Pin Gods--A Bowling Documentary from 1996

Pete Weber Wins 69th PBA U.S. Open

"Dad, I know you were watching. I know you're proud, and I'm sorry I broke your record." ~ Pete Weber

Until Sunday, February 26, 2012, nobody owned more U.S. Open titles than the late, great Don Carter and Dick Weber. Then Dick Weber's Hall of Fame son Pete stepped onstage to defeat Ryan Shafer 223-191, Jason Belmonte 225-213, and Mike Fagan 215-214 in one of the best-bowled and most intense televised stepladder finals in TV bowling history en route to an unprecedented fifth U.S. Open, ninth major, and 36th tour title that had no less than bowling luminary and writer Jeff Richgels opining that PDW may well be the best bowler of all time.

And as much as raw statistics might still award that glittering honor to Walter Ray Williams Jr. or Earl Anthony, there's no avoiding the fact that, as Richgels writes, "Pete has been at the top of bowling through more eras than either Earl or Walter Ray, starting at the end of plastic through urethane to reactive resin...You simply can't deny that Pete has stayed on top through more changes in the game than any bowler in history. And look at how much his game has changed from when he was a teenager who arguably had the most powerful game in bowling to almost a finesse player who is little more than a tweener in the current era of two-handed ultra power players. What hasn't changed is his almost unreal competitiveness and will to win that has enabled him to rise to big occasions as much as any player in history."

Richgels writes that he's still not sure who's the greatest bowler ever but that Pete Weber's phenomenal performance Sunday at the age of 49 has "changed the debate" for him. I guess I'd have to say that the same goes for me. Bad boy that PDW has been over the years and was again on Sunday, there's no denying his stupendous bowling accomplishments that rise to the level that one of his opponents Sunday, the immensely talented Jason Belmonte, characterized as "inhuman." I'd call them superhuman.

I'll have more to say about all of this and about this year's PBA U.S. Open and Sunday telecast over a series of upcoming blogposts, but I want to end this entry with videos of yesterday's wonderful matches for you to savor. It's been a long time since bowling has received the respect it deserves, and, regrettably, Sunday's finals probably won't change that a whole lot.

But it should.

For a concise summary of the entire 2012 PBA U.S. Open, be sure to check out this article on Jef's Bowling Blog, and for a more detailed summary of the televised finals, you can read Bill Vint's wrap up on the PBA website. Finally, you can watch the videos below to behold what words cannot fully convey of all three matches.

Walter Ray Willams Eliminated Early, Ron Mohr Wins PBA Senior Miller High Life Classic

Last week, I posted about Walter Ray Williams Jr. seeking to defend his PBA Senior Miller High Life Classic title. He led both qualifying rounds and was seeded first going into match play. Because of his seeding, he was able to sit out the Round of 32 and the Round of 24 and was matched against the #16 seed, Steve Licklitter, in the Round of 16. Walter Ray lost three games out of four in the best-of-five match and Licklitter went on to lose in the Round of 8. Ron Mohr won the championship.

This reinforces what I wrote previously about how the bowlers on the PBA Senior Tour are a lot tougher than you might think and that even someone as good and accomplished as Walter Ray on the regular tour cannot expect to waltz in and dominate every event of the senior tour. Not only is the senior competition too good for that, but also the "softer" conditions and the match play format that follows qualifying makes it easy for the best bowlers to be eliminated by a momentary cold streak in themselves or by an opponent's hot hand or good fortune in match play.

Having said this, Ron Mohr, who won the championship, has done extremely well since coming out on the senior tour. He was the 2009 PBA Senior Player of the Year, started out strong in 2010 before losing his wife to surgical complications and sitting out the latter half of the season, and now he's come roaring back to place high in every tournament and win his fourth senior title. He is a force to be reckoned with on the senior tour and seems poised to give Walter Ray all he can handle.

Here are the match play and final results respectively.

Walter Ray Leads PBA Senior Miller High Life Championship Going Into Match Play

Walter Ray Williams Jr. was still leading the PBA Senior Miller High Life Championship after both rounds of qualifying and will look to win this event for the second consecutive year in match play today. After yesterday's round, he said:

"Out of the gate I liked my ball reaction much better in today’s round than yesterday but I had a couple bad games. In the 168 game I had a problem adjusting to the pair of lanes I was on and in the 195 game I actually had a good shot to the pocket but just didn’t carry...When you lead qualifying you just hope to keep the momentum going. Hopefully I can keep throwing a lot of strikes because I’m going to need them. The guys on the Senior Tour are good and just like regular tour you can’t take anything for granted."

Unfortunately, the PBA's excellent subscription webcasting service Xtra Frame, which carried this tournament last year, will not be doing so this year. I have it on good authority that this is because its viewership of previous senior tournaments this year has been very low.

Come on, Xtra Frame subscribers. Watch these tournaments. Let the PBA know that you want to see more of them. These seniors can bowl! And I'm not talking only about Walter Ray.

Walter Ray Williams Jr. Faces Stiff Competition on the PBA Senior Tour

When Walter Ray Williams Jr. went out on the Senior Tour last season after leading the regular Tour in all the major statistical categories and earning his record-setting seventh PBA Tour Player of the Year award at age 50, a lot of people were predicting that he'd tear up the Senior Tour. "If guys like Tom Baker, who haven't been a presence on the regular Tour for over a decade, are doing very well on the Senior Tour and Walter Ray is still more than holding his own with the youngsters, what chance do the other seniors have against his awesome game?" was what a lot of people, including Xtra Frame's Jeff Mark, were thinking.

Well, it turns out that one thing that's stopped Walter Ray from dominating his fellow seniors as totally as people predicted is the quality of his competition on the Senior Tour. There are a lot of guys out there who can flat out bowl. And yesterday, Harry "The Legend" Sullins was one of them, defeating Walter Ray in the title match of the PBA Senior Sun Bowl in The Villages, Florida 248-239 after Walter Ray destroyed 2008-2009 Senior Bowler of the Year Ron Mohr in the semifinal match 270-199. This was the second time Sullins defeated Walter Ray in a PBA title match. The first time was 25 years ago in 1986 when Sullins beat Walter Ray for a regular Tour title. Walter Ray went on to win his first Player of the Year award that year.

None of this is to say that Walter Ray hasn't prospered on the Senior Tour. He won the very first tournament he entered, was last season's Rookie of the Year, made the semifinals of the first Senior Tour tournament of this season last week before losing the final match yesterday, is leading in average after two tournaments this season by a whopping margin, and seems to be a virtual cinch to make match play and cash high in every tournament he enters. And, if the truth be told, he probably outbowled Sullins in the title match yesterday but just couldn't carry as well as his opponent.

Still, he's won, by my count, only one of the several senior tournaments he's entered over two seasons, and he's likely to face stiff competition from the likes of Ron Mohr, Tom Baker, last year's Player of the Year Wayne Webb (when he recovers from knee surgery), Johnny Petraglia, Mark Williams, Harry Sullins, and Steve Ferraro in every tournament he enters.

The PBA Senior Tour may be for "old" guys, but those "old" guys can still bowl. And for those of you who miss the action of the regular Tour while it's on hiatus, you can subscribe to PBA Xtra Frame and watch the Senior Tour action live along with listening to expert commentary from the likes of "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark and a panoply of bowling greats.

You can read more about yesterday's action in the PBA Senior Sun Bowl here. Below is video of a 1991 regular Tour match between Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Harry Sullins.