Barnes earns third Harry Smith Point Leader Award; O’Neill leads in cashes, match play finals
Mika Koivuniemi of Hartland, Mich., has officially won the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour earnings title and George Young High Average award, while Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, and Bill O’Neill of Southampton, Pa., topped the other key PBA statistical charts. Thanks to his PBA-record $250,000 first prize in the PBA Tournament of Champions, Koivuniemi (pictured left with the trophy) dominated the Tour in earnings with $333,040, the third-highest single-season total on record.
Sullins defeats Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr. in title match 248-239
Harry Sullins (l.) of Chesterfield Township, Mich., defeated Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr. (r.) of Ocala, Fla., 248-239 in the title match Tuesday to win the PBA Senior Sun Bowl In the Villages at Spanish Springs Lanes. Sullins, who won the 2009 PBA Senior World Championship for his first Senior Tour title, put together seven consecutive strikes after an open and spare in the first two frames of the title match to help seal the win.
Still healing after personal loss, Ron Mohr starts anew on 2011 PBA Senior Tour
Still healing from the passing of his wife in January, Ron Mohr (pictured) of Eagle River, Alaska, didn’t know what the future held for his professional bowling career—he just knew it was important to continue. Mohr, whose wife Linda passed away as the result of treatment complications from surgery last September, moved into the second-round lead of the PBA Senior Sun Bowl In The Villages Monday with a 3,698 16-game pinfall total (231.1 average). The 149-player field has been cut to the top 32 who will advance to match play Tuesday morning.
Spanish Springs Lanes in The Villages, Fla. (April 23-26, 2011)
Part-time PBA Senior Tour player Marc Lineberry of Camanche, Iowa, averaged 238.6 for eight games Sunday to lead the first round of the PBA Senior Sun Bowl in The Villages at Spanish Springs Lanes. Lineberry bowled a 1,909 pinfall and leads 2009 Senior Player of the Year Ron Mohr (l.) of Eagle River, Alaska, in second with 1,883 and four-time Senior Player of the Year and PBA Hall of Famer Tom Baker (r.) of King, N.C., in third with 1,869.
54-year-old defeats Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Mark Williams on the way to the title
After four seasons competing on the PBA Senior Tour, Mike Dias (left with host proprietor Jim Carter) of Lafayette, Colo., captured his first title by winning the PBA Senior Don Carter Open Thursday at Carter Family Bowl. Dias defeated Tom Howison of Chillicothe, Ohio, 215-176, in the championship match after winning five previous matches Thursday to get to the final. Two of those matches were against PBA Hall of Famers Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Mark Williams.
Dick Allen's (pictured) victory in the Dick Weber PBA Playoffs Sunday at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis marked the end of the first full season in PBA history without a multiple champion, dating back to the inaugural three-event 1959 season when Weber himself won two of the three events. During the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, 12 different champions were crowned in 12 different events. Four of the 12, players won their first PBA Tour titles and one is not credited with a PBA title.
Field cut to top 32 for Thursday's match play rounds
PBA Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr. (pictured) was hoping for a fresh start in the first tournament of the 2011 PBA Senior Tour season after his worst season on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour. He may be getting his wish as he moved into the lead after the third round of the PBA Senior Don Carter Open Wednesday at Carter Family Bowl. Williams, of Ocala, Fla., who had a 4,143 18-game pinfall (230.1 average). and 31 other players from the original field of 120 players advanced to match play which begins Thursday morning.
Ron Mohr, Walter Ray Williams Jr. move into second and third place after 12 games
Making the right adjustments at the right time were the key to PBA Hall of Famer Tom Baker (l.) retaining his lead after the second round of the PBA Senior Don Carter Open Tuesday at Carter Family Bowl with 2,862 overall 12-game pinfall total (238.5 average). Baker, of King, N.C., leads 2009 Senior Player of the Year Ron Mohr of Eagle River, Alaska, in second with 2,835, and fellow Hall of Famer and 2010 Senior Rookie of the Year Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., in third with 2,827.
Boosted by opening games of 275 and 278, Hall of Famer Tom Baker (l.) of King, N.C., averaged 246.8 to lead after the first six-game round of the Professional Bowlers Association Senior Don Carter Open Monday at Carter Family Bowl. The nine-time PBA Senior Tour champion and four-time Senior Player of the Year had games of 275, 278, 204, 232, 256 and 236 for a 1,481 pinfall. He holds an 11-pin lead over two-time Senior Tour titlist Steve Ferraro (r.).
"X factor" rallies to win back-to-back games for third career victory
Dick Allen (l.) of Columbia, S.C. swept favorite Chris Barnes (r.) of Double Oak, Texas, in the "best-of-two-game" championship match to win the inaugural Dick Weber PBA Playoffs Sunday at Woodland Bowl. Allen, who claimed his third career PBA title and the first in five years, pocketed $50,000 for the victory. The Dick Weber PBA Playoffs was the final event of the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.
Reigning Senior Player of the Year Wayne Webb to miss PBA Senior Don Carter Open
Coming off what he admits was his worst PBA Tour season, all-time PBA Tour titles leader Walter Ray Williams Jr. (pictured) is looking forward to a fresh start when the 2011 PBA Senior Tour season gets underway Sunday with the Senior Don Carter Open. It was just a year earlier that the 47-time Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour titlist won a record seventh PBA Player of the Year honor and earned PBA Senior Tour Rookie of the Year honors after narrowly missing becoming the first player in history to win Player of the Year honors on both tours in the same year.
Sunday's season-ending telecast of the finals of the Lumber Liquidators Dick Weber PBA Playoffs (ESPN, 1 p.m. ET) also marks the 40th season Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis has been a significant part of the PBA Tour schedule. The 80-laner hosted Tour stops for 20 consecutive years until a one-year hiatus. Since 2003, the center has hosted PBA events for another eight years in a row, including three U.S. Opens, three PBA Touring Players Championships, and two PBA World Championships.
Also covers the 2011 Teen Masters National Finals in August
PBA.com’s Xtra Frame subscription video service will provide comprehensive final-day coverage of the first two PBA Senior Tour events of the 2011 season – the Senior Don Carter Open on April 21 and the Sun Bowl in The Villages on April 26, as well as the Teen Masters National Finals Aug. 4. Xtra Frame host Jeff “The Bowling Doctor” Mark, will stream and provide expert commentary for all match play rounds and the finals for the PBA Senior Tour events.
Will one-ball roll-off decide $50,000 top prize Sunday's PBA Tour season-finale on ESPN?
Chris Barnes (c.) will take on the pride of Columbia, S.C., in the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season finale Sunday in a unique contest that may be decided by a one-ball roll-off. The 13-time PBA Tour winner from Double Oak, Texas, will meet two-time Tour titlist Dick Allen (l.) and non-titlist Randy Weiss (r.), both from Columbia, in the championship round of the Lumber Liquidators Dick Weber PBA Playoffs at Woodland Bowl at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Regional program is proving ground for PBA's major Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour events
The Dick Weber PBA Playoffs, an expanded PBA Tournament of Champions field, a sold-out World Series of Bowling and other open events including the PBA World Championship, U.S. Open and Bayer USBC Masters have provided the most opportunities for PBA's regional players to compete at the sport's highest level during the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season than they have had in nearly two decades. Some of the PBA's talented players who compete largely at the regional level have converted their success to opportunities in prestigious high-profile PBA Tour events.
Three Conference Champions return to Woodland Bowl for live ESPN finale Sunday at 1 p.m. ET
Randy Weiss (pictured) of Columbia, S.C., who made his national television debut in the Regional Championships Round of the inaugural Dick Weber PBA Playoffs, will have an opportunity to win his first Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour in the Championship Round of the PBA Playoffs next Sunday at Woodland Bowl. He will advance to the PBA Playoffs finale along with Midwest Conference champion Dick Allen, also of Columbia, S.C., and West Conference champion Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas.
The PBA has announced the season-ending award winners for its 2010-11 regional program. Each of the seven regions annually recognizes a Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Patterson Award winner. Four regions also recognized Senior Regional Players of the Year. Among the Regional Players of the Year are 2010 PBA Regional Players Champion Riga Kalfas (l.) and PBA Regional Players Invitational winner Bryon Smith (r.).
Chris Barnes (pictured) of Double Oak, Texas, a 13-time PBA champion and one of three finalists in the Dick Weber PBA Playoffs which will be conducted on Sunday, April 17, at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis, will fulfill the Make-A-Wish dream of David Richards Jr. of Milwaukee by bowling a game with Richards at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 16 at Woodland Bowl. Richards is six years old and has Acute Lymphatic Leukemia and Brachioplexus. His Make A Wish dream is to meet Barnes at a PBA tournament and get a private lesson.
After the first full weekend of PBA regional competition for the new 2011-12 season officially got underway on April 1, three first-time champions qualified to make their debuts in the 2012 PBA Tournament of Champions. It was a double-header in Lakewood, Wash., on April 3 where Blaine Weninger
of Aurora, Ore., claimed the title in the PBA Northwest
Tacoma Dodge Open at Bowlero Lanes while Noel Vazquez of
Sacramento, Calif., won the companion Senior Tacoma Dodge Open.
Jason Belmonte stands in the way in Conference Championship match Sunday on ESPN at 1 p.m. ET
Chris Barnes (l.) has every right to be envious of his good friend Mika Koivuniemi’s career season during the 2010-11 season. But it isn’t quite over yet. As winner of the PBA World Championship Barnes would like nothing better than to win the PBA Dick Weber Playoffs to put his own stamp on the 2010-11 campaign. In order to have that opportunity, he has to beat Australia’s Jason Belmonte (r.) in the Western Conference championship match.
Harry Sullins (l.) of Chesterfield Township, Mich., defeated Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr. (r.) of Ocala, Fla., 248-239 in the title match Tuesday to win the PBA Senior Sun Bowl In the Villages at Spanish Springs Lanes. Sullins, who won the 2009 PBA Senior World Championship for his first Senior Tour title, put together seven consecutive strikes after an open and spare in the first two frames of the title match to help seal the win.
Still healing from the passing of his wife in January, Ron Mohr (pictured) of Eagle River, Alaska, didn’t know what the future held for his professional bowling career—he just knew it was important to continue. Mohr, whose wife Linda passed away as the result of treatment complications from surgery last September, moved into the second-round lead of the PBA Senior Sun Bowl In The Villages Monday with a 3,698 16-game pinfall total (231.1 average). The 149-player field has been cut to the top 32 who will advance to match play Tuesday morning. 
Part-time PBA Senior Tour player Marc Lineberry of Camanche, Iowa, averaged 238.6 for eight games Sunday to lead the first round of the PBA Senior Sun Bowl in The Villages at Spanish Springs Lanes. Lineberry bowled a 1,909 pinfall and leads 2009 Senior Player of the Year Ron Mohr (l.) of Eagle River, Alaska, in second with 1,883 and four-time Senior Player of the Year and PBA Hall of Famer Tom Baker (r.) of King, N.C., in third with 1,869.
After four seasons competing on the PBA Senior Tour, Mike Dias (left with host proprietor Jim Carter) of Lafayette, Colo., captured his first title by winning the PBA Senior Don Carter Open Thursday at Carter Family Bowl. Dias defeated Tom Howison of Chillicothe, Ohio, 215-176, in the championship match after winning five previous matches Thursday to get to the final. Two of those matches were against PBA Hall of Famers Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Mark Williams.
Dick Allen's (pictured) victory in the Dick Weber PBA Playoffs Sunday at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis marked the end of the first full season in PBA history without a multiple champion, dating back to the inaugural three-event 1959 season when Weber himself won two of the three events. During the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, 12 different champions were crowned in 12 different events. Four of the 12, players won their first PBA Tour titles and one is not credited with a PBA title. 
Boosted by opening games of 275 and 278, Hall of Famer Tom Baker (l.) of King, N.C., averaged 246.8 to lead after the first six-game round of the Professional Bowlers Association Senior Don Carter Open Monday at Carter Family Bowl. The nine-time PBA Senior Tour champion and four-time Senior Player of the Year had games of 275, 278, 204, 232, 256 and 236 for a 1,481 pinfall. He holds an 11-pin lead over two-time Senior Tour titlist Steve Ferraro (r.). 
Dick Allen (l.) of Columbia, S.C. swept favorite Chris Barnes (r.) of Double Oak, Texas, in the "best-of-two-game" championship match to win the inaugural Dick Weber PBA Playoffs Sunday at Woodland Bowl. Allen, who claimed his third career PBA title and the first in five years, pocketed $50,000 for the victory. The Dick Weber PBA Playoffs was the final event of the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.
Sunday's season-ending telecast of the finals of the Lumber Liquidators Dick Weber PBA Playoffs (ESPN, 1 p.m. ET) also marks the 40th season Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis has been a significant part of the PBA Tour schedule. The 80-laner hosted Tour stops for 20 consecutive years until a one-year hiatus. Since 2003, the center has hosted PBA events for another eight years in a row, including three U.S. Opens, three PBA Touring Players Championships, and two PBA World Championships.
PBA.com’s Xtra Frame subscription video service will provide comprehensive final-day coverage of the first two PBA Senior Tour events of the 2011 season – the Senior Don Carter Open on April 21 and the Sun Bowl in The Villages on April 26, as well as the Teen Masters National Finals Aug. 4. Xtra Frame host Jeff “The Bowling Doctor” Mark, will stream and provide expert commentary for all match play rounds and the finals for the PBA Senior Tour events.
Chris Barnes (c.) will take on the pride of Columbia, S.C., in the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season finale Sunday in a unique contest that may be decided by a one-ball roll-off. The 13-time PBA Tour winner from Double Oak, Texas, will meet two-time Tour titlist Dick Allen (l.) and non-titlist Randy Weiss (r.), both from Columbia, in the championship round of the Lumber Liquidators Dick Weber PBA Playoffs at Woodland Bowl at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Randy Weiss (pictured) of Columbia, S.C., who made his national television debut in the Regional Championships Round of the inaugural Dick Weber PBA Playoffs, will have an opportunity to win his first Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour in the Championship Round of the PBA Playoffs next Sunday at Woodland Bowl. He will advance to the PBA Playoffs finale along with Midwest Conference champion Dick Allen, also of Columbia, S.C., and West Conference champion Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas.
The PBA has announced the season-ending award winners for its 2010-11 regional program. Each of the seven regions annually recognizes a Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Patterson Award winner. Four regions also recognized Senior Regional Players of the Year. Among the Regional Players of the Year are 2010 PBA Regional Players Champion Riga Kalfas (l.) and PBA Regional Players Invitational winner Bryon Smith (r.).
Chris Barnes (pictured) of Double Oak, Texas, a 13-time PBA champion and one of three finalists in the Dick Weber PBA Playoffs which will be conducted on Sunday, April 17, at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis, will fulfill the Make-A-Wish dream of David Richards Jr. of Milwaukee by bowling a game with Richards at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 16 at Woodland Bowl. Richards is six years old and has Acute Lymphatic Leukemia and Brachioplexus. His Make A Wish dream is to meet Barnes at a PBA tournament and get a private lesson. 
After the first full weekend of PBA regional competition for the new 2011-12 season officially got underway on April 1, three first-time champions qualified to make their debuts in the 2012 PBA Tournament of Champions. It was a double-header in Lakewood, Wash., on April 3 where Blaine Weninger
of Aurora, Ore., claimed the title in the PBA Northwest
Tacoma Dodge Open at Bowlero Lanes while Noel Vazquez of
Sacramento, Calif., won the companion Senior Tacoma Dodge Open.
Chris Barnes (l.) has every right to be envious of his good friend Mika Koivuniemi’s career season during the 2010-11 season. But it isn’t quite over yet. As winner of the PBA World Championship Barnes would like nothing better than to win the PBA Dick Weber Playoffs to put his own stamp on the 2010-11 campaign. In order to have that opportunity, he has to beat Australia’s Jason Belmonte (r.) in the Western Conference championship match.