Bowling Video--2011-2012 PBA Bayer Viper Open

Video--Preview of 2011 PBA World Championship

Bowling Bytes--7/2/10

~ This Weekend’s GEICO PBA Team Shootout on ESPN at a Glance

~ PBA East Region Leaders Through June 28, 2010

~ PBA Midwest Region Leaders Through June 28, 2010

~ PBA Central Region Leaders Through June 28, 2010

~ Senior Masters Title Convinces Webb to Complete Quest for Senior Player of the Year Honor -- ”As a competitor on the PBA Tour for more than a quarter century, Wayne Webb put together a Hall of Fame career capturing 20 titles including the Tournament of Champions and a Player of the Year crown. But two major titles — the U.S. Open and United States Bowling Congress Masters—eluded him. On June 18, in a marquee matchup of two PBA greats, Webb defeated reigning PBA Player of the Year Walter Ray Williams Jr., 705-628, in the title match to win the USBC Senior Masters at the South Point Hotel and Casino Bowling Center in Las Vegas...Webb, who moved to the Columbus, Ohio area in early April to open Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl, had planned to end his season after the Senior Tour’s two majors in Las Vegas to concentrate on his center back home. But after a win in the Senior Columbus Open, a runnerup finish in the season-opening Senior Dayton Classic and a ninth-place finish in the Senior U.S. Open, he’s a leading contender for Senior Player of the Year honors. As a result, he is planning to adjust his schedule so he can compete in the last three events of the season...

~ Memory Lane: The Dave Bolles Story -- “It is October 15, 1989 at Camino Bowl in Mountain View, Calif. Dave Bolles, who has made the finals of a major on the PBA West Region tour and will have a shot at bowling the Tournament of Champions with a top-four finish, curls up in the fetal position on a bench in the bar, ill and falling asleep after telling the tournament director that he is too sick to go on. He has no idea that just a few hours from now he will attain bowling immortality, that this is the week he will tell people about for the rest of his life...”

~ USBC Senior Championships Underway in Reno -- “The 2010 USBC Senior Championships is underway at the National Bowling Stadium and nearly 350 bowlers from 47 states and three Canadian provinces have converged on The Biggest Little City in the World...”

~ Malta Sue Abela, Mark Spiteri to compete in 46th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in Zagreb -- “June at the SuperBowl in St. Julian's, Malta, saw the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association's (MTBA) qualifying event for this year’s QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup, which will be held in Zagreb, Croatia between the 15th - 24th of October. The BWC is one of the most prestigious events in the worldwide tenpin bowling calendar, with typically in excess of eighty nations represented by their male and female champions. Malta will be represented by Mark Spiteri and Sue Abela after the duo came through to top their respective divisions with flying colors...”

~ Williams, Jussila overtake qualifying lead in 1st Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open -- “2007 World Ranking Masters champion Stuart Williams (pictured left), England, and Perttu Jussila (right), Finland, led two of the three qualifying squads on Thursday at Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany, en route to move into 1, 2 in the overall qualifying standings of the 1st Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open...Among the top 16 are PBA exempt player Chris Loschetter (left) and PBA Hall of Famer Brian Voss (right), both United States. Loschetter, who is still seeking his first PBA title sits in 5th place with 1373 featuring six games between 215 and 245. Voss, who will serve on the Austrian coaching staff in the upcoming Men's World Championship in August, is 14th with 1330 including a 280 high game...”

~ California bowler rolls 300, takes Singles lead at USBC Women’s Championships -- “Krischna Howard (pictured left) of Hawthorne, Calif., rolled the 12th perfect game in the 91-year history of the United States Bowling Congress Women's Championships on her way into the lead in scratch and Diamond Singles on Thursday. The 31-year-old right-hander started singles with a pair of 246 games before rolling 12 consecutive strikes to finish with a 792 scratch series. She received an additional 22 pins of handicap per game, which gave her a final score of 858. Team USA member Tennelle Milligan (right) of Arlington, Texas, previously held the scratch lead with 779, while Shauna Shannon of Albuquerque, N.M., led Diamond Singles with 797...”

Bowling Bytes--5/11/10

~ PBA West Leaders Through May 11, 2010

~ PBA Northwest Leaders Through May 11, 2010

~ Mike J. Laneside: A Gulf of Mexico Oil Pattern -- "Lane oil is a frequent topic of conversation in bowling; its application determines the way the sport of bowling is played. Butch Cooper is a subscriber of PBA.com’s Xtra Frame – the official streaming video service of the Professional Bowlers Association. Cooper keeps track of oil conditions in more ways than one; he also works on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico..."

~ Patient Gengelbach Ends 28-Year Quest for His Second PBA Southwest Region Title -- "No one can accuse Kurt Gengelbach of being impatient. On Sunday, May 9, the 51-year-old Gengelbach ended a 180-tournament, 28-year quest for his second PBA Regional title by winning the PBA Del Rio Southwest Open at Jett Bowl. Gengelbach, who won his only previous PBA Regional title in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1982, defeated Bobby Stives of El Paso, Texas, 235-165, in position round, protecting a 34-pin edge over Stives heading into the final game. He also held off Chris Hibbitts II of Fort Worth, Texas, who rolled a 300 game to advance from third to second place. Gengelbach, with a 6-2 match play record and 16-game total of 3,591 pins (including match play bonus pins) finished 48 pins ahead of Hibbitts for the win and a $2,500 prize..."

~ Stuart Williams gets off to a great start in the 7th Istanbul Bowling Open -- "Fresh off his victory in the Bahrain Open last week, Stuart Williams (pictured left), England, got off to a great start on the first day of qualifying in the 7th Istanbul Bowling Open Monday at Timeout Bowling Center in Istanbul, Turkey. Williams, who bowled full time on the 2009-10 PBA Tour, had games of 258, 215, 211, 257, 279 and 236 to set the pace with 1456 six-game total and an average of 242.56..."

~ Breaking News WTBA Presidium has withdrawn the award of WWC 2011 to Malaysia -- "The World Tenpin Bowling Association Presidium has announced that it has withdrawn the award of the Women's World Championships 2011 to Malaysia. According to Christer Jonsson, WTBA Secretary General, the reason is that it has not been possible to agree on a written contract about the championship and the Congresses..."

~ How to Join the PBA Tour -- "Many amateurs have bowled good games and thought, “I just bowled a better score than the pros did on TV this week—I should become a pro bowler.”It’s not nearly that simple, but it is possible..."

~ The 11th Frame: Doyle, 12, is youngest ever to cash in a PBA tournament -- "Last June, when he was 11 years old, Kamron Doyle came within 54 pins of cashing in a PBA Regional in Smyrna, Tenn. As I blogged then, Doyle totaled 1,543 for eight games on the Shark pattern. Now that he's reached the ripe "old" age of 12, Doyle has taken the next step by cashing in the Canton (Ga.) Open Regional tournament, becoming the youngest ever to cash in a PBA tournament. The tourney the first weekend of May was won by Walter Ray Williams Jr. The Brentwood, Tenn., right-hander earned $400 for his SMART scholarship fund by finishing 30th in the 94-man field with a 2,797 total for 13 games. Full results are here..."

~ Questions about ball weight, bowler's tape and adjustments -- "Q: I’m planning to purchase a bowling ball for my 11-year old granddaughter. She has a passion for the game. She started with a 9-lb. plastic ball and has raised her average from 90 to 120 in less than a year. The center where we bowl has fairly dry heads, she throws the ball in the 11-mph range, and her style is similar to a stroker. Can you help me in picking between the T-Road Solid and the Street Rod Pearl balls in the 10 or 11-lb. range?...Q: When putting tape into the thumb hole, I know that most of it should go in the fingernail (back) side of the hole. Which is better to use, the white or the black tape? Also, how do you determine the proper size (3/4-inch or 1-inch)?...Q: I am a left-handed bowler and need some help for tournament competition. First, how do I determine the correct line to play on the lanes? Second, I have a problem with chicken-winging the arm-swing. And third, how do you choose the correct ball for the lane condition?..."

The One a Day Dick Weber Open Finals Field

Well, it looks as though Xtra Frame's "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark and recurring guest Stuart Williams made pretty good guesses Thursday night about who would make it to the televised finals tomorrow. Each was off by only one pick in his predictions. Sunday's five-man stepladder finals will begin with up and coming Bill O'Neill taking on perennially underrated Ryan Shafer. The winner will face the one and only Pete Weber who, as PBA.com reports, would love to win the tournament named after his late father, Dick Weber, as much or more than he would any major. He qualified third last year. The winner of that match will go up against the amazing Walter Ray Williams, who is still showing those young whippersnappers a thing or two about how to bowl on very demanding conditions. And the winner of that match will face Mike Fagan, who has pretty much dominated the tournament all week long, for the title. It's a great field, and we could very well see some great matches.

Don't forget that it airs this Sunday, 1/31 on ESPN2 (and not ESPN) at 10 AM PST or 1 PM EST.

First Round of Match Play Recap at Dick Weber Open

Mike Fagan led qualifying in the One a Day Dick Weber Open, and he still leads the field after the first round of match play that took place last night. Hot on his heels is a star-studded cast headed by, in descending order, Walter Ray Williams, Tommy Jones, Ryan Shafer, Amleto Monacelli, Pete Weber, Robert Smith, and Bill O'Neill. And not far behind them in 13th place is defending champion Norm Duke.

This is a good, old-fashioned round-robin match play, top five advance to the televised stepladder finals kind of tournament, the kind I'd like to see a lot more of from now on. But take note that this week's finals will be broadcast live at 11 AM PST on ESPN2 rather than the usual ESPN. I hope that everyone who gets ESPN on their cable or satellite system also gets ESPN2, and if some don't who want to watch Sunday's tournament, they can catch it later on PBA Xtra Frame on demand. I should also mention that ESPN.com's popular Bill Simmons, "The Sports Guy," will be sitting in the ESPN broadcast booth this Sunday with announcer Rob Stone and bowling analyst Rany Pedersen.

On Xtra Frame's coverage of match play last night, British bowler Stuart Williams sat in with the boys for awhile giving his always entertaining and perceptive view of the action. He predicted that the TV finalists would be Mike Fagan, Walter Ray, Tommy Jones, Bill O'Neill, and Ryan Shafer. "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark predicted that Mike Fagan, Walter Ray, Bill O'Neill, Norm Duke, and Pete Weber would make the finals. By the way, Stuart Williams competed in this week's tournament, along with an international contingent of male and female stars, and finished a very respectable 30th. Jeff Mark claims that Williams has one of the heaviest ball rolls and most potent strike balls he's ever seen or heard. It hits the pins with an impressively unique sound.

Ritchie Allen dropped in for a few minutes before getting into a disagreement with Jeff Mark and leaving prematurely. Allen and Mark were talking about practice strategy on an easy pattern. Mark contended that when the conditions are easy, you should make them difficult by moving your line to where you have to be very precise to hit the pocket and carry. "Practice where it's hard, play where it's easy," he advises. Allen, on the other hand, advocated always practicing on the easiest part of the lane for strikes, because that's what you do when you're bowling leagues and tournaments. Mark countered by telling Allen that if he'd practiced the right way, he might have made the cut, and Allen promptly took off. Allen just missed the top 24 by four pins, coming in 25th.

But this raises a good question. What IS the best way to practice? Ritchie Allen's or Jeff Mark's? How do YOU practice? I try to play different lines from the easiest to the toughest. But I admit that I spend more time practicing where it's easy than where it's tough. What do you think?