Tom Hess Increases Lead At PBA50 Granville Financial Open
Aberdeen, North Carolina – Tuesday’s final day of qualifying didn’t end the way Tom Hess wanted yet when he found out he actually added onto his lead at the 2024 PBA50 Granville Financial Open, he was surprised. He averaged 220 on the day for a two-day total of +476, holding a 219-pin lead over Brad Angelo. Last year’s defending champion Chris Barnes is third followed by Parker Bohn III and Jason Couch.
“I think we kind of got what the night block had the previous night,” Hess said, after his tale of two blocks. “I think the fronts hooked a little bit more today than they did yesterday, so your ball didn't clear the front as easy. You kind of had to force it through the front a little bit and I think that affected the scores for everybody.”
After the 14 games of qualifying, the top 44 players made the cut to move to the Advancers Round. The final player in is Donald Hogue at +46. They will bowl four games Wednesday starting at 9 a.m. Eastern with all pins carrying forward. Once those games are complete, the top 24 will advance to bracket match play rounds where all pins are dropped. The matches are best two-out-of-three games. Hess admits he is in a good place.
“The four games in the morning are going to be a good test to see what's going to happen,” Hess said. “We’ll see how they transition when you put all the squads together then anything can happen in those matches.”
The top eight players after the Advancers Round will earn a bye. Qualifiers 9-24 will start bowling at 12 p.m. ET. The winners of those matches will face the top eight qualifiers scheduled to start their matches at 2 p.m. followed by the Round of 8 winners at 4 p.m.
Positions one through four will be determined according to their bracket seed number, and the highest seed losing in the Round of 8 will be the No. 5 seed in the stepladder. The finals are set to begin at 6 p.m., and you can watch it all on BowlTV.
Top 10 PBA50 Granville Financial Open standings:
- Tom Hess, 3,276 (+476)
- Brad Angelo, 3,057 (+257)
- Chris Barnes, 3,053 (+253)
- Parker Bohn III, 3,040 (+240)
- Jason Couch, 3,037 (+237)
- Randy Weiss, 3,026 (+226)
- John Janawicz, 3,021 (+221)
- Bobby Hall II, 3,002 (+202)
- Walter Ray Williams Jr., 3,001 (+201)
- Bill Rowe, 2,994 (+194)