Sands Regency PBA Regional Players
Invitational Returns to Reno

The dream of bowling as a full-time competitor on the Professional Bowlers Association’s national tour will be realized in mid-December when the Sands Regency PBA Regional Players Invitational returns to the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev.

The 41st annual RPI, open to the 25 points leaders in each of the PBA’s East, South, Central, Southwest, Midwest, West and Northwest Regions, offers a $7,500 first prize plus a berth in the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions at Red Rock Lanes in Las Vegas. Based upon anticipated entries, the tournament will pay 90 places, but most important, in addition to prize money the top seven players will earn exemptions to bowl full-time on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour for the 2010-11 season.

Last year, John Nolen of Waterford, Mich., won the 40th anniversary RPI and then captured the 2009 United States Bowling Congress Masters in Las Vegas.

The tournament gets underway with a players reception hosted by the Sands Regency Hotel and Casino on Monday, Dec. 14. Following a practice session Tuesday morning, the entire field will bowl six-game rounds on the PBA’s Cheetah, Viper, Chameleon, Scorpion and Shark lane conditioning patterns over a span of three days. Final standings will be based upon 30 games of actual pinfall.

The 2009 Regional Players Invitational will follow the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour’s Red, White and Blue Open presented by USBC, which takes place Dec. 7-13 in Wichita, Kan. The inaugural Red, White and Blue Open – a tournament open to non-exempt and amateur bowlers as well as exempt tour players – will be unveil the United States Bowling Congress’ new “varying degree of difficulty” lane conditions for grassroots league bowlers, and it will provide a tune-up event for regional players headed to Reno.

The inaugural RPI was won by hall of famer Tom Hennessey, a member of the fabled Budweiser’s of St. Louis team, in Cincinnati in 1969. The tournament has served as a launching pad for a number of players who went on to careers as national touring players. Among the past champions who are still active as PBA Tour exempt players are reigning Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open champion Mike Scroggins of Amarillo, Texas (1999); Ritchie Allen, Columbia, S.C. (2004); Mitch Beasley, Puyallup, Wash. (2005), and Nolen.

In addition to Nolen, the 2009 RPI qualifiers who will compete on the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour are: P.J. Haggerty, Clovis, Calif.; brothers Lonnie Waliczek, Wichita, Kan., and Brian Waliczek, Birch run, Mich.; Dave Arnold, Reno, Nev.; John May, Lincolnton, N.C.; Derek Sapp, Keokuk, Iowa, and Wayne Garber, Modesto, Calif.