Chris Barnes Maintains Lead at PBA50 World Championship
Jackson, Michigan – Chris Barnes is no stranger to the mental and physical challenge of competing in a World Series of Bowling having done so on the PBA Tour. He sees that as an advantage, and he is relying on that experience to keep his name at the top of the leaderboard at the first-ever PBA50 World Series of Bowling.
On Saturday morning in the advancers round, he crossed with Pete Weber and John Janawicz as they got their first look at the 45-foot Dick Weber oil pattern.
“Through practice they felt like they were going to be pretty soft and high scoring, and when we started, one lane kind of changed,” Barnes said. “The three of us combined for about 600 even. They changed pretty significantly toward the end of practice and through Game 2.”
Barnes was able to maintain his lead averaging 226.5. Going into the first round of round-robin match play he came in with a different game plan and averaged 225.5, posting a 4-2 match-play record. In his last game, he converted the 6-7-10 and the 7-10 followed by a five-bagger for 234.
“There are a lot of ups and downs,” the four-time PBA50 titleist said. “You have to win matches but if you score 225 to 230 on this pattern, you’re going to win more on this pattern than you lose for sure.”
He is focused on having a better game plan for the final 12 games of round-robin match play. And if he can execute when the transition hits, he likes his chances of making back-to-back championship match appearances.
Barnes has a 47-pin lead over Janawicz. Brad Angelo is in third followed by Ryan Shafer and Tom Hess, who won the PBA50 Petraglia Championship on Friday. Each player receives 30 bonus pins for a match-play win.
Jack Jurek was the final player to make the cut after the advancers round, and he rolled a 300 in the first game of match play. Jon Rakoski, who has bowled two other perfect games during the WSOB, had a 300 in the second game.
The remaining 18 bowlers will begin their second round of match paly at 9 a.m. ET on Sunday and the final six games in Round 3 will start at 2 p.m.
The top five will advance to the stepladder finals scheduled to start at 6 p.m. The winner will receive $25,000 and a major title to add to their career achievements. You can watch all of the action on BowlTV.
PBA50 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (with bonus pins):
- Chris Barnes, 8,422 (+1,222)
- John Janawicz, 8,375 (+1,175)
- Brad Angelo, 8,297 (+1,097)
- Ryan Shafer, 8,269 (+1,069)
- Tom Hess, 8,264 (+1,064)
- Troy Lint, 8,202 (+1,002)
- Pete Weber, 8,196 (+ 996)
- Jon Rakoski, 8,177 (+977)
- Dino Castillo, 8,004 (+804)
- Tony Lanning, 7,936 (+736)
- Jack Jurek, 7,886 (+686)
- Tom Adcock, 7,884 (+684)
- Paul Fleming, 7,830 (+630)
- Chuck Richey Jr., 7,829 (+629)
- Lennie Boresch Jr., 7,785 (+585)
- Walter Ray Williams Jr., 7,710 (+510)
- Ron Mohr, 7,696 (+496)
- Dan Knowlton, 7,664 (+464)
Follow the PBA50 World Championship here.
More information on the PBA50 WSOB is available here.