The final two major championships of the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season will be on line as the PBA Tour heads into the February leg of its schedule.

The stars of the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour will convene in Reno, Nev., Feb. 7-13 for the United States Bowling Congress Masters at the National Bowling Stadium. Defending champion Walter Ray Williams Jr. (pictured right,with Chris Barnes, l-r) will attempt to join fellow PBA Hall of Famer Mike Aulby as the second player to win the Masters three times.

Williams, Aulby and Pete Weber also are tied with eight career major titles – two behind leader Earl Anthony. Weber would like to break that second-place tie by winning his first Masters title, and join Aulby and Norm Duke as the third player in history to complete the PBA Grand Slam.

First prize in the USBC Masters is a guaranteed $50,000. The Masters finals will air live on ESPN on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 3 p.m. Eastern/noon Pacific. Qualifying and match play rounds will be covered live on pba.com's Xtra Frame video streaming service.

Following the Masters, the Tour takes a week off before heading cross-country to Brunswick Zone-Carolier in North Brunswick, N.J., for the 68th Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open, a $400,000 event (based on 480 entries) with a guaranteed $80,000 top prize – the second-richest first prize of the season.

The U.S. Open, which gets underway on Feb. 22, is traditionally one of the most challenging tournaments of the year and features not only a world-class field of PBA stars, but many of the world's best amateurs.

The U.S. Open will feature three days of live television coverage, concluding with the four-player stepladder finals live on ESPN on Sunday, Feb. 27, at 3 p.m. Eastern.

ESPN2 will carry live coverage of the match play rounds on Friday, Feb. 25, at 6 p.m. Eastern and Saturday, Feb. 26, at 10 p.m. Eastern. In addition, pba.com's Xtra Frame will be on location for wall-to-wall coverage of the U.S. Open.

Chris Barnes (left) of Double Oak, Texas, and Mika Koivuniemi (right) of Hartland, Mich., are the winners of the season's first two majors. Barnes defeated Bill O'Neill of Southampton, Pa., 267-237, to win the PBA World Championship and complete the PBA Triple Crown on Jan. 16 at South Point Bowling Center in Las Vegas.

Six days later, Koivuniemi defeated Tom Smallwood of Saginaw, Mich., 269-207, to win the $250,000 first prize in the PBA Tournament of Champions at Red Rock Lanes in Las Vegas.

 

Chris Paul Celebrity Invitational airs Sunday at 4 p.m. Eastern

February's television schedule kicks off with the Super Bowl Sunday presentation of the Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational, taped in December in New Orleans.

The third annual special event, benefitting Paul's CP3 Foundation, features Grammy award-winning hip-hop artists Lil Wayne and Nelly along with New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush and Paul bowling with Storm Products' PBA stars Rhino Page, Wes Malott, Pete Weber, Norm Duke and Jason Belmonte.

The special event will air at 4 p.m. Eastern on ESPN, leading into the Super Bowl telecast.

 

Points at a premium as PBA Tour heads toward Dick Weber PBA Playoffs

Not only are February's two major championships important financially, but they also will play a key role in the competition points race heading into the season's final event, the new Dick Weber PBA Playoffs.

The Playoffs, with a $320,000 prize fund (based on 180 entries) and a $50,000 guaranteed first prize, will feature a field of 108 PBA regional qualifiers competing against the top 72 players on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour points list. The Dick Weber PBA Playoffs are set for March 8-13 at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis.

The PBA Playoffs will feature 18 top regional competitors from six PBA Regional groups (East, South, Central, Midwest, Southwest and West/Northwest), based upon competition points earned during the 2009-10 season. Based upon a full field of 180 players, 102 of the contestants will cash.

Not to be overlooked is the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship March 1-6 at AMF Thruway Lanes in Cheektowaga, N.Y.

This is the third annual special event where all players will use throwback "plastic ball" technology in a contest of physical and mental skill. A Tour Qualifying Event for non-exempt players will get the Plastic Ball Championship underway on Wednesday, March 9.

 

Ciminelli makes it 3-5 for top qualifiers on television

Ryan Ciminelli (pictured) of Cheektowaga, N.Y., not only became the third first-time PBA Tour champion of the season when he won Sunday's One A Day Earl Anthony Memorial in Dublin, Calif., but he also became the third No. 1 qualifier to win in eight stepladder finals conducted thus far in the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.

Earlier in the season, Eugene McCune of Munster, Ind., won the Brunswick Pro Bowling Cheetah Championship from the No. 1 rung on the stepladder and rookie Scott Norton of Costa Mesa, Calif., captured the Chameleon Championship as top qualifier. Norton and South Korea's Gu Yong-Jin (Scorpion Championship) are the other first-time winners.

 

Pete Weber makes 124th career television appearance in Dublin

PBA Tour fans know Walter Ray Williams Jr. is the all-time leader in television appearances (172), but did you know:

• Hall of Famer Pete Weber (right) is runner-up? Weber made his 124th career appearance in Sunday's ESPN2 finals of the One A Day Earl Anthony Memorial.

• Only six players in PBA history have made 100 or more TV appearances? In addition to Williams and Weber, the other four are Earl Anthony (114), Parker Bohn III (107), and Norm Duke and Marshall Holman (105 each).

• The player with the best winning percentage among these six is Norm Duke? Duke has won 55.81% of his TV matches. The worst winning percentage: Holman's 42.85%.

• The player who is closest to joining the elite 100 appearance club is Amelto Monacelli? Monacelli has appeared on TV 95 times – two ahead of Mark Roth (93).

Norm Duke is throwing "strikes for Sy"

PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke (pictured) is throwing "Strikes for Sy" this season in an effort to raise money in support of Sy Harger, a four-year-old who lives near Duke's home in Clermont, Fla., who suffers from Eosinophilic Esophagitis, a rare medical condition which prevents him from eating solid foods.

To help Sy's family deal with his extraordinary medical bills, Duke has launched a "Strikes for Sy" campaign, asking people to pledge a penny a pin, or whatever they decide, for each strike Duke rolls during Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour competition for the duration of the 2010-11 season (including January's PBA Tournament of Champions and Earl Anthony Memorial). Duke projected that, for the balance of the season, he would throw between 700 and 1,100 which would convert to between $7 and $11 based upon a penny per pin.

During the PBA Tournament of Champions, Duke threw 379 strikes in 58 games and during the One A Day Earl Anthony Memorial, he added another 129 strikes in 23 games.

To sign up in support of Duke's "Strikes for Sy" benefit, visit http://www.strikesforsy.com/.

 

Allentown Senior Tour event to honor PBA Hall of Famer Mark Roth

In addition to the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship March 1-6 at AMF Thruway Lanes in Cheektowaga, N.Y., the new Allentown, Pa., event in the 2011 PBA Senior Tour schedule also will honor the PBA Hall of Famer from Fulton, N.Y.

The PBA has announced the May 21-24 event at Playdrome Rose Bowl will be named the PBA Senior Mark Roth Allentown Open.

The 11-tournament PBA Senior Tour season gets underway April 17-21 with the PBA Senior Don Carter Open at Carter Family Bowl in Winter Garden, Fla.

 

Koivuniemi, O'Neill top Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour statistics

Thanks to his record $250,000 PBA Tournament of Champions prize, Mika Koivuniemi is the easy leader on the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour earnings list with $270,940. TOC runner-up Tom Smallwood is next in line with $112,200.

Bill O'Neill is the early leader in both scoring average (223.69) and competition points (102,547) after eight events. Chris Barnes is runner-up in both categories (222.99 average and 82,560 points).

 

2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Statistics

As of Jan. 31, thru 8 events

Earnings List with Events and Money
1, Mika Koivuniemi (right), Hartland, Mich., (8), $270,940
2, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., (8), $112,200
3, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, (8), $96,160
4, Bill O'Neill, Southampton, Pa., (8), $77,090
5, Osku Palermaa, Finland, (7), $59,200
6, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., (8), $52,930
7, Andres Gomez, Colombia, (8), $51,210
8, Tom Daugherty, Wesley Chapel, Fla., (1), $50,000
9, Jason Belmonte, Australia, (8), $47,850
10, Dan MacLelland, Saginaw, Mich., (7), $46,490
11, Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y., (8), $40,500
12, Mike Fagan, Patchogue, N.Y., (8), $34,250
13, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., (8), $31,050
14, Michael Haugen Jr., Carefree, Ariz., (8), $29,800
15, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., (8), $27,390
16, Mike Edwards, Tulsa, Okla., (8), $25,700
17, Eugene McCune, Munster, Ind., (8), $23,450
18, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, (8), $22,950
19, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., (8), $22,450
20, Michael Machuga, Erie, Pa., (8), $20,784

Scoring Averages with Games and Average
1, Bill O'Neill (right), Southampton, Pa., (243), 223.69
2, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, (215), 222.99
3, Osku Palermaa, Finland, (214), 222.98
4, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., (224), 221.83
5, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., (212), 221.49
6, Dan MacLelland, Saginaw, Mich., (212), 221.32
7, Jason Belmonte, Australia, (234), 221.12
8, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, (181), 220.46
9, Tommy Jones, Greenville, S.C., (183), 220.36
10, Michael Haugen Jr., Carefree, Ariz., (209), 220.33

Competition Points with Title and Points
1, Bill O'Neill, Southampton, Pa., (1), 102,647
2, Chris Barnes (right), Double Oak, Texas, (1), 82,560
3, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., (0), 80,952
4, Jason Belmont, Australia, (0), 78,933
5, Osku Palermaa, Finland, (0), 75,476
6, Michael Haugen Jr., Carefree, Ariz., (0), 67,738
7, Mika Koivuniemi, Hartland, Mich., (1), 65,387
8, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, (0), 63,283
9, Tommy Jones, Greenville, S.C., (0), 60,614
10, Mike DeVaney, Murrieta, Calif., (0), 58,600

 

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