The inaugural Professional Bowlers Association World Series of Bowling got off to a wild start Thursday, but in the end Hall of Famer
Walter Ray Williams Jr. (left) of Ocala, Fla., stood on the top rung for the stepladder finals of the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Motor City Open. In the stepladder finals will be held Saturday, Sept. 5, at Thunderbowl Lanes
in nearby Allen Park for broadcast of ESPN on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 1 p.m.
Eastern, the 45-time PBA champion will meet,
Chris Barnes, Hall of Famer
Pete Weber, Tommy Jones
and
Bill O’Neill. Weber defeated Finland’s two-hander Osku Palermaa, 258-205, in the position round, to knock Palermaa out of the finals.
Ryan Ciminelli (pictured) continued to pace the field in the PBA Cheetah Championship after first-round qualifying Tuesday at Thunderbowl Lanes. Ciminelli, of Buffalo, N.Y., finished qualifying with a 3,477 14-game pinfall (248.3 average). The 72-player field has been cut to the top 28 players who will advance
to best-of-seven game match play beginning Wednesday at 9 a.m. Rounding out the top four who earned a first-round bye in match play were reigning PBA Player of the Year Wes Malott (left), 3,390; Hall of Famer Norm Duke (right), 3,389 and one-time Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour titlist Jack Jurek, 3,381. 
In the first event of a Professional Bowlers Association Tour Qualifying Round double-header, former Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour exempt player Chad Kloss (pictured left) of Greenfield, Wis., was the top qualifier in the Viper Championship TQR Sunday at Thunderbowl Lanes. Kloss had a 1,575 seven-game pinfall (225 average) to lead a field of 82 non-exempt players competing for 11 spots in the PBA Viper Championship which begins with qualifying Aug. 15. Among the others, who advanced to the Round of 72, was 3-time World Champion Martin Larsen, Sweden. 
Ryan Ciminelli (pictured left) of Cheektowaga, N.Y., bowled a seven-game 1,769 pinfall (252.7 average) Saturday to top a field of 99 non-exempt players competing for 12 berths in the Professional Bowlers Association World Series of Bowling Cheetah Championship at Thunderbowl Lanes. The 12 qualifiers from Saturday's PBA Tour Qualifying Round will join
60 exempt players for the Cheetah Championship which begins Aug. 11. Two extra berths were awarded when exempt players Patrick Allen and Tommy Delutz withdrew because of injury. Among the top 12 were international bowlers Paul Moor, England, and Andres Gomez, Colombia. 
In a battle of three of the biggest names in bowling in the PBA Tour Motor City Open, Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, maintained a slim lead over a pair of the most successful players in history. with the final eight games to go on Thursday. Barnes, with a 31-game total of 7,338 pins and an 11-4-1 match play record, leads Walter Ray Williams of Ocala, Fla., by 22 pins iwith Pete Weber of St. Ann, Mo., another 103 pins behind in third place. The top 24 will bowl their final eight-game match play round Thursday
afternoon to cut to the top five for the stepladder finals.
Chris Barnes (pictured) of Double Oak, Texas, finished strong to overtake Hall of Famers Pete Weber and Walter Ray Williams Jr. at the end of the first round of match play in the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Motor City Open, the kick-off event in the inaugural PBA World Series of Bowling, Wednesday night at Taylor Lanes. Barnes, the 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year, finished the opening eight games of match play with a 257-254 victory over Rhino Page. 
Hall of Famers Pete Weber (left) and Walter Ray Williams Jr. (right), who between them own 79 Professional Bowlers Association Tour titles, are one-two heading into the match play portion of the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Motor City Open, the kick-off event in the inaugural PBA World Series of Bowling. The top 24 advancing to match play Wednesday night and Thursday includes two international players – Finland's two-handed star, Osku Palermaa and Colombia's Andres Gomez.
Former Team USA member Fero Williams averaged 239 for his 10 qualifying games Tuesday to roll into the lead
after two rounds of the PBA Motor City Open. Reinforcing the international flavor of the World Series was Colombia’s Andres Gomez (l.) who was tied for 11th place with 2,233 pins and Martin Larsen (r.), a 3-time World Champion from Sweden, in 13th with 2,229. After the complete field bowls a third five-game qualifying round Wednesday, the top 24 players will advance to match play.
Pete Weber (pictured left), a notoriously slow starter, charged out of the gate at a 243.8 average clip to take the first round lead in the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour's Motor City Open, the opening event in the PBA's five-week World Series of Bowling, Tuesday at Taylor Lanes. Chris Barnes is in second place with Colombia's Andres Gomez in third. Six countries, including the United States, were represented in the top 24. The complete 131-player field will bowl a second five-game qualifying round later Tuesday. 
As a veteran of the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour, Mike Machuga
(pictured) isn't sure what the inaugural Professional Bowlers
Association World Series of Bowling is going to be like from a
competitor's viewpoint, but he's plenty happy to be the defending
champion for the opening event, the Motor City Open which gets underway
with pro-am squads Sunday at Taylor Lanes. The finals will be contested on Saturday, Sept. 5, at Thunderbowl Lanes for tape-delayed telecast on ESPN on Sunday, Nov. 1. 
The PBA will kick off its second half-century in August with another wave of new programs, that will result in 23 Sunday afternoon television shows on ESPN. The 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour will shift the 67th U.S. Open to a February time slot and a new home in Indianapolis; create the first-ever Internet-based “bowling league” for PBA stars; bring back the controversial “plastic ball” championship; expand opportunities for the world’s best women bowlers, and convert the PBA World Championship into a unique two-part event concluding with a live television final in Wichita, Kan.