Here's the latest article from the Bowling site at BellaOnline.com.

The "Process"
I used to always think I was the "hard luck guy" (HLG). You know, the guy who asks, "Why me," when I leave the solid 10-pin, the 7-pin, stone-8 or 9, or a 4 - 9 in the pocket in crucial situations; I'm sure you know who I'm talking about, yeah, that HLG - me, me, and always me.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art173666.asp

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

PBA Spare Shots

RASH, JONES ARE “ALL-IN;” PBA WORLD SERIES OF BOWLING “SHOWDOWN” IS FULL

Overnight entries by Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill., and Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, S.C., have filled the field for PBA’s BowlersDeals.com All-In Showdown, a winner-take-all special event that will be held at South Point Bowling Center in Las Vegas on Friday, Nov. 4, to kick off the two-week PBA World Series of Bowling.

With the field filled at eight players, the All-In Showdown will pay the winner a jackpot of $45,000, including a $5,000 bonus from BowlersDeals.Com. All three two-game elimination rounds will be webcast live on pba.com’s Xtra Frame starting at 6:30 p.m. ET (3:30 p.m. PT) on Nov. 4.

Following the initial entries by Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, and Chris Warren of Grants Pass, Ore., the next players to plunk down their $5,000 entry fees were Joe Paluszek, a two-time PBA East Region title winner and seven-year PBA member from Bensalem, Pa.; four-time PBA Tour title winner Brian Himmler of Cincinnati, and current PBA Tour exempt players Ronnie Russell of suburban Indianapolis, and Bill O’Neill of Southampton, Pa. Rash and Jones, who are competing in the Australian Masters in Victoria, Australia, completed the field.

“It’s the closest thing around to old-school bowling,” Paluszek, a 31-year-old pro shop owner, said. “I’ve always bowled action. If you put your own money up, you find out who wants to play. As long as they don’t add extra pins to the rack, I have as good a chance as anyone else. I’m not scared.”

“I grew up bowling a lot of action around the Super Hoinke tournament,” said Himmler, a four-time PBA Tour title winner. “I’ve been pretty successful on TV. I thrive in that environment. I’m looking forward to it.”

“The ratio for winning a big paycheck is pretty good if you have a couple of big games,” the 31-year-old Russell said. “I’ve bowled some games on TV for $20,000 and that’s about the same thing. No, sir, I have no fear bowling these guys. I barely even focus on who I’m bowling against. If I don’t bowl good, it doesn’t matter who you’re bowling against.”

O’Neill and Jones were both entered into the event by TheBowlingShop.com in Dallas, which is owned by fellow PBA Tour competitor Dino Castillo.

“I think this is a great event. It’ll be very exciting,” Castillo said. “We felt like Bill’s experience gives us a great option, especially as good as he’s bowling right now. And Tommy is one of the best action players in the game. And if either one wins, we’re going to donate a portion of the prize money to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, so it’ll be good for everyone.

“I like my odds,” Castillo said.

“I’m probably as intense a competitor as there is in the sport,” O’Neill, a three-time PBA Tour champion, said. “I hate losing more than anyone, so I’m planning on winning this thing. If I didn’t think I could win, I wouldn’t enter.”

PBA fans can watch the webcast live on Xtra Frame under a new $3.99 one-day subscription program being introduced during the WSOB, a special WSOB package for $29.99 that will cover more than 100 hours of WSOB programming airing through Nov. 30, or a full-year subscription for $64.99. To sign up for Xtra Frame, visit pba.com and click on the Xtra Frame logo.

EUROPEAN BOWLING TOUR POINTS LEADERS SET FOR PBA WORLD SERIES OF BOWLING

The top seven players on the European Bowling Tour’s 2011 points list, and nine of the top 16, will be in the field for the PBA World Series of Bowling when it gets underway Nov. 4 at South Point Bowling Center in Las Vegas.

EBT points leaders who are entered in the World Series, and their ranking after the Vienna Open, were: 1, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 821 points; 2, Thomas Larsen, Denmark, 700; 3, Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, 598; 4, Paul Moor, England, 531; 5, Dominic Barrett, England, 520; 6, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 496; 7, Stuart Williams, England, 440; 12, Jesper Agerbo, Denmark, 335; and 13, Dennis Eklund, Sweden, 334.

The entry of Eric Tseng from Hong Kong into the World Series brings the total number of nations entered, including the United States, to a record 16 different countries.

DAUGHERTY WINS SOUTH REGION TITLE IN JACKSONVILLE

Tom Daugherty of Wesley Chapel, Fla., defeated Kyle Troup of Taylorsville, N.C., 217-215, to win the PBA South Region NAS Jacksonville Open at NAS Freedom Lanes Sunday in Jacksonville, Fla. The win was Daugherty’s fifth in PBA Regional competition and netted him a $2,300 prize.

In the only PBA Regional action over the Oct. 14-16 weekend, Daugherty defeated Shawn Naumann of Orlando, Fla., 195-177, and Troup defeated PBA Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., 268-237, in semifinal round matches to set up their title showdown.

Heading into the final two weekends before the PBA World Series of Bowling gets underway in Las Vegas, there are a number of tune-up events. Over the Oct. 21-23 weekend, the PBA South Region will conduct the Franklin (Va.) Open at Franklin Bowling Center; the PBA Southwest Region will conduct the Dallas Open presented by Dallas Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeons at AMF Richardson Lanes; and the PBA West Region will run the Spalding C. Wathen Memorial at Cedar Lanes in Fresno, Calif., with both standard and senior divisions.

Over the Oct. 28-29 weekend, 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.

PBA Regional competitors will bowl for 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:

Should there be another nation added to the roster of representatives in the PBA World Series of Bowling? As “Indian Country” magazine noted in a recent feature story on PBA Tour journeyman Mike Edwards, the Tulsa, Okla., resident of Chickasaw and Choctaw descent is a member of the Cherokee Nation – and the Cherokee Nation existed long before there was such a thing as the United States of America!

Chris Barnes defeated Finland’s Osku Palermaa, 248-237, in the final singles match to lock up a 17-15 victory for the United States over a European team in the 12th annual Weber Cup competition in Barnsley, England, on Sunday, Oct. 16. The Ryder Cup-style invitational bowling competition featured a team of our American PBA stars (Barnes, Bill O’Neill, Tommy Jones and Mike Fagan) bowling a series of matches against a European team (Finland’s Palermaa and Mika Koivuniemi, and England’s Paul Moor and Dominic Barrett).

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