BELMONTE PACES PBA TOUR STATISTICS HEADING INTO WORLD SERIES OF BOWLING V
Australia’s Jason Belmonte, with a pair of 2012-13 titles and championship round appearances in all four PBA Tour major championships conducted thus far in the season, continues to pace the overall PBA Tour statistics heading into PBA World Series of Bowling V Oct. 25-Nov. 3 at South Point Casino, Hotel and Bowling Center in Las Vegas.
The “super-sized” 2012-13 PBA Tour season began with PBA World Series of Bowling IV last November and concludes on Dec. 31, 2013, as the PBA returns to calendar-year scheduling as of Jan. 1, 2014.
Belmonte leads the current season earnings list with $166,386, tops the competition points list with 199,015 points, and in second on the average list, trailing leader Wes Malott of Pflugerville, Texas, by less than half-a-pin. Malott, with 259 games bowled during a season limited by knee surgery, is scoring at a 229.50 pace for 259 games while Belmonte has bowled 334 games in domestic PBA Tour competition, averaging 229.22.
Finnish-American Mika Koivuniemi, who now calls Hartland, Mich., home, has won a pair of PBA International Tour titles and ranks second in earnings with $163,312 while Malott, the 2013 U.S. Open champion, has moved into second place on the points list with 162,779. In third place in all three statistical races is reigning PBA Player of the Year Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill.
The one race Rash is leading, however, is the WTBA-World Bowling Tour rolling two-year points competition. Koivuniemi is second and Belmonte is third. The top three in points earned in recognized World Tenpin Bowling Association-PBA International Tour events will advance to the WBT Finals presented by the PBA at the conclusion of the World Series. The WBT Finals also will include a women’s finals. Three female members of the PBA – Kelly Kulick, Missy Parkin and Liz Johnson– dominate the women’s standings.
(For complete PBA Tour statistics, click on the statistics tab on the pba.com home page)
Events remaining on the PBA Tour schedule that will impact the statistical competitions include the Columbia 300 Vienna Open in Austria, Oct. 1-6 (only earnings and title count toward PBA Tour stats); the WBT Thailand Open in Bangkok, Oct. 14-21 (earnings and title only); the PBA World Series of Bowling V (Chameleon, Cheetah, Scorpion and Viper Opens plus the season’s final major, the PBA World Championship: points, averages, earnings and titles), Oct. 25-Nov. 3 at South Point in Las Vegas, and the season-ending Round1 Japan Cup, Nov. 28-30 in Tokyo (average, earnings and title).
Tournaments remaining in the WBT points races include next week’s WTBA World Championships in Las Vegas (men and women), the USBC Queens in Las Vegas (women only), and the Vienna and Thailand tournaments.
PBA PLAYERS TO COMPETE FOR WTBA GOLD MEDALS IN LAS VEGAS
Several PBA members will compete for their respective countries during the World Tenpin Bowling Association World Championships next week at Sunset Station in Las Vegas. The Team USA roster includes Chris Barnes, Mike Fagan, Tommy Jones, Bill O’Neill and John Szczerbinski (along with amateur John Janawicz) on the men’s team while the women’s roster includes Liz Johnson, Kelly Kulick, Stefanie Nation, Shannon O’Keefe, Missy Parkin and Shannon Pluhowsky.
PBA members listed on international rosters include Patrick Girard and Dan MacLelland, Canada; Andres Gomez, Colombia; Amleto Monacelli and Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela; Thomas Larsen and Jesper Agerbo, Denmark; Stuart Williams, England; Osku Palermaa, Finland; Hafthor Hardarson, Iceland; Martin Larsen, Sweden; and Jason Belmonte, Australia.
PBA REGIONAL ROUNDUP: CICCONE WINS 16TH REGIONAL TITLE
● Joe Ciccone of Buffalo, N.Y., defeated Isaac Kim of Lebanon, Pa., 218-209, to win the PBA Supply/Storm Products Eastern Open at Colony Park Lanes North in York, Pa., Sunday for a $2,500 prize and his 16th career PBA Regional title.
Ciccone, the 2000 PBA Rookie of the Year, led the 20-year-old amateur by 123 pins after Saturday’s qualifying and had an opportunity to close out Kim in the 10th frame, but only got five pins on his fill ball to give Kim room to double for the title. Kim, bowling in his first regional finals, failed to capitalize.
In the semifinal round, Ciccone eliminated two-time defending champion Bill O’Neill of Langhorne, Pa., 246-190, while Kim defeated Billy Asbury of Odenton, Md., 215-188.
● Chris Warren of Grants Pass, Ore., posted a 9-1 match play record and an 18-game total of 4,023 pins Sunday to win $2,000 and his 40th career PBA Regional title in the PBA Fog City West Open at Classic Lanes in Daly City, Calif., by 28 pins over Keith Laing of Los Angeles.
In the companion PBA50 Fog City West Open, Marty Deh of San Jose, Calif., posted a 6-2 match play record and a 16-game total of 3,348 pins to win his second regional title – and first in 20 years – by 67 pins over Marv Sargent of Temecula, Calif.
● Joe Findling of Mesquite, Texas, survived an unconverted 4-9 split in the ninth frame, striking on his first shot in the 10th to defeat Chris Hibbitts II of Fort Worth, Texas, 232-221, for his fourth PBA Regional title Sunday in the 17th annual PBA Killeen Southwest Open at Hallmark Lanes.
● The Aug. 16-18 PBA Regional schedule includes the Dave Husted Northwest Open presented by Motiv at Husted’s Milwaukie (Ore.) Bowl; the PBA Cap Card Eastern Open presented by Track at Cedar Lanes in Lebanon, Pa.; the PBA Emerald Bowl Southwest Challenge (for non-PBA champions) presented by Bowling Dynamix in Houston, Texas; and the PBA Lefeld Implement Central Classic at Pla-Mor Lanes in Coldwater, Ohio.
PBA Regional competition scheduled for the Aug. 23-25 weekend includes the PBA Bowlerama Lanes Midwest Open in Des Moines, Iowa; the PBA Mil-Ray Foods Eastern Open presented by Ebonite at Brunswick Zone-Deptford, N.J.; the PBA Greenville (Texas) Southwest Open at Shenanaganz; the PBA Fayetteville (N.C.) South Open presented by Storm at LaFayette Lanes, and a pair of one-day “reduced entry fee” PBA50 Midwest/Central Regionals at Pro Bowl West in Ft. Wayne, Ind. – the Shark Open presented by bowlinggift.com and the Shark Open #2.
The Labor Day holiday weekend includes the second of six PBA Regional Players Invitational tournaments when Illinois Valley Super Bowl hosts the Midwest Region’s top placers in Peru, Ill. The Midwest RPI will be webcast live from start to finish on Xtra Frame. Also on the Labor Day weekend schedule are the West Region’s Tony Reyes Memorial Member/Non-Member Doubles presented by Brunswick at Fourth Street Bowl in San Jose, Calif.; the PBA50 Strike Zone Hammer Eastern Open in Pottsville, Pa.; and the PBA and PBA50 Budweiser Victory Lanes South Opens in Mooresville, N.C.
For complete PBA regional schedule and entry information, visit pba.com and click on “Regional Tours” under the Schedules tab.