Tom Hess On Top at PBA50 Johnny Petraglia BVL Open
Clearwater, Florida – Tom Hess began his week at the 2024 PBA50 Johnny Petraglia BVL Open with a special moment. Petraglia invited Hess to join him, Amleto Monacelli, Parker Bohn III and Walter Ray Williams Jr. in a one-game baker match prior to Sunday’s Pro-Am. Each of the pros partnered with a veteran representing different branches of the United States Armed Forces. Hess teamed up with a Navy veteran named Bill Kragel and they won.
“For Johnny to ask me to be part of that was incredible. I think that Johnny and Parker are 1 and 1a as ambassadors of our sport,” Hess said. “It was an honor to join those four other pros and do that for veterans. My veteran plays horseshoes with Walter (Ray Williams) all the time.”
On Tuesday, Hess climbed from fifth to first after his final seven games of qualifying, posting a total of 1,711 the same score as Bohn III did to take the lead on Monday. After rolling a 279 to close out his first block, Hess thought he had a really good picture of where the lanes were going to play during the final qualifying round. He drilled a new ball and used it the final five games, ending with another 279 game.
“I was playing the right part of the lane, and I was getting the off hits,” Hess said. “The people that can figure out how to get the off hits are the ones that are going to be at the top of the leaderboard. Now, I am just going to keep my foot on the accelerator and get as big of a lead as I can because the No. 1 seed with our format is so important.”
Chris Warren currently sits in third place behind Bohn III. He feels he always bowls better on the longer oil patterns, so he was confident attacking this week’s 46-foot Petraglia pattern. He was excited to compete in a tournament with Petraglia’s name as well as Bowlers to Veterans Link (BVL) associated with it.
“He got me my first contract with Brunswick back in 1985. I was just a young upcoming guy like Parker,” Warren said. “BVL is such a great organization for veterans. My brother, Butch, was in Vietnam like Johnny was. Our freedom came at a price, and it came at a price at what these veterans gave, so this means a lot.”
Chris Barnes made a big move from 44th to fourth thanks to a 300 game and a 1,755 seven-game block. Anthony Crews and Brian Fitzmaurice also rolled perfect games and made the cut. The final player to make the cut was Jason Couch at +221.
The top 46 players will bowl four games in the Advancers Round starting at 9 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday. The top 24 will then advance to bracket match play best two-out-of-three games, where all pins will be dropped. The top eight bowlers earn a bye, while qualifiers 9 through 24 will begin their matches at 12:30 p.m. ET.
The winners of those matches and the top eight bowlers will start the Round of 16 at 2:30 p.m. followed by the Round of 8 scheduled to start at 4:45 p.m. The top four winners will be in the stepladder finals along with the highest seed to lose in the Round of 8.
The stepladder will start at 7 p.m. and you can watch it all only on BowlTV.
Top 10 PBA50 Johnny Petraglia BVL Open standings:
- Tom Hess, 3,394 (+594)
- Parker Bohn III, 3,313 (+513)
- Chris Warren, 3,308 (+508)
- Chris Barnes 3,276 (+ 476)
- Brad Angelo, 3,257 (+457)
- Jack Jurek, 3,239 (+439)
- Don Breeden, 3,236 (+436)
- Bill Rowe, 3,232 (+432)
- David Leverage, 3,219 (+419)
- Ricky Schissler, 3,216 (+416)