Anthony Pepe, a 29-year-old left-hander from Elmhurst, N.Y., averaged 252 for his first eight games in the Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic Tuesday to take the first round lead at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis by 20 pins fellow lefty Jakob Butturff (below left) of Tempe, Ariz.

Pepe (pictured right and above), who is trying for his second Professional Bowlers Association Tour title, had a dazzling round, rolling games of 254, 266, 258, 257, 279, 202, 256 and 245 for a 2,017 total to pace the 148-player field.

Pepe, who came into the 2018 season off a solid performance in the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling IX in Reno, Nev., in late November, where he had a runner-up finish in the PBA Chameleon Championship presented by Reno Tahoe, said he had a game plan for playing the lanes at Woodland Bowl based on previous experiences in the center.

“The biggest thing was I had an arsenal of bowling balls I wanted to use, and I was able to make the ball choices and moves on the lanes quickly,” Pepe said. “I also came into the season with a lot of confidence after the World Series. After Matt O’Grady won the PBA Tournament of Champions last week, he said it was proof of what hard work can do, and I couldn’t agree more.”

The same hard-work philosophy applies to Brian Robinson (right) of Morgantown, W.Va., a 28-year-old 10th-year PBA member who had previously advanced to match play twice in 58 tournaments.

But after hurting his right wrist about 18 months ago, he switched to a two-handed delivery and averaged 246.5 for his eight games Tuesday, finishing the round in third place with a 1,972 total – 45 pins behind Pepe.

Rounding out the top five were Marshall Kent (left) of Yakima, Wash., with 1,945 pins and DJ Archer (right) of Friendswood, Texas, with a 1,930 total. There were three 300 games in the round shot by Kent, Andres Gomez (below left) of Colombia (10th, 1,869) and Gary Faulkner Jr. (below right) of Memphis, Tenn. (17th, 1,853).

The Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic is a one-time tournament, commemorating the organization’s birth in 1958 and 60 years of memorable competition. Over the course of the next few weeks, the PBA will unveil its 60 Most Memorable Moments.

This week’s tournament began with 84-year-old PBA Hall of Famer Carmen Salvino of Chicago, a PBA founding member who bowled in the organization’s first PBA tournament in 1959 at age 25, becoming the oldest bowler ever to participate in a PBA Tour event.

The weeklong festivities will include the PBA 60th Anniversary Celebration dinner and PBA Hall of Fame induction ceremonies Saturday along with the 2018 PBA League Draft.

The tournament concludes Sunday with the live telecast of the stepladder finals at 1 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.

Qualifying continues Wednesday with B and A squads bowling another eight games at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. Based on 16-game pinfall totals, the top 37 players will advance to an eight-game cashers round Thursday at 9 a.m.

After 24 games, the top 24 will bowl eight-game head-to-head match play rounds Thursday at 6 p.m. and Friday at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. All preliminary rounds, plus Saturday’s League Draft at 10:30 a.m. and the 60th Anniversary dinner at 6:30 p.m., will be live stream on PBA’s online bowling channel, Xtra Frame.

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Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic – First Round Standings

Players with position, hometown and 8-game total

1, Anthony Pepe, Elmhurst, N.Y., 2,017
2, Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz., 1,997
3, Brian Robinson, Morgantown, W. Va., 1,972
4, Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 1,945
5, DJ Archer, Friendswood, Texas, 1,930
6, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 1,924
7, Matt Sanders, Evansville, Ind., 1,910
8, Scott Newell, Deland, Fla., 1,902
9, Shota Kawazoe, Japan, 1,900
10, (tie) Andres Gomez, Colombia, and
Chris Via, Springfield, Ohio, 1,869
12, Darren Tang, San Francisco, 1,868
13, (tie) Tom Hess, Urbandale, Iowa, and
Aaron Lorincz, Center Line, Mich., 1,855
15, Gary Faulkner Jr., Memphis, Tenn., 1,853
16, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 1,839
17, Brandon Novak, Chillicothe, Ohio, 1,838
18, Kristopher Prather, Plainfield, Ill., 1,837
19, Richie Teece, England, 1,835
20, Dino Castillo, Highland Village, Texas, 1,833
21, Gabriel Garcia, Port St. Lucie, Fla., 1,832
22, Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 1,827
23, Arturo Quintero, Mexico, 1,826
24, Keven Williams, Springfield, Mo., 1,824
25, Dom Barrett, England, 1,821
26, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 1,819
27, Bill O’Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 1,814
28, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 1,813
29, Andrew Anderson, Holly, Mich., 1,810
30, Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 1,802
31, Richard McCormick, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1,801
32, Ryan Ciminelli, Clarence, N.Y., 1,797
33, Stuart Williams, England, 1,796
34, Pontus Andersson, Sweden, 1,794
35, Chris Warren, Grants Pass, Ore., 1,792
36, (tie) Jason Sterner, Rockledge, Fla.;
Tannya Roumimper, Indonesia, and
Connor Pickford, Charlotte, N.C., 1,791
39, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 1,788
40, Kamron Doyle, Brentwood, Tenn., 1,783
41, AJ Chapman, Manchester, Iowa, 1,782
42, Tim Foy Jr., Seaford, Del., 1,781
43, Charlie Brown Jr, Grandville, Mich., 1,776
44, Andrew Cain, Phoenix, 1,775
45, Sam Cooley, Australia, 1,771
46, (tie) Nick Kruml, Downers Grove, Ill., and
Jason Belmonte, Australia, 1,770
48, (tie) Joe Paluszek, Bensalem, Pa., and
Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., 1,759
50, (tie) Thomas Larsen, Denmark and
Walter Ray Williams Jr., Oxford, Fla., 1,756
52, (tie) Zacharay Wilkins, Canada, and
Kristian Sieradzki, Seminole, Fla., 1,755
54, Sean Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,754
55, Dwight Adams, Greensboro, N.C., 1,752
56, Josh Blanchard, Mesa, Ariz., 1,751
57, (tie) Brad Miller, Maryland Heights, Mo., and
Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 1,750
59, (tie) Zeke Bayt, Westerville, Ohio, and
Kyle Cook, Centerville, Ohio, 1,749
61, (tie) Nicholas Pate, Inver Grove Heights, Minn., and
Yannaphon Larpapharat, Thailand, 1,748
63, Matt O’Grady, Rahway, N.J., 1,744
64, (tie) Trey Ford III, Bartlesville, Okla., and
Mitch Beasley, Clarksville, Tenn., 1,743
66, Greg Ostrander, Freehold, N.J., 1,742
67, Francois Lavoie, Canada, 1,736
68, Jean Perez, Puerto Rico, 1,734
69, (tie) Dick Allen, Columbia, S.C., and
Anthony Simonsen, Austin, Texas, 1,730
71, Devin Bidwell, Wichita, Kan., 1,728
72, Kyle Sherman, O’Fallon, Mo., 1,727
73, (tie) Ryan Graywacz, Canastota, N.Y., and
Andrew Klingler, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1,725
75, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,723
76, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 1,719
77, Patrick Girard, Canada, 1,717
78, (tie) Michael Tang, San Francisco, Calif., and
Graham Fach, Canada, 1,716
80, Christopher Sloan, Ireland, 1,715
81, Cristian Azcona, Puerto Rico, 1,711
82, EJ Tackett, Huntington, Ind., 1,710
83, (tie) Marco Moretti, Costa Rica, and
Francois Louw, South Africa, 1,709
85, Jeff Evans, Supply, N.C., 1,705
86, Jake Peters, Henderson, Nev., 1,703
87, Zulmazran Zulkifli, Malaysia, 1,700
88, Matthew Ogle, Louisville, Ky., 1,696
89, (tie) Cameron Weier, Tacoma, Wash., and
Ron Mohr, Las Vegas, 1,695
91, Kim Bolleby, Thailand, 1,689
92, (tie) AJ Johnson, Oswego, Ill., and
Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 1,688
94, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 1,685
95, (tie) Zachery Tackett, Huntington, Ind.;
Beau Peterson, Newton, Kan., and
Steven Arehart, Chesapeake, Va., 1,672
98, Jason Zook, Tampa, Fla., 1,669
99, (tie) Kyle Bigelow, Troy, Ohio, and
Mike Edwards, Tulsa, Okla., 1,668
101, Brad Angelo, Lockport, N.Y., 1,665
102, David Krol, Nixa, Mo., 1,664
103, Jesper Svensson, Sweden, 1,662
104, (tie) Matt Kuba, Chicago Ridge, Ill., and
Rhino Page, Orlando, 1,659
106, (tie) John Furey, Freehold, N.J., and
Daniel Fransson, Sweden, 1,654
108, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 1,653
109, Carleton Chambers, Detroit, 1,652
110, (tie) Napatra Buspanikonkul, Thailand, and
Brian LeClair, Albany, N.Y., 1,642
112, Patrick Dombrowski, Parma, Ohio, 1,634
113, JR Raymond, Clinton Twp., Mich., 1,631
114, Chris Arcaro, Carolina Beach, N.C., 1,626
115, (tie) Mitch Hupe, Towanda, Kan., and
Markus Jansson, Sweden, 1,621
117, Diana Zavjalova, Latvia, 1,619
118, Johnny Petraglia, Jackson, N.J., 1,617
119, Kristian Rogers, Salisbury, N.C., 1,614
120, Christopher O’Neil, Decatur, Ill., 1,611
121, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, 1,608
122, William Tarpein, McDonough, Ga., 1,605
123, Russ Oviatt, Chandler, Ariz., 1,603
124, Ray Teece, England, 1,602
125, Tyler Wilds, Three Rivers, Mich., 1,598
126, Kyle King, Glendale, Ariz., 1,593
127, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 1,590
128, Myles Duty, Modesto, Calif., 1,587
129, Tony Johnson, Canton, Ohio, 1,583
130, Chris Hartung, Goshen, Ind., 1,567
131, Jason Britain, Springfield, Mo., 1,566
132, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., 1,561
133, Noel Vega, Noblesville, Ind., 1,551
134, Gary Kammes, Winfield, Ill., 1,548
135, Justin Wyman, Fairport, N.Y., 1,527
136, Kenneth Galitsky, Plainfield, Ind., 1,524
137, Steve Walls, Jr., Canada, 1,499
138, Tristan Butler, Fort Wayne, Ind., 1,498
139, Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela, 1,494
140, Jackson Getting, Portsmouth, N.H., 1,490
141, Tony Gilbert, Indianapolis, 1,483
142, Timothy Regan, East Northport, N.Y., 1,452
143, James Johnson, Waynesville, Mo., 1,443
144, Patrick Norred, LaPorte, Ind., 1,413
145, Sandra Gongora, Mexico, 1,403
146, Carmen Salvino, Schaumburg, Ill., 1,400
147, Greg Lair, Indianapolis, Ind., 1,284
148, Matthew Ward, Fort Mohave, Ariz., 1,242

300 games (3) – Gary Faulkner Jr., Marshall Kent, Andres Gomez.