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Messy Lane Conditions? ADJUST!
For league bowlers, this can translate into many more pins each night and a higher average at the end of the season. For tournament players this translates into the possibility of getting higher in the standings and, of course, more wins and/or cash.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art173752.asp

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Oct. 28, 2011)

Bill Vint | PBA Media Relations
Professional Bowlers Association | 719 Second Avenue, Suite 701 | Seattle, WA 98104

PBA Spare Shots

BELMONTE-RASH MATCH TO KICK OFF PBA’S 2011-12 ESPN SCHEDULE ON DEC. 4

After finishing fourth and eighth, respectively, in the AMF Australian Masters Saturday in Sydney, Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill., and Australia’s Jason Belmonte have locked up a head-to-head “grudge match” that will launch the PBA Tour’s 2011-12 television season on ESPN on Sunday, Dec. 4.

A Rash-Belmonte re-match has been anticipated since their emotional “bottlegate” confrontation during the GEICO PBA Team Shootout in June in Chicago. During a Team Shootout match, Rash angrily responded to Belmonte after he apparently made a noise with his plastic water bottle while Rash was on the approach, preparing to make a key shot. Belmonte later dismissed the incident as an accident, but neither player was apologetic, and both promised to resolve any differences on the lanes when they meet again.

That meeting will occur as the first match of the men’s finals of the World Bowling Tour presented by the PBA, which will air at 1 p.m. ET on Dec. 4 on ESPN. Rash qualified second in the season-long WBT points standings behind points leader Mika Koivuniemi of Hartland, Mich., while Belmonte finished third on the points list.

Hong Kong’s Wu Siu Hong (coached by former PBA touring player Purvis Granger) won the Australian Masters men’s title and a $25,000 first prize with a 226-207, 259-243 victory over Mike Fagan of Patchogue, N.Y. Koivuniemi finished third, Rash fourth, Dan MacLelland of Saginaw, Mich., was fifth, and Belmonte eighth.

Two-time PBA Women’s Series title winner Shannon Pluhowsky of Kettering, Ohio, won the Australian Masters women’s title, defeating Sweden’s Sandra Andersson, 236-181, 210-181, but the second-place finish was enough for Andersson to knock PBA Tour titlist Kelly Kulick out of the WBT women’s finals. Kulick and WBT women’s points leader Carolyn Dorin-Ballard did not bowl in Australia.

Dorin-Ballard won the WBT women’s points title followed by Sweden’s Nina Flack and Andersson. The WBT Women’s Finals presented by the PBA stepladder finals will follow the men’s telecast on ESPN on Dec. 4.

Both World Bowling Tour stepladder finals will be conducted on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 5:30 p.m. PT at South Point in Las Vegas.

PBA STARS CAPTURE THREE GOLD MEDALS FOR TEAM USA IN PAN AM GAMES

PBA Tour stars Chris Barnes, Bill O’Neill, Kelly Kulick and past PBA Women’s Series titlist Liz Johnson gave the United States a gold-medal sweep in the Pan American Games bowling competition this week in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Johnson added another gold medal in women’s singles while Barnes picked up a silver medal in men’s singles.

Barnes and O’Neill topped Venezuela’s Jose Lander and PBA Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli by 193 pins in the 12-game doubles competition while Kulick and Johnson ran away with a 328-pin victory over Mexico’s Sandra Gongora and Aseret Zetter at Bolerama Tapatio Tuesday.

Barnes and O’Neill qualified one-two in singles, but both were defeated by Colombia’s Santiago Mejia in the single-elimination match play finals. Meija topped Barnes, 189-171 and 205-193 in the best-of-three gold-medal match after the Colombian eliminated O’Neill, 711-589, in a three-game total pinfall match.

Johnson won Team USA’s third gold with a 232-196, 235-190 sweep of Canada’s Jennifer Park in the title match Thursday. Kulick was knocked out in the opening round by Brazil’s Stephanie Martins, 630-587.

PBA Tour exempt player Andres Gomez also earned a bronze medal, teaming with Mejia to finish third in men’s doubles.

12 PBA STARS INVITED TO BOWL IN JAPAN’S DHC INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Twelve PBA champions have been invited by the Japan Bowling Congress to compete in the 2012 DHC International Bowling Championships, the first major international bowling event to take place in Japan since the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2010. The DHC Championships will take place Feb. 7-11 at Hakata Star Lanes in Fukuoka, Japan.

PBA stars who have accepted invitations to compete, based upon performances in the 2010 WTBA World Men’s Championships and/or the 2010-11 PBA Tour season are Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas; Patrick Allen, Baltimore; Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas; Bill O’Neill, Southampton, Pa.; Mika Koivuniemi, Hartland, Mich.; Jason Belmonte, Australia; Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C.; Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., and Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla.

PBA Tour titlist Kelly Kulick, two-time PBA Regional title winner Missy Parkin of Lake Forest, Calif., and two-time PBA Women’s Series winner Shannon Pluhowsky of Kettering, Ohio, also have accepted invitations to bowl in the women’s division of the event.

The DHC International Bowling Championship will be part of the WTBA’s 2012 World Bowling Tour and will offer a combined prize fund estimated at US$375,000, including $75,000 each to the men’s and women’s champions.

The “invited” players will automatically qualify for the championship portion of the tournament, but any other bowler can enter through the two-day “trial” portion of the tournament Feb. 7-8 for a $50 entry fee per six-game qualifying round (re-entries are allowed). The “trials” leaders will join the invited players in the championship portion of the event Feb. 9-11.

CASTILLO, ROBERTS, PREBLE WIN REGIONAL TITLES

Dino Castillo of Carrollton, Texas, won only six of his 12 matches, but that was enough to hold off amateur Erik Vermilyea of Mansfield, Texas, to win his third PBA Regional title in the PBA Southwest Region Dallas Open, presented by Dallas Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeons, at AMF Richardson Lanes in Richardson, Texas, on Sunday, Oct. 16. Castillo clinched the see-saw battle with a 204-165 win over Vermilyea in their position round match.

In the PBA South Region, Kip Roberts of Glenallen, Va., went 11-5 in match play and finished with a 24-game total of 5,981 pins to win the Franklin (Va.) Open at Franklin Bowling Center Sunday by 44 pins over PBA Hall of Famer Tom Baker of King, N.C. Roberts earned $2,000 along with his 13th career regional title.

In the PBA West Region, Chris Preble of Clovis, Calif., had a 6-2 match play record and compiled 3,834 pins over 16 games, including match play bonus pins, to top Dave Wodka of Chatsworth, Calif., by 93 pins in the Spalding C. Wathen Memorial at Cedar Lanes in Fresno, Calif. Prebel won the standard division first prize of $2,500.

In the senior division of the Wathan Memorial, Marv Sargent of Temecula, Calif., posted a 6-2 record and a 3,674 pinfall total to top Kerry Painter of Henderson, Nev., by 36 pins for the $1,500 first prize.

Over the Oct. 28-29 weekend, the final weekend of PBA Regional competition before the PBA World Series of Bowling gets underway in Las Vegas, the PBA Midwest Region will host a pair of one-day senior events – the Viper Senior Open and Cheetah Senior Open – at Lancer Lanes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the PBA Southwest will conduct the Odessa (Texas) Open at Diamond Lanes, and the PBA West/Northwest Regions will conduct the Sands Regency Casino Non-Champions and Open events at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno.

All PBA Regional competitors earn qualifying points through Feb. 26 for the 2012 Dick Weber PBA Playoffs. The top 16 points leaders in the PBA’s East, South, Central, Midwest, Southwest and West/Northwest Regions will earn berths in the new Xtra Frame Tour event which will be held March 30-April 1 at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis.

All first-time PBA Regional title winners also become eligible for the season-ending PBA Tournament of Champions.

For complete Regional tournament schedules and entry information, visit pba.com and click on “Regional Tour” under the “Schedules” drop-down tab.

QUICK NOTES:

Chris Barnes (“Comfortable in his own skin as PBA’s best”) is featured in the October issue of Sports Life magazine which is now on sale as newsstands across the country.

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