Storm

Stayin' Alive
NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. - 3/27/2008

As late as Thursday evening, it was looking as if an exciting finish to the 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year race was going to end with a whimper instead of a bang.

Instead, Chris Barnes and Walter Ray Williams Jr. made late runs to stay alive in the 65th Denny’s U.S. Open at Brunswick Zone Carolier, keeping Williams’ chances of a seventh PBA Player of the Year Award alive and making Barnes wait at least another day to find out if he’ll earn his first.

Meanwhile, Brad Angelo continued to the lead the field in hopes of capturing his first career title, finishing the first three days of qualifying with a 4,015 18-game pinfall.

For much of the tournament, Barnes and Williams had been hovering near the cut line until both did just enough Thursday to sneak inside the number. Barnes was 92nd heading into the day and averaged just 192.00 to drop to 117th, while Williams, who started in 125th, averaged 206.17 to finish 90th. The top 122 out of the original field of 488 advanced to Friday.

The pressure is still on Williams (Ocala, Fla.), who will have to make up a lot of ground in the nine games Friday to advance to round robin match play, where 24 bowlers will fight it out for the four spots in the finals. Williams must finish at least fifth to have a chance at making up the two-point deficit that separates he and Barnes (Double Oak, Texas).

Should Barnes and Williams both miss the top 24, the last man who could potentially still be in the race is Mike Scroggins, who must win the title this week to win the award by one point. Scroggins, who is looking to become the first left-handed bowler to win the U.S. Open since Mike Aulby in 1989, is 33rd heading into the final round of qualifying.

Angelo (Lockport, N.Y.), meanwhile, averaged 225.33 on Thursday to maintain his lead from Wednesday. He’ll look to become the 18th bowler in PBA history to win a Major as his first title.

Defending champion Pete Weber (St. Ann, Mo.), who is looking to win his record-breaking ninth Major and fifth U.S. Open, was sitting in 122nd going into the final game but he fired a 237 the final game to move up to 97th and keep his hopes alive.

Four of the 10 women entered advanced to Friday including Union, N.J., native Kelly Kulick, who finished 49th. Kulick made history last season as the first woman to earn a full-season exemption on the Denny’s PBA Tour. Carolyn Dorin-Ballard (North Richland Hills, Texas) was the top female after the first 18 games, sitting 32nd.

Earning the final two spots in the cashers’ round were Jason Sterner (Roswell, Ga.) and Jason Lundquist (Hawley, Pa.), who tied for 121st with 3,548.

The top four after Saturday’s match play will advance to Sunday’s championship round live on ESPN at 2 p.m. ET. The winner will take home $100,000 and a three-year Denny’s PBA Tour exemption.

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Storm

Duke Dashes to Lead
NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. - 3/28/2008

Norm Duke has had one of the most interesting seasons of his 26-year career. He’s now put himself in position to make it one of the most memorable.

Duke, who just a month ago was in danger of losing his Denny’s PBA Tour exemption, is now looking poised to capture his second Major of the season, going 8-0 Friday evening to move into the lead in the 65th Denny’s U.S. Open at Brunswick Zone Carolier.

The 27-time titlist has battled injuries throughout the season and had fallen as low as 51st in the PBA World Point Rankings heading into the Denny’s World Championship just four events ago. Despite battling the flu that week, Duke made an incredible run to the finals where he beat Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Ryan Shafer to capture his third career Major and secure his place on Tour for two seasons.

“This has been a lot like the last two years where I’ve been extremely opportunistic when I’m on the floor but I just can’t make my way to the approach enough,” Duke (Clermont, Fla.) said of the injuries that have kept him off the lanes.

“But I’m really enjoying bowling now because of the fact that I’m healthy again. It hurt so badly before that it took the fun out of it. Now, I feel like I’m in the heat of battle and capable again.”

Duke was more than capable on Friday. After quietly hovering in the top 20 all week, he swept through his matches Friday night to jump into the lead heading into the final 16 games of round robin on Saturday. After finishing fifth in last season’s U.S. Open to miss the finals by one spot, Duke will get another shot at the coveted U.S. Open crown, the only one of the Triple Crown events he is missing.

“The U.S. Open is everything to me,” Duke said. “At the beginning of every season I look at the four Majors but I look at this one first. It just bugs me. It’s difficult to get this tournament and how important it is to me out of my mind when I’m bowling. I can’t think about winning, I just have to get it done.”

Duke’s first two matches Friday came against two of the top players on the Denny’s PBA Tour as he dispatched of Wes Malott and Tommy Jones by scores of 215-196 and 243-214, respectively. He then faced just two other exempt bowlers over his final six wins, capping the perfect night with a 213-200 win over amateur Mark Clark.

With 16 games left, Duke is nowhere near feeling like he’s in the driver’s seat.

“I cannot even count the times I’ve missed the show by one spot in this event. It’s at least three. And I’ve finished second once by one pin. I still throw that shot a thousand times and I still miss,” Duke said. “You can't win this tournament on Friday though. I’d love it if they’d just start the show tomorrow but I can still finish 24th. The task at hand is to come in here and play my very best. That’s the only thing that’s acceptable. And I know I have it in me.”

Mika Koivuniemi (Hartland, Mich.), who is looking to get back his “Major Mika” moniker after winning the Masters and U.S. Open for the first two of his eight titles, also made a big run Friday going 7-1 to move up to second. Shannon Buchan (Waterloo, Iowa) went 5-3 and sits third while Eugene McCune (Munster, Ind.) went 4-3-1 and is fourth. Qualifying leader Brad Angelo (Lockport, N.Y.) went 5-3 to drop to fifth.

All pinfall from the four rounds of qualifying carries over into match play where bowlers earn 30 bonus pins for each win and 15 for each tie.

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SuperFuryPearl

All the Way Norm Duke...
All the Way Storm....

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Storm

erm...think duke got 3rd for us open cos that wat they put in the official webby ....
mika came in 1st and chris loschetter 2nd,
doug kent 4th

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SuperFuryPearl

WHY???? Why 3rd placing only... But at least still top 3 haha....

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mindfreak

any track bowler in PBA ? haha

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Storm

http://trackbowling.com/staff/index.php

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Storm

wait...i think i made a mistake i got from another webby that the results i posted earlier on were the seeding position of the top 4 qualifiers that made it into the finals on tv n the winner is .................................................. .................................................. ...............................................

D..................
U...................
K.......................
E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

using the SHIFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and its the second year in succession that the hardest lane condition to play in the world which is the US Open had been won by STORM staffers using the SHIFT!!!!

http://www.ballreviews.com/Forum/Rep...3&CategoryID=2

erm...though a bit of promoting for storm equipment but than hey,
we gotta let them loose,give 'em hell,bowl up a storm and make it happening!

yeah man!!!!!!!

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Storm

A Grand Finish
NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. - 3/30/2008

The Grand Slam, two Majors in a season, $100,000 and the one accomplishment that has eluded him in his illustrious career.

With so much riding on the line, getting a mark in the 10th frame was never more difficult for Norm Duke.

Needing any spare to win the 65th Denny’s U.S. Open, Duke left the 2-4-5-8, giving him flashbacks of the 2000 U.S. Open that slipped out of his hands by one pin. But facing the biggest spare attempt of his career, Duke converted to defeat Mika Koivuniemi, 224-216, to win his fourth career Major and 28th Denny’s PBA Tour title.

Additionally, he became just the second bowler in history to win the four Grand Slam events – the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Masters, Tournament of Champions, World Championship and the U.S. Open.

The win capped a wild roller coaster ride of a season for Duke, who just five weeks ago was on the verge of losing his Denny’s PBA Tour exemption. He sat 51st in the PBA World Point Rankings after battling numerous injuries and, even worse, caught the flu the week of the Denny’s World Championship.

Always known for having a flair for the dramatic, Duke made an incredible run through the World Championship to win his third career Major and, more importantly, earn a two-season exemption.

Fueled by the desire to win the most coveted event on Tour and the one he has had several close calls in, Duke was a man on a mission all week. Though he lost the top seed for the finals by going just 3-5 in the final round of match play Saturday, he salvaged the No. 3 seed which meant he had to win three matches on Sunday for the title.

After looking unstoppable in defeating No. 4 Doug Kent, 234-160, and No. 2 Chris Loschetter, 267-245, to reach the title match, Duke faced the top-seed Koivuniemi, who was looking for his second U.S. Open title.

Koivuniemi held the lead until a spare in the eighth frame after which Duke struck in the eighth and ninth to take the lead. Koivuniemi had a chance to put some pressure on Duke by striking out, but he left a 2-pin with his first shot in the 10th, converting the spare and finishing with a strike to force Duke to mark.

With everything on the line, Duke re-racked but left the 2-4-5-8, one of the few bad shots he threw all day.

“I was protecting against going high because you can make the bucket but you can’t make the 4-6,” Duke (Clermont, Fla.) said. “But I wanted to strike, too, so it had to be somewhere in between. I didn’t throw it awful, I just missed it enough. When I left that I thought, ‘It’s over. I’ve done it again.’”

Duke was referring to the 2000 U.S. Open title match against Robert Smith where he needed a strike with his first ball in the 10th frame to win, but he left the 8-pin to lose, 202-201.

“That was the longest 10th frame today,” Duke, the first No. 3 seed since Dave Husted in 1996 to win the U.S. Open, said. “Under those circumstances, I was a lot calmer today than I had been on Friday and Saturday. Fatigue really plays a role in this event. If you watched last night, guys were dying and I was one of those guys. Not dying mentally, but physically. But I threw some warm-ups this morning and had the game I wanted to have and that really calmed me down.”

After Duke picked up the “bucket,” the diminutive crowd favorite who is one of the most emotional players the Tour has ever seen, pumped his fist and jumped wildly, showing just how much this event meant to him.

“I cannot put into words how special this is to me,” Duke said. “Five years after I missed that shot against Robert I would still cry about it. It was the one thing I would constantly think about that I hadn’t done. I could just never cap it off. Now, I’m the reigning champion of the U.S. Open.”

The win capped off an incredible month for Duke, who became just the seventh bowler to win two Majors in one season. He moved past Mike Aulby into sole possession of sixth on the all-time titles list, moved into a tie for fifth all-time with his fourth Major and joined Mike Aulby as the only bowlers to win the Grand Slam, although his 1993 Masters title does not count as an official PBA title.

“This format, this grind… it’s why so few people can actually win this event,” Duke said. “There are probably 25 people out here who can actually win this. It’s why Pete (Weber) has won it four times. Now after 27 years of dreaming, it means everything to my career.”

Duke took home $100,000 for the win and extended his exemption through the 2010-11 season. Koivuniemi (Hartland, Mich.) earned $50,000 for second, Loschetter (Avon, Ohio) took home $25,000 for third while Kent (Newark, N.Y.) earned $13,000 for fourth.

The 65th Denny’s U.S. Open concludes the 2007-08 Denny’s PBA Tour. Chris Barnes wrapped up the 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year award this week, edging out six-time PBA Player of the Year Walter Ray Williams Jr. by two points in the standings to win the award for the first time in his career.

For the fourth consecutive season, six bowlers will roll off for a $150,000 winner-take-all top prize in the Motel 6 Roll to Riches special event, which takes place Tuesday, April 8 at Colonial Lanes in Orlando, Fla., and airs as two back-to-back one-hour shows on ESPN, Sunday, April 13 at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. ET. Participants include Duke, Kent, Sean Rash, Michael Haugen Jr., Parker Bohn III and Chris Barnes, who earned a berth in the event thanks to Duke winning two Ma