PBA Adopts Rule to Employ
Instant Replay as Needed

The Professional Bowlers Association has adopted a formal policy allowing the use of “instant replay” at the tournament director’s discretion in nationally-televised competition.

The “instant replay rule,” along with a new rule allowing coaching at all levels of PBA competition, are included in the 2010-11 Professional Bowlers Association Rule Book which went into effect on Oct. 1. The rule book can be found on pba.com under the “Resources” tab.

While “instant replay” is rarely needed in PBA competition, issues of foul line infractions and pinfall – where a pinsetter may touch a falling pin have created a handful of disputes over the years. The PBA uses a foul line judge and carefully monitors pinfall, but situations have occurred that made an accurate ruling difficult without closer review.

“Use of instant replay is an issue with all major sports in this age of technology,” said PBA Vice President and Tour Director Kirk von Krueger. “Our concern is simply to be accurate with judgment calls. Until now, we have not had a formal policy on whether instant replay can or should be used. Now we have a rule that governs the issue.

“When the use of instant replay will allow us to make the correct decision, we’ll use it. It will be employed at the discretion of the tournament director.”

The most memorable use of instant replay in a PBA Tour event occurred in the title match of the 1999 Columbia 300 Open in Austin, Texas, when Parker Bohn III appeared to foul on a spare attempt in the title match against Pete Weber. Ironically, von Krueger was tournament director for that event. During the next commercial break, von Krueger reviewed the instant replay of the shot and determined that Bohn had, indeed, fouled, negating the spare.

Bohn went on to win the title, 225-211, but the following week, PBA players – who at the time had control over rules policies – voted against any future use of instant replay. Since that time, there has been no published policy on whether or not instant replay can be used to enforce decisions by the tournament director.


In addition to the instant replay rule, all coaching rules and limitations, with a few exceptions, were eliminated to allow coaching across the board at all levels of PBA competition. The new rules define coaching and specific limitations as they apply to televised and non-televised rounds.

The new PBA rules also establish a member policy on appropriate conduct in using social network platforms which have created new levels of world-wide interaction between players and fans, and outline a change back to a voting system for selection of PBA Player of the Year for 2010-11. The new tournament formats which will be employed this year make the Player of the Year points system used the past two seasons impractical.