July 12, 2023 Jill Winters

Hammond, Indiana – There was some movement at the top of the leaderboard Wednesday at the PBA50 South Shore Classic, and now there is another lefty sitting in the top spot after qualifying.

USBC and PBA Hall of Famer Jason Couch averaged 246.14 for seven games inside Olympia Lanes to take the lead. He had games of 225, 269, 213, 215, 234, 278 and 279 for 1,723. He is now sitting at 3,365, followed by John Verbich, Andrew Rettig, John Janawicz and Michael Hartter, who led after day one.

After “struggling” in games three and four, Couch felt like he was missing something and noticed he had gotten firmer, so he moved up on the approach and just piled on the strikes from there. He has relied on his Purple Hammer Reactive, Radical Counter Attack, and Radical Bonus Solid throughout qualifying. He is feeling better about where his game is at after a disappointing 63rd place finish at the Senior U.S. Open last month.

“I bowled absolutely terrible at the U.S. Open, so I pulled Mike Dias aside,” Couch said. “He gave me a couple of ideas. During the 10-day break, I worked on it, and it feels better this week.”

After bowling on the burn Tuesday and having to get his ball through the front part of the lane, he knew coming into Wednesday bowling on the fresh oil it would be his better block. He is still recovering from a knee repairment in December, but admits the pain is nothing compared to what he was dealing with this time last year.

Looking forward to Thursday, Couch’s plan of attack is to take it one frame at a time, not get ahead of himself, and just keep his positive momentum going.

After 14 games of qualifying, the final player to make it into the cut was Eugene McCune at 3,011.

The advancers round will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Thursday. The field of 44 remaining players will bowl five games then the top 24 players will advance to match play, all qualifying pins will then be dropped. Those matches will consist of three-game sets with the overall total pin winners moving forward.

Qualifiers 9-24 will begin at 1:30 p.m. ET. Matches will continue until the top five players remain and the stepladder finals will start at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. You can watch all of the action on BowlTV.com.

Top 10 PBA50 South Shore Classic standings:

  1. Jason Couch 3,365 (+565)
  2. John Verbich 3,360 (+560)
  3. Andrew Rettig 3,330 (+530)
  4. John Janawicz 3,321 (+521)
  5. Michael Hartter 3,318 (+518)
  6. Warren Eales 3,264 (+464)
  7. Tom Hess 3,258 (+458)
  8. John Marsala 3,245(+445)
  9. Michael Haggitt 3,237 (+437)
  10. Mike Dias 3,230 (+430)

More information is available here: PBA50 South Shore Classic | PBA

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