PBA Bowling Tour: 2011–12 season

This is a recap of the 2011-12 season for the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tour.

Tournament Schedule and Recaps

For the third season in a row, the PBA condensed the first half of the season into the PBA World Series of Bowling (WSOB). Preliminary rounds of the televised tournaments are November 5-16, with television tapings on November 17-20. All of the events are being held at the South Point Casino's bowling center in Las Vegas, NV.^[1]

There are five "open" events at the World Series, meaning they are open to all PBA and World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA) members around the world. (To earn a PBA title at an event, however, the winner must be a full-fledged PBA member by the time of the WSOB.) The open events include four stand-alone title tournaments (Viper Open, Chameleon Open, Scorpion Open and Shark Open), plus the PBA World Championship. Each stand-alone "animal pattern" event features 8 games of qualifying in the morning of each day, with the top 16 returning that evening for a best-of-five elimination match play round to determine the top four for the TV finals. The bowlers with the top 53 pinfall totals from the 32 qualifying round games in the four stand-alone events were entered into the "cashers' round" for the PBA World Championship. These 53 players then rolled 8 more games to determine the final 16 bowlers for the televised match play round of the World Championship.^[2]

There are three "exempt" events added to the 2011 WSOB. The Carmen Salvino Classic will start with a field of up to 49 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour exempt players, plus at least 15 Tour Qualifying Round (TQR) participants. Two other events, the Pepsi PBA Elite Players Championship and PBA Exempt Players Baker Doubles Championship are for PBA exempt bowlers only. The combined totals from 12 games of Carmen Salvino Classic and 18 games of Elite Players Championship qualifying determined the 16-player match play semifinals participants for both the Elite singles and Exempt doubles events.

An additional TV taping will take place at the WSOB: the WTBA World Bowling Tour Finals, presented by the PBA. Qualifying for this final round is based on multiple WTBA international events, and does not take place at the WSOB. The finals format is a three-man and three-woman stepladder.

In all, 14 TV programs will be taped at the 2011 World Series of Bowling: four stand-alone "animal pattern" finals, Carmen Salvino Classic finals, Pepsi PBA Elite Players Championship finals, PBA Exempt Players Baker Doubles Championship finals, WTBA World Bowling Tour men's final, WTBA World Bowling Tour women's final, and five days of broadcasts for the PBA World Championship finals. The TV finals will be contested on specially-built lanes placed inside the South Point Casino's Exhibition Center.

The second half of the PBA Tour season includes the three remaining majors (USBC Masters, Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open and Tournament of Champions), plus four more title events.^[3]

World Series of Bowling (First Half) Highlights

• Sean Rash made history by qualifying for the TV finals in the first five World Series of Bowling events. He made the four-player TV field for all four "oil pattern" events (Bayer Viper Open, Chameleon Open, Scorpion Open and GEICO Shark Open), and also earned the #1 seed in the PBA World Championship.^[4]

Tournament Summary

Below is a summary of the 2011-12 season. Total career PBA Tour titles for winners are shown in parenthesis.

Event	Airdate	City	Preliminary Rounds	Final Round	Oil Pattern	Notes
PBA BowlersDeals.com All-In Showdown	November 4, 2011* 6:30 PM	Las Vegas, NV	November 4	Live*	TBD	Optional $5,000 buy-in WSOB event. Not a PBA title event. $45,000 top prize. Winner: Tommy Jones
GEICO World Bowling Tour Men's Final presented by the PBA	December 4, 2011 1:00 PM	Las Vegas, NV	Multiple dates	November 18	TBD	WBT qualifiers only. Not a PBA title event. Finalists: Mika Koivuniemi (Finland), Sean Rash (USA), Jason Belmonte (Australia) Winner:
GEICO World Bowling Tour Women's Final presented by the PBA	December 4, 2011 2:00 PM	Las Vegas, NV	Multiple dates	November 18	TBD	WBT qualifiers only. Not a PBA title event. Finalists: Carolyn Dorin-Ballard (USA), Nina Flack (Sweden), Sandra Andersson (Sweden) Winner:
PBA World Championship	Dec. 11, 18 and Jan. 1, 8, 15 1:00 PM each day	Las Vegas, NV	November 5-9	November 17-18	Top seed chooses pattern	Open event. $50,000 top prize. Winner:
WSOB Bayer Viper Open	January 22, 2012 3:00 PM	Las Vegas, NV	November 5	November 18	Viper	Open event. $15,000 top prize. Finalists: Michael Fagan, Stuart Williams, Sean Rash, Ildemaro Ruiz. Winner:
Cheetah Open presented by Ebonite	January 22, 2012*	Fountain Valley, CA	January 20-21	Live*	Cheetah	Open event. Winner:
USBC Masters	January 29, 2012 12:30 PM	Henderson, NV	January 23–28	Live	Custom	Open to PBA and qualifying USBC members. Winner:
Chris Paul PBA-Celebrity Invitational	February 4, 2012 4:00 PM	Winston-Salem, NC		Taped	TBD	Invitational charity event. Winners:
WSOB Chameleon Open	February 12, 2012 3:00 PM	Las Vegas, NV	November 6	November 19	Chameleon	Open event. $15,000 top prize. Finalists: Jason Belmonte, Osku Palermaa, Sean Rash, Ildemaro Ruiz. Winner:
WSOB Scorpion Open	February 19, 2012 3:00 PM	Las Vegas, NV	November 7	November 19	Scorpion	Open event. $15,000 top prize. Finalists: Dom Barrett, Dave Wodka, Sean Rash, Patrick Allen. Winner:
Don Johnson Memorial Open presented by Columbia 300	February 19, 2012*	Columbus, OH	February 17-18	Live*	TBD	Open event. Winner:
69th U.S. Open	February 26, 2012 3:00 PM	North Brunswick, NJ	February 20-25	Live	U.S. Open (custom)	Open event. Winner:
WSOB GEICO Shark Open	March 4, 2012 3:00 PM	Las Vegas, NV	November 8	November 19	Shark	Open event. $15,000 top prize. Finalists: Chris Barnes, Jason Belmonte, Sean Rash, Mika Koivuniemi Winner:
Detroit Open presented by Track	March 11, 2012*	Allen Park, MI	March 9-10	Live*	TBD	Open event. Winner:
Lumber Liquidators Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Exempt Players Doubles Championship	March 25, 2012 2:30 PM	Las Vegas, NV	November 14-16	November 20	TBD	Exempt event. $15,000 top prize. Winners:
Carmen Salvino Classic	April 1, 2012 1:00 PM	Las Vegas, NV	November 14	November 20	TBD	Exempt event with TQR. $15,000 top prize. Finalists: Andres Gomez, Wes Malott, Ronnie Russell, Jason Belmonte Winner:
PBA Dick Weber Playoffs presented by Hammer	April 1, 2012*	Indianapolis, IN	March 30-31	Live*	TBD	PBA Tour and PBA Regional members only. Winner:
Pepsi PBA Elite Players Championship	April 8, 2012 1:00 PM	Las Vegas, NV	November 14-16	November 20	TBD	Exempt event. $35,000 top prize and automatic berth in the "Round of 36" at the PBA Tournament of Champions. Finalists: Norm Duke, Mike Devaney, Jason Belmonte, Mike Scroggins Winner:
PBA Tournament of Champions	April 15, 2012 1:00 PM	Las Vegas, NV	April 8-14	Live	ToC (custom)	Past PBA Tour, PBA Regional and PBA Senior Tour champions only. Winner:

An asterisk (*) indicates a tournament that is broadcast start-to-finish (including finals) on the PBA Xtra Frame webcast service. All other broadcasts are on ESPN television. All broadcast times are Eastern (U.S.).

References

1. ^ Vint, Bill. "Revised PBA World Series of Bowling Broadens International Appeal; Finals Set for South Point Arena." Article at www.pba.com on July 8, 2011. [1]
2. ^ "2011 PBA World Series of Bowling" at www.pba.com [2]
3. ^ 2011-12 Schedule at www.pba.com [3]
4. ^ Vint, Bill. "PBA Spare Shots PLUS WSOB Notebook: Rash Off to Unprecedented Start; International Players Shine." Article at www.pba.com on November 10, 2011. [4]