March 24, 2022 Chase Kaufman

North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, and Oregon were the four states of choice to host PBA regional events over the past couple of weeks as bowlers continued their trek to South Point for the 2022 Regional Players Invitational. Plenty of action transpired at the six events across the U.S. and plenty of points were given out to the top players in each tournament.

SOUTH REGION

PBA50 Lafayette Lanes Fayetteville Open
About an hour's drive separates Fayetteville, North Carolina and the South Carolina border, so it made sense for the leaderboard to be littered with Carolinians. Over half the field arose from North or South Carolina, but after eight games of bowling and the field cut to 32, just 13 Carolinians remained and Jeff Bellinger, a Carolinian himself, led the field at +199.

Throughout the rest of the tournament, pins rolled over and the field continued to split in half after each set. After a few games bowled in each round the cut number increased every time. First from -14 to +90 and then to +131 and when the top eight bowlers remained, the number jumped from +131 to just +141. After 17 games of hard-fought bowling, Victor Florie, Jr., Jeff Keller, Peter Dohan Jr., and Greg McMahan became the final four competitors. Each bowled two more games before cutting the field down to two bowlers. In the said round, McMahan made a strong attempt to move onto the finals, but his 472 wasn’t enough as Keller held him off with a 423 to move on by just 11 pins. The issue though, is that Florie Jr. had built himself an insurmountable lead. Florie Jr. hit for a huge 506 in round three and a 470 in round four so he now led Keller by 122 pins with just one game to go and unsurprisingly Keller wasn’t able to make up the deficit. Florie finished with a 231 to complete his tournament at +379 to Keller’s +225. Along with notching his first PBA Regional title, Florie Jr. earned $2,000 and 2,500 points for his performance and now sits in second place in the PBA50 South Region standings.

PBA50 Lafayette Lanes Fayetteville Open Final Standings

  1. Victor Florie Jr. 2,500 points, $2,000
  2. Jeff Keller, 1,500, $1,500
  3. Greg McMahan, 1,150, $1,000
  4. Peter Dohan Jr. 950, $1,000

PBA50 South Region Points Leaders

  1. Michael Painter, 2,688
  2. Victor Florie Jr., 2,500
  3. Greg McMahan, 1,925
  4. Terry Wiley, 1,725
  5. Chris Johnson, 1,545

View the PBA50 South Region Points Standings

CENTRAL/MIDWEST REGION

PBA50 Greater Jasper Central/Midwest Open
The Jasper Open held a smaller field than usual, but by no means was the Jasper Open short on familiar names. After eight games of qualifying, the top 12 advanced to match play with Parker Bohn III at the head of the pack.

Bohn averaged 234 for his set to go +277 while Danny Clark emerged at the cut line at +24. Also in the mix to grab a senior title included Tom Adcock in second, John Marsala in third, Eugene McCune in fourth, and Neil Kassel in fifth. With plenty of action to go the next day, it was anyone’s tournament to win. But 11 games of match play later, Bohn stayed on top. In fact, he stayed on top without losing a game. His smallest win was by 13 pins and he won eight of his eleven matches by over 30 pins.

Going into position round with a 209-pin lead, the only thing left on the Hall of Famer’s mind was to finish out the day undefeated. However, in the position round, Bohn finally fell victim to McCune, 246-238. Nonetheless, Bohn earned his second PBA50 Regional title of the season, 14th career PBA50 Regional title, and 36th PBA Regional title overall. The lefty maintained his points lead in the Central Region and briefly took the lead in the Midwest Region.

PBA50 Greater Jasper Central/Midwest Open Final Standings

  1. Parker Bohn III, 2,500 points, $1,700
  2. Eugene McCune, 1,500, $1,100
  3. Tom Adcock, 1,150, $925
  4. John Marsala, 950, $775
  5. Lennie Boresch, Jr. 850, $700

PBA50 Central Region Points Leaders

  1. Parker Bohn III, 5,565
  2. Michael Haggitt, 3,345
  3. Tom Adcock, 2,710
  4. Tom Hess, 2,650
  5. Eugene McCune, 2,640

View the PBA50 Central Region Points Standings

MIDWEST REGION

PBA50 Four Seasons Property Management Midwest Ozark Open
Just this past weekend, the players hit the lanes bright and early at 9 a.m. in Osage Beach, Missouri for eight games of qualifying on the Johnny Petraglia pattern. The top eight bowlers advanced to match play the next day and while positions 3-8 averaged anywhere from 226-232, it was the top two bowlers who put on a show for the Missourians.

Tom Hess led the field at +404, averaging a shade over 250 for his eight-game block and Tom Adcock sat closely behind finishing at +398. After match play wrapped up on Sunday, Hess and Adcock maintained their first- and second-place positions, but not without a charge from Mitch Beasley who led just before position round. Beasley dropped from first to third, while David Rosenburg grabbed the final spot. After falling two spots in the final game of match play, Beasley was poised to reclaim first place and that’s exactly what he did. Thanks to a five-bagger late in the game after a couple of miscues from Rosenburg in the 7th and 8th frame, the Tennessee native advanced to the semifinals, winning 215-193.

In match No. 2, Beasley once again struck when he needed it most, grabbing the first strike in the ninth and all three in the 10th to move onto the finals, 217-202. Next up was Tom Hess who went into the match looking for his first ever PBA50 Regional title and 13th overall while Beasley searched for his second PBA50 Regional title and 21st overall.

Both bowlers got off to slow starts when Beasley left back-to-back 3-6-9-10s and missed both while Hess left the Greek church in the second frame. However, both competitors found their stride in frames 4-9 filling all of them with X’s. In the 10th frame though, Hess’ hopes were drained when he left a 7-10 split. Beasley just needed to mark in the tenth but instead struck out to win the match 256-222.

PBA50 Four Seasons Property Management Midwest Ozark Open Final Standings

  1. Mitch Beasley, 2,500 points, $2,500
  2. Tom Hess, 1,500, $1,500
  3. Tom Adcock 1,150, $1,000
  4. David Rosenburg 950, $900

PBA50 Midwest Region Points Leaders

  1. Mitch Beasley, 3,275
  2. Tom Hess, 3,000
  3. Parker Bohn III, 2,500
  4. Tom Adcock, 1,865
  5. Eugene McCune, 1,285

View the PBA50 Midwest Region Points Standings

WEST/NORTHWEST REGION

PBA Women’s Caveman Bowl Open
Running concurrently with the PBA50 Caveman Bowl Classic and the PBA Rogue River Open, the Women’s Caveman Bowl Open began at 7 p.m. where competitors bowled six games and the top eight bowlers got to have more fun on Sunday. The only two to go plus for the six games included Valentina Cruz and Jill Creamer who tied for the lead at 1,208.

Bowling in her home city of Grants Pass, Oregon, Debbie Baerman snagged the final spot at -134. All eight ladies came back the next day to bowl round-robin match play with a position round game at the end. Valentina Cruz of Colombia went 4-3 in her matches to stay on top after seven games while Kristen Quah of Singapore stormed from seventh to second by averaging 212 and going 5-1-1. Sitting just seven pins back of first place, Quah just needed a win over Cruz to take the title but in a tight match where both bowlers found a string of strikes, Cruz conquered, winning 236-224.

PBA Women’s Caveman Bowl Open Final Standings

  1. Valentina Cruz, $1,100
  2. Kristen Quah, $600
  3. Catherine Rawsthorne, $550
  4. Jill Creamer, $500

PBA50 Caveman Bowl Classic
Also on the Earl Anthony pattern, the West Region got back in action at the same house. Hailing from the host city and owner of the house’s pro shop, Chris Warren took the lead after eight games of qualifying, shooting 1,782, making him one of eight bowlers to go plus for the day.

The next morning though, Warren’s lead over second place shrunk from 67 pins to four after the cashers-round games thanks to Joe Petrovich averaging 239 for the set. In match play, Warren struggled for his first three games, failing to hit 200 in any of them. However, Warren ended up winning his next four games to put himself back into the leader spot going into position round.

Also putting up some impressive scores included David Leverage who found himself in second after the seven games of match play. After just defeating Leverage in game seven, 226-190, Warren faced him once again for the eighth and final game, but this time with a 59-pin lead. The righty triumphed, taking the game 234-219 to earn his 57th regional title and 10th PBA50 Regional title.

PBA50 Caveman Bowl Classic Final Standings

  1. Chris Warren, 2,500 points, $1,800
  2. David Leverage, 1,500, $1,100
  3. Kevin Croucher, 1,150, $950
  4. Mitchell Vernon, 950, $800
  5. Eric Adolphson, 850, $750

PBA50 West Region Points Leaders

  1. David Leverage, 2,750 points
  2. Rick Meneley, 2,500
  3. Ron Mohr, 2,500
  4. Chris Warren, 2,500
  5. Warren Eales, 2,300

View the PBA50 West Region Points Leaders

PBA Rogue River Open
At the PBA Rogue River Open, all those who finished plus made the cut, and all those who finished minus did not. A 201 average was the score to beat for extra bowling the next day, set by Timothy Kashmier in 16th place. Only one bowler averaged 230 or higher and that was 14-time regional titlist PJ Haggerty of Roseville, California.

A little over 12 hours later, Haggerty stayed on top after a four-game cashers round set eliminated half of the 16 bowlers while everyone else moved on to bowl an eight-game match play round. Haggerty started the day bowling against Christopher Tuholski where he dropped the first game 268-214 to fall out of first place. That would be short-lived though as Haggerty jumped back on top with a 255 and a win in the next game and never looked back. A top-10 finisher at the 2021 RPI Finals, Haggerty completed his day at +700 overall, 157 pins over 2nd place. The win for Haggerty moves him from 14 to 15 regional titles and leaves him $2,000 richer.

PBA Rogue River Open Final Standings

  1. PJ Haggerty, 2,500 points, $2,000
  2. Christopher Tuholski, 1,500, $1,300
  3. Ramsey Basurto, 1,150, $1,100
  4. Chad Lusche, 950, $900
  5. Evan Nash, 850, $850

PBA Northwest Points Leaders

  1. PJ Haggerty, 2,500 points
  2. Christopher Tuholski, 1,500
  3. Ramsey Basurto, 1,150
  4. Chad Lusche, 950
  5. Evan Nash, 850

View the PBA Northwest Region Points Leaders

 

In the pipeline wait four events in four different regions across the U.S.: The PBA50 Liberty Lanes Midwest/Central Open in Illinois, PBA50 Crystal Lanes Open in New York, PBA50 Sherry Bodkins Memorial Central Open in Ohio, and PBA50 Century Lanes/PBA Booster Club of Hampton Roads Open in Virginia. These tournaments headline a busy April and May where 28 PBA and PBA50 Regional events will occur as bowlers continue racking up points for the 2022 RPI in Las Vegas. You can find the full slate of events right here.