James Campbell Leads Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship
Sterling, Virginia – James Campbell has been inspired by the five first-time PBA50 Tour winners this season, and he hopes to join the club.
On Monday, he put himself in a good position after eight games of qualifying at the 2023 Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship.
His mindset for the first couple of games inside Bowl America Dranesville was to control the pocket. He did just that and more with games of 227, 224, 233, 257, 242, 233, 244 and 218 for 1,878, an average of 234.75. He is in first place ahead of Pete Weber, Peter Ferraro, Bobby Hall II and Brad Angelo.
“I had a really good look on my ball progressions, made good choices and I executed really well,” the 59-year-old said about using two balls all day.
Campbell credits his 22nd place finish at last week’s PBA50 Morgantown Classic and his day one success to advice he received from Parker Bohn III and good friend, Tom Milton.
“They saw in some videos that I was way too upright at the foul line, so I wasn’t executing,” Campbell said. “I really worked on it last week and made the cut. That was a big stepping stone.”
The tall right-hander is ready to take the next step in his bowling career. It was just over a year ago when Campbell had his best PBA50 finish coming in second to Bohn III at the 2022 PBA50 Spectrum Lanes Open. He admits he didn’t make enough good shots in the title match, which Bohn III won 265-216.
The stepladder finals for that event took place in a different section of the Spectrum Entertainment Complex than where the rest of qualifying took place and Campbell struggled.
This week’s major tournament will also see the stepladder finals move to another site, the home of Bill Moore. It’s early, but just maybe, Campbell will have another opportunity to be in the championship match and become another first-time winner.
Round 2 of qualifying will get started with B-squad at 9 a.m. ET followed the A-squad at 3 p.m on Tuesday. The top 24 players will advance with all pins carrying forward to Wednesday and Thursday’s two days of match play.
The stepladder finals for this major championship will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday.
You can watch all of the action on BowlTV.
Top 10 Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship standings:
- James Campbell, 1,878 (+278)
- Pete Weber, 1863 (+263)
- Peter Ferraro, 1,859 (+259)
- Bobby Hall II, 1,837 (+237)
- Brad Angelo, 1,835 (+235)
- Gregory Turner, 1,833 (+233)
- Ryan Shafer, 1,828 (+228)
- Jeff Johnson, 1,826 (+226)
- Bryan Pogor, 1,821 (+221)
- Tom Hess, 1,819 (+219)