. If you really love bowling and want to learn as much as you can by those best able to teach it to you, an Xtra Frame subscription is priceless.

One thing I learned about not long ago on Xtra Frame was PBA senior superstar Ron Mohr's exercise regimen. I don't remember the name of the Xtra Frame guest who said this, but a PBA senior bowler and friend of Mohr's was with Mohr in his motel room on a senior tour stop not long ago when Mohr announced to him that he had to do his workout routine before heading to the bowling center for competition. And what was the 50+ year-old Mohr's routine? He got down on the floor and reeled off 400 pushups in perfect form without a break and then followed that with 700 consecutive situps. He then showered, got dressed, headed to the bowling center, and bowled his squad, presumably performing better than everybody or almost everybody else.

Now I don't know about you, but the mere THOUGHT of doing 400 nonstop pushups followed by 700 nonstop situps exhausts me. To think that Ron Mohr actually performs this Herculean feat that would do the late, great Jack LaLane proud and then go out and kick bowling butt in PBA senior competition boggles my mind!

I'm not a PBA bowler and never will be. But maybe I ought to start doing my pushups and situps. When I worked my way up to Mohr's level of superhuman fitness, it would be interesting to see if it improved MY bowling game.

Care to try it yourself and report back to this blog with YOUR results?

Ron Mohr Triumphs at 2011 PBA Senior U.S. Open

"Walter’s the best out here and everyone kind of expects him to be the guy. It’s nice to become the top senior player in the world by winning the toughest tournament we bowl but right now I’m just going to enjoy the moment."

--Ron Mohr

Ron Mohr didn't get off to the best of starts in this year's PBA Senior U.S. Open in Las Vegas. He was in 67th place after the first round of qualifying, and only 56 players in the field of over 200 would make the first cut. "I was concerned at that point but not overly worried. At that point there was a lot of bowling left...so I just made the adjustments and took it a day at a time, which you have to do in a marathon tournament like this," said Mohr.

He made those adjustments, made the cut, and sat in 7th place entering match play at the end of 27 games of qualifying. 24 games of round-robin match play later, he had edged out Bo Goergen to secure the fourth and final spot in Friday's stepladder finals.

His first opponent was the reigning Senior Player of the Year Wayne Webb. Webb bowled tremendously well this week after coming back from knee surgery a few months ago and limited practice since then to nail down the third seed, and when he started the first stepladder match with his first six strikes, it looked as though he might give Ron Mohr more than he could handle. But Mohr began with a five-bagger of his own before leaving a 4-10 split that looked, given Wayne's hot start, like it might spell his doom. He then masterfully converted the split, Wayne left a light pocket 7 pin on his next ball, and before you knew it, Mohr had emerged victorious with a 265 game to Webb's 258.

In Mohr's next match with Harry Sullins, the scores weren't as high, but the competition was no less thrilling, ending with Mohr's narrow 220 to 211 victory over Sullins in a back-and-forth affair.

This left only one person standing in Mohr's way to his first senior major title. But that person happened to be Walter Ray Williams Jr., who dominated the later rounds of qualifying and much of match play before struggling a little in the final round. Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Ron Mohr. The two best players on the senior tour this season by far. One could not have asked for a better match up in the final game of arguably the biggest and most challenging senior tournament of the entire season.

But, as things turned out, it wasn't much of a match. Walter Ray never really got lined up, and Mohr cruised to an impressive 246-189 victory. "She was my guardian angel and she was with me today," Mohr said afterward, referring to his wife, Linda, who passed away in January after complications following surgery months earlier. Mohr, who was the 2009 Senior Player of the Year, had taken off much of the 2010 season to care for his ailing wife and, after she died, had been despondent and reluctant to return to the senior tour. Yet, he decided to give it a try and see how he did in the first few tournaments. His second, third, and fourth place finishes in addition to two titles this season have certainly vindicated his decision and placed him solidly in the lead for Senior Player of the Year as the senior tour heads into the second half of its season.

"Both the support back home and out here on tour has been unbelievable, and that has been very important to my success this year," said Mohr.

The senior tour now moves to Brentwood, CA for the Senior Northern California Classic at Harvest Park Bowl, June 19-22.

You can read Jerry Schneider's entire wrap up of the Senior U.S. Open for pba.com here and catch all the round-robin match play rounds and the stepladder finals on PBA Xtra Frame.

My Description of Extended Bottlegate 2 Video

I wrote previously that PBA Xtra Frame was going to show a longer clip today of Sean Rash confronting Jason Belmonte for making noise with his water bottle while Rash was bowling, and I pledged to blog as soon after that as possible about what I saw.

Well, to tell you the truth, I'm disappointed. I expected a significantly longer and more revealing clip than I saw. The clip I saw today was only a few seconds longer than the original clip, and all it showed that the original clip didn't was Sean setting up on the approach, hearing a noise, presumably from Jason's water bottle, setting his ball back on the rack, and saying something like, "That's real class" to Jason before picking his ball back up and making the shot we've already seen in the original, somewhat shorter clip.

I thank the PBA for showing the video via Xtra Frame, but, like I said, I'm a little disappointed in it given how much the guys on Xtra Frame had been touting it as a more revealing look at this increasingly controversial incident that "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark has characterized as far and away the most intense confrontation he's ever seen between two PBA competitors.

Now I've heard that there's still more to see and hear than what's been released so far, and some if not all of that is supposed to be released in some fashion Monday or Tuesday of next week, but I'll believe it when I see it in terms of it shedding significantly more light on the controversy.

Judging from what I've seen so far and think it's likely that I ever will see of "Bottlegate 2," Belmo may very well have been telling the truth when he wrote to me personally last Tuesday to state that the noise was unintentional. And, barring my seeing good reason not to, I'm going to take him at his word and hope that this whole thing is laid to rest and that Jason continues to receive the respect of his competitors and of bowling fans for being the great bowler and fine human being he has long appeared to be.

However, he really does need to find a way to stop making distracting noises when his opponents are on the approach, and I have no doubt that he will.

Walter Ray Widening His PBA Senior U.S. Open Lead Going Into Final Day of Competition

"I’m still throwing the ball well. I had to migrate left a little tonight as the lane condition broke down, but it wasn’t much – which was fine with me. There are no guarantees heading into tomorrow, but I like what’s going on. I’d be very happy to have to bowl only one game in the stepladder finals for the title."

--Walter Ray Williams Jr.

After 35 games of match play and qualifying, Walter Ray Williams Jr. entered today's final day of competition in the PBA Senior U.S. Open with a 203 pin lead over second place Wayne Webb, last year's Senior Player of the Year.

PBA Xtra Frame is covering all of today's action, albeit with some unfortunate technical glitches thus far this morning. The bowlers will bowl two eight-game round-robin match play rounds this morning and afternoon, and the top four will advance to the stepladder finals beginning at approximately 3:30 pm Pacific.

Extended Bottlegate 2 Clip Promised

And bear in mind that Xtra Frame is supposed to be featuring an extended clip of "Bottlegate 2" this afternoon between the final round of match play and the stepladder finals. Xtra Frame announcer Jeff Mark and commentator Jason Thomas have said that this could well be the "most intense confrontation in the history of the PBA."

If you don't subscribe to Xtra Frame, I'll be blogging about what I saw in the clip as soon as I can after viewing it.

Click here to read the story on Thursday's action and see the standings going into today's concluding action.

Wayne Webb Prepares for His Senior Tour Comeback

There's a new article up on pba.com about Wayne Webb. After earning PBA Senior Player of the Year honors last season, he underwent his second knee surgery of the last seven months and is slowly working himself back into bowling shape so he can compete during the remainder of this senior season.

First up for him will be the PBA Senior U.S. Open to be held June 12-17 at the Suncoast Bowling Center in Las Vegas. Webb, who's 53 and operates a bowling center in Columbus, Ohio, is a 20 time champion and former TOC winner and Player of the Year on the regular tour. He also won back-to-back Senior U.S. Opens in 2008 and 2009 and will be inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame in Grapevine, Texas on July 1.

Webb says, "I'm practicing on a limited basis and still undergoing some therapy, so I'm hopeful I will see more improvement by the time the tournament starts. It's just going to take a little more time to get where it needs to be."

Wayne Webb has always been one of my favorite bowlers, and I'd like nothing better than to see him return to action. But I don't want him to try to come back before his knee has healed. Last season, he came back too soon after his first knee surgery and, even though finishing ninth, aggravated his knee so much during the 2010 Senior U.S. Open that he had to have a second knee operation later. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to him again this season.

You can read the entire story on pba.com here, watch the match play rounds of the upcoming Senior U.S. Open on PBA Xtra Frame June 16-17, and see a video below about his Senior Masters title last season where he beat Walter Ray Williams Jr. in the championship match.

Walter Ray Williams Jr's Xtra Frame Interview With Matt Freiberg

After Walter Ray Williams Jr. crushed his competition to win the PBA Senior Mark Roth Allentown Open last Tuesday, he was interviewed briefly by PBA Xtra Frame's Matt Freiberg. Here is the larger part of what Walter had to say about his performances recently and his hopes for the future:

“I’ve been bowling really well the last month or so. I worked on some things early last month with Rod Ross. I’m doing some things I’ve never, ever done before. I’m actually in balance throwing the ball. It’s starting to really come around, and I’m really happy with the way I’ve been throwing the ball. I still throw a few bad shots, as you saw, but, for the most part, I’m throwing a lot more good quality shots, which is what I need to do, especially to compete with the kids on the Tour. And I’m looking forward to bowling a lot more events, maybe sneak out Player of the Year against Ron, and give the kids some fits when I get out on the national tour.”