PBA SPARE SHOTS

PBA Spare Shots

 

PBA50 TOUR PLAYER OF THE YEAR RACE HEADS INTO HOME STRETCH

As the PBA50 Tour makes its PBA Xtra Frame on FloBowling debut this week in the PBA50 River City Extreme Open, presented by Ebonite, from River City Extreme in Monticello, Minn., the chase for PBA50 Player of the Year honors heads into the home stretch with Michael Haugen Jr. at the head of the pack.

 

The annual honor in 2018 will be based upon standard PBA competition points that are being applied to all levels of PBA competition this year. Haugen, the 2017 PBA50 Rookie of the Year, won the BVL Johnny Petraglia Open earlier in the season and has four other top 10 finishes for a 2,400-point lead over PBA Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr., who has yet to add to his PBA50 Tour title total this year, but has three runner-up finishes.

 

For the current PBA50 Tour points standings heading into the Monticello event, click here: https://www.pba.com/SeasonStats/Points/130. Xtra Frame on FloBowling will air the finals of the River City Extreme Open on Friday at 8 p.m. EDT.

 

Coverage of the PBA50 Tour by PBA Xtra Frame on FloBowling continues with the PBA50 South Shore Open presented by Hammer at Olympia Lanes in Hammond, Ind., July 23-26, and the PBA50 Security Federal Savings Bank Championship, presented by Track, at Dave Small's Heritage Lanes, Kokomo, Ind., July 28-31. The PBA50 Dave Small’s Championship Lanes Classic, presented by Roto Grip, in Anderson, Ind., is set for Aug. 4-7 before the PBA50 Cup, presented by DV8, in Wyoming, Mich., Aug. 9-12, concludes the 2018 points competition that will decide the Player of the Year.

 

All PBA Xtra Frame events on FloBowling are covered live, from first ball to last. Existing Xtra Frame subscribers need to transition their current subscriptions to FloBowling by visiting https://www.flobowling.com/claim-account. New subscribers can enroll at FloBowling.com.

 

PBA BOWLING CHALLENGE PRESENTS “MOTIV THROWBACK WEEKEND CHALLENGE”

The popular PBA Bowling Challenge Mobile Game is going to debut a new “MOTIV Throwback Weekend Challenge” starting Thursday at 1 p.m. EDT and running thru Monday, July 23 at 12:59 a.m. EDT.  It will operate under the same rules and Gold Pin prizes that previous regular “Weekend Challenge” events have used with one exception: users will be limited to the three ball options below (all three balls will be offered at 50% of usual prices for the weekend).

 

The balls in play will be the Venom Panic: http://bit.ly/Panic_50; the Venom Cobra: http://bit.ly/Cobra_50, and the Jackal Ghost: http://bit.ly/Ghost_50.

 

In a recent “Weekend Challenge,” more than 25,000 people took on PBA Commissioner Tom Clark’s lineup of PBA stars in the “PBA Bowling Commissioner’s Challenge” and only 1.16 percent beat the gauntlet of PBA stars in a series of matches, but in the end 283 “out-bowled” the entire field.

 

The good news is, it’s free to enter and you can bowl as many times as you want. Special stand-alone events within Concrete Software’s PBA Bowling Challenge game for mobile devices (Weekend Challenges, Commissioner’s Challenge, etc.) will be regular events in the future. If you are a registered PBA Bowling Challenge player, you’ll get notices when a new game or “challenge” is scheduled.

 

If you haven’t already done so, download the free PBA Bowling Challenge app at Google Play or the Apple App Store and start bowling immediate.

 

PBA REGIONAL UPDATE: SEAN WILCOX HELPS DICK ALLEN WIN 21ST REGIONAL TITLE

With help from partner Sean Wilcox of Altamonte Springs, Fla., Dick Allen of Lexington, S.C. picked up his 21st career PBA Regional title when the twosome defeated Kyle Troup of Taylorsville, N.C., and Steve Arehart of Chesapeake, Va., 243-213, to win the PBA Beltline Lanes Columbia 300 Baker Doubles title Sunday on the outskirts of Columbia, S.C.

 

Troup and Arehart qualified fourth for the stepladder finals and edged Connor Pickford of Plano, Texas, and Kole Payne of Charlotte, N.C., 183-182, to start the four-team stepladder finals. They then won another squeaker, eliminating Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Oxford, Fla., and amateur partner Josh Johnson from Callahan, Fla., 198-179, to advance to the title match.

 

In addition to Allen’s 21st Regional title, Wilcox won his first title along with a share of the $4,000 top prize.

 

● Michael Haugen Jr. of Phoenix defeated Ron Profitt of Brookville, Ohio by 182 pins to win the PBA50 Fairborn Central Classic presented by Roto Grip at Bowl 10 Fairborn in Fairborn, Ohio, Sunday.

 

Haugen, who averaged 221.7 for the tournament, claimed his second PBA50 central region title of the year along with the $1,500 first prize.

 

In a unique format, the top 16 players after qualifying bowled 10 games of round robin match play where the winner of each match received 10 bonus pins. After the 10th match, the top four advanced to a two-game, four-man match play final round where bonus pins were given based on two-game totals. The top scorer received 12 bonus pins, second received eight bonus pins, third four bonus pins and fourth received no bonus pins. Haugen rolled games of 219 and 186 for a 405 total, earning 12 bonus pins and finishing with a 4,506 pinfall total to top Profitt’s 4,324 total.

 

● Jakob Butturff of Tempe, Ariz., defeated amateur Fidel Marchena of Dominican Republic, 234-194, to win the PBA Tony Grigat Allstate Midwest Open at Poplar Creek Bowl in Hoffman Estates, Ill., Sunday, for his 16th career PBA Regional title and first in the PBA Midwest Region. He also earned $2,000.

 

Marchena edged Kenny Calkins of Des Moines, Iowa, 215-214, in the semifinal game to advance to the championship match after also sneaking past Ryan Burks of Valparaiso, Ind., 192-190, in the first stepladder match.

 

● Over the July 20-22 weekend, PBA Regional events will include the PBA50 Parkway Lanes Eastern Open presented by Roto Grip in Elmwood Park, N.J.; the PBA Angola Central/Midwest Open presented by Ebonite at Angola Bowl in Angola, Ind.; the PBA Spring Hill Lanes South Open presented by Track in Spring Hill, Fla.; the PBA Fort Sill Southwest Open at Twin Oaks Bowling Center in Fort Sill, Okla.; the PBA, PBA50 and PBA-PWBA Secoma Lanes Northwest/West Open tripleheader in Federal Way, Wash., and the PBA50 Beverly Lanes Midwest/Central Open presented by Roto Grip in Arlington Heights, Ill.

 

● Closing out the July schedule of PBA Regional competitions will be the PBA50 Ned Micelli Memorial at Herrill Lanes in New Hyde Park, N.Y., over the July 27-28 weekend.

 

● For complete PBA Regional schedules, rules and entry information, visit pba.com, open the “schedules” tab and click on PBA Regional Tours to find the event(s) in your area…and remember, you can follow “live scoring” for all PBA Regional events on pba.com (easily accessible for Apple device users using the PBA app).

 

QUICK NOTES:

● Dick Allen and his wife Sarah welcomed the third addition to their family on Tuesday, July 17 (coincidentally, Sarah’s birthday…) when Declain Atticus Allen arrived, weighing in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces, and measuring 21 inches. Declain joins future babysitters Piper and Arabella.