Chris Barnes (pictured left) of Double Oak, Texas, started the final round of match play in the Lucas Oil PBA Milwaukee Open Thursday night with a 300-237 victory over E.J. Tackett and raced away from the field to capture the top qualifying berth for Sunday's Milwaukee Open stepladder finals at AMF Bowlero.

Barnes, a 43-year-old 14-time PBA Tour champion, defeated PBA Hall of Famer Pete Weber (right) of St. Ann, Mo., in his second match and toppled Weber from the lead one game later.

Barnes, who hasn't won a PBA title in the U.S. since the 2011 PBA World Championship, won seven of his eight matches in the Badger match play round to finish with a 59-game average of 228.83 and a total of 14,011 pins, topping Weber by 289 pins.

Weber, who led the field after the morning Wolf round, lost his first six matches, but had a big enough margin to hold onto second place with a total of 13,722 pins, 39 ahead of his long-time rival and fellow 37-time PBA Tour title winner, Norm Duke (left) of Clermont, Fla. Duke won his first five Badger round matches to lock himself into the stepladder finals.

Barnes qualified for his second television final in the GEICO PBA Summer Swing series. He also was No. 2 qualifier for the Bear Open finals. Duke and Weber had previously qualified for Saturday's Lucas Oil Wolf Open finals in the No. 2 and No. 4 spots, respectively.

"I'm the young guy among the top three, so I came out of the tournament in pretty good shape," Barnes said. "I'm a practice guy anyway, so all of the games didn't really bother me."

As top qualifier, Barnes earned the right to select the lane condition that will be used in the stepladder finals, and he selected the Badger pattern.

"Tonight was pretty good. It played a lot tighter here on the synthetic lanes than it did on the natural wood at AMF Waukesha," Barnes said. "There's not 10 other guys who can adjust ball speed as well as I can, so I was able to keep my ball speed down without losing my rev rate. Combine that with a new ball I used, and things worked out pretty well."

Barnes has historically struggled as the top qualifier, but he said that is no longer a problem.

"When you look at my whole history, when I started working with Mark Baker a few years ago, he caught a flaw that was happening to me on TV and since then, my record on TV has improved significantly. If not my record, at least my confidence has improved significantly. There was a time where there was a lot of baggage with being the top qualifier, but now I know who I am, where I come from and where my mistakes come from. I'm comfortable in my own skin now."

Seven players battled throughout the final round for the final two berths in the Milwaukee Open finals before Mike Fagan (left) of Fort Worth, Texas, and Jason Sterner (right) of McDonough, Ga., won their position round matches – despite a 10-minute power blackout – to clinch the No. 4 and No. 5 berths. Sterner threw two strikes in the 10th frame to outlast Michael Haugen Jr. of Phoenix, 216-206, in the final match.

The Milwaukee Open was contested on a combination of three challenging "animal" lane conditions introduced for the four-tournament GEICO PBA Summer Swing: a 40-foot Bear lane conditioning pattern similar to the demanding U.S Open lane condition, a 32-foot Wolf pattern (the shortest application of oil of any of the eight PBA animal patterns), and a 52-foot Badger pattern (the longest oil condition the PBA has ever used).

Milwaukee Open finalists qualified during the Badger, Wolf and Bear Open tournaments held over the previous 10 eight days at AMF Waukesha, AMF West and AMF Bowlero, respectively.

The stepladder finals for the Badger, Wolf, Bear and Milwaukee Opens will be contested Saturday, June 1, at 11 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. respectively.

The GEICO Summer King of the Swing special event will follow the Milwaukee Open finals Sunday, June 2, at 3:30 p.m. The Summer Swing finals will air on five consecutive Tuesdays at 7 p.m. ET beginning June 11.

 

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PBA Milwaukee Open - Final Match Play Standings

Players with position, hometown, W-L-T record and 59-game total including bonus pins (30 per win, 15 for a tie). The top five advance to the stepladder finals.

1, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 16-6-2, 14,011
2, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 14-10, 13,722
3, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 16-8, 13,683
4, Mike Fagan, Fort Worth, Texas, 12-11-1, 13,590
5, Jason Sterner, McDonough, Ga., 17-7, 13,508

Missed Cut:
6, Michael Haugen Jr., Phoenix, 12-12, 13,459, $4,000
7, Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 13-10-1, 13,444, $3,600
8, Anthony LaCaze, Melrose Park, Ill., 14-10, 13,431, $3,000
9, Eugene McCune, Munster, Ind., 10-13-1, 13,370, $2,700
10, Dan MacLelland, Canada, 12-11-1, 13,337, $2,400
11, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, 10-14, 13,271, $2,200
12, Aaron Lorincz, Belleville, Mich., 13-11, 13,258, $2,100
13, Nathan Bohr, Wichita, Kan., 13-11, 13,236, $2,000
14, Dino Castillo, Carrollton, Texas, 10-14, 13,224, $1,900
15, Patrick Allen, Wesley Chapel, Fla., 12-12, 13,118, $1,850
16, Andres Gomez, Colombia, 9-15, 13,071, $1,800
17, Jon VanHees, Charlestown, R.I., 11-13, 13,063, $1,750
18, Jake Peters, Decatur, Ill., 11-13, 12,974, $1,700
19, Brian Valenta, Lockport, Ill., 15-9, 12,942, $1,650
20, Patrick Girard, Canada, 10-14, 12,941, $1,700
21, E.J. Tackett, Huntington, Ind., 9-15, 12,901, $1,650
22, x-Osku Palermaa, Finland, 3-5, 12,829, $1,500
23, Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y., 6-18, 12,678, $1,450
24, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 8-16, 12,650, $1,500
25, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 9-7, 11,246, $1,000
x-Palermaa replaced Jones, who withdrew due to injury

300 Games (2): Chris Barnes, Jason Sterner