Burkett Leads PBA60 Roth Championship, Monacelli Leads PBA60 World Championship
Columbus, Ohio – John Burkett knows how to prepare and gameplan based on his successful Major League Baseball career as a starting pitcher. On Friday, he watched what made Tom Carter successful on to lead B-squad in the 2025 PBA60 Roth Championship. When it was Burkett’s turn to hit the lanes at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl on A-squad, he followed Carter’s example.
“I watched Tom Carter bowl this morning and he basically gave me the roadmap on how to do it by throwing it slow and slow hooking it. I told him I was thinking about how he throws it the whole time and trying to duplicate that,” Burkett said. “It is satisfying to be able to watch somebody do it, copy them, and be able to do it at a decent rate. I was really happy about that.”
Burkett shot 220, 208, 216 221, 266, 191 and 235. It came down to his final shot and Burkett got 7 to tie Carter at 1,767. He immediately turned around and pointed right back at Carter. Burkett earned the No. 1 seed because his highest game of the block was one pin above Carter’s 266 to 265.
“I knew what was going on the last three frames and I almost screwed it up. I love Tom Carter, so I truthfully wanted to tie him,” Burkett said. “The thing I am the happiest about is I have been working on throwing it slow all winter. Not over hitting it and really controlling the ball speed and that was at the forefront today.”
Looking ahead to Saturday’s match play, Burkett hopes to continue to be able to control his ball speed believing that is super important on the 43-foot Roth oil pattern. On Friday, he was able to play pretty deep and didn’t experience a lot of difference pair-to-pair. After the Roth Championship, he will turn his focus to the first-ever PBA60 World Championship.
Ironically, Carter followed the lead of his good friend and fellow tournament host Wayne Webb on making it into match play this week.
“It’s like an out of body experience. I had to go and make sure it was really my name on top. It felt awesome,” Carter said, after leading B-squad. “I was bowling next to Amleto, Parker and Wayne. I was waiting for those guys to go around me after Game 3, especially Wayne.”
Carter owns the pro shop and training center inside Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl. He started his Fourth of July with back-to-back 235 games when a fellow bowler told him he was in first place. There were no games over 240 through the first three games for B-squad until PBA60 Webb Championship winner, Parker Bohn III shot the only 300 of the day in Game 4.
“The motion was right and for me it was my speed. I don’t throw it hard, and I think that was key today,” Carter said, who also qualified for the World Championship.
Carter has endured three knee replacements with the most recent one sidelining him for about 24 weeks. He returned to bowling in January, and he is thrilled to make it to match play on Saturday, while also being able to host this event.
“When I came out this year, I had no expectations. It has been so long since I have bowled without pain and every tournament I have bowled better. My mind is finally realizing it is not going to hurt; nothing hurts, and I am elated,” Carter said. “Having the first PBA60 World Series is awesome. Wayne and I talked about all of the greats that you watched on TV are 60 now. We have the PBA50 World Series but as a 60-year-old, it’s really tough to compete against those young 50-year-olds. Having the first PBA60 and all of those guys here is pretty special.”
Behind Burkett and Carter is Lennie Boresch Jr. at +146 in third, Bohn III at +137 in fourth and Chris Warren at +101 in fifth place. Sam Maccarone doubled in the 10th frame in his final game of qualifying to tie Don Breeden at +30 for the final spot in the Roth Championship. They had a one-game roll-off and Breeden got the win. He will face Burkett.
The top 16 players will advance to bracket match play best-three-out-of-five matches scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Eastern on Saturday with the Round of 8 best-three-out-of-five matches starting at 3 p.m. ET. The four undefeated winners and the highest seeded losing bowler in the Round of 8 will be in the stepladder finals set to start at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
The top 18 overall bowlers after 16 games of qualifying in the Webb and Roth Championship qualified for the PBA60 World Championship. The top 5 are Amleto Monacelli, John Burkett, Parker Bohn III, Don Breeden and Brian LeClair.
All qualifying pins carry over into three match play rounds scheduled to start at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET on Sunday then at 2 p.m. ET on Monday. After the 18 games, the top 5 will compete in the stepladder finals at 6 p.m. ET Monday for the chance to win a major title.
You can watch the entire PBA60 WSOB on BowlTV.
PBA60 Roth Championship Match Play Advancers:
- John Burkett, 1,767 (+167)
- Tom Carter, 1,767 (+167)
- Lennie Boresch Jr., 1,746 (+146)
- Parker Bohn III, 1,737 (+137)
- Chris Warren, 1,701 (+101)
- Dennis Rakauskas, 1,695 (+95)
- Jack Jurek, 1,695 (+95)
- Larry Verble, 1,689 (+89)
- Bo Goergen, 1,678 (+78)
- Amleto Monacelli, 1,676 (+76)
- James Campbell, 1,674 (+74)
- Dana Wright, 1,657 (+57)
- Tom Adcock, 1,649 (+49)
- Mike Dias, 1,648 (+48)
- Bret Cromwell, 1,645 (+45)
- Don Breeden 1,630 (+30)
Full standings - PBA60 Roth Championship
PBA60 World Championship Match Play Advancers:
- Amleto Monacelli, 3,465 (+265)
- John Burkett, 3,440 (+240)
- Parker Bohn III, 3,439 (+239)
- Don Breeden, 3,429 (+229)
- Brian LeClair, 3,420 (+220)
- Lennie Boresch Jr., 3,408 (+208)
- Chris Warren, 3,406 (+206)
- Pete Weber, 3,397 (+197)
- Jack Jurek, 3,376 (+176)
- Larry Verble, 3,373 (+173)
- Wayne Webb, 3,364 (+164)
- Bryan Goebel, 3,352 (+152)
- C K Moore, 3,330 (+130)
- Tom Carter, 3,324 (+124)
- Robert Reed Sr., 3,288 (+88)
- Skip Pavone, 3,288 (+88)
- Sam Maccarone 3,282 (+82)
- Bo Goergen, 3,276 (+76)