Chris Barnes Wins 2025 PBA50 Holman Championship
Jackson, Michigan – Chris Barnes is officially back, and his confidence level is high. After not quite bowling like himself through the majority of the 2025 PBA50 Tour season, he relied on some valuable advice from multiple people to get back on track. He just made his second stepladder finals appearance and earned his second win of the season in the 2025 PBA50 Holman Championship.
Barnes was two shots away from perfection in the championship match on Thursday against fellow PBA and USBC Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli. Barnes picked up a 2-pin in the second frame, and a 10-pin in the ninth frame, while striking the other 10 times for the 259-223 win.
“I needed to put some of the pieces together mentally to believe that I could do it again,” Barnes said. “I am in a really good place and there is nothing like a little adrenaline to get you going.”
Monacelli started with a strike followed by four consecutive spares, before closing out his game with six strikes over his final seven shots. Barnes pointed to a stone-8 by Monacelli in the third frame as a bad break. Barnes also was happy to benefit from some hold he was able to create for himself in the seventh frame.
“Getting to bowl Walter, Pete, Norm, Parker, Amleto and Couch, that is still such a rush. I started later than some of them and I got to watch them on TV for a while before I ever went out,” Barnes said. “I have memories of watching Amleto bowl. Amleto was the EJ (Tackett) of that time as far as what he did, what he could create, the feel and the touch. He is still fantastic.”
Ball rep and fellow PBA50 player Mitch Beasley asked Barnes about the Roto Grip ROCKSTAR ball in his bag prior to his championship round practice shots and Barnes decided to give it a try. It turned out to be a great suggestion.
“It was sitting there, and it wasn’t something I was really going to do until Mitch said something. It created a little more angle in front, and it picked up sooner, which gave me some hold,” Barnes said. “It just takes a village. A lot of really great advice coming from a lot of different places.”
That village includes longtime friends Mark Baker, Mika Koivuniemi, John Janawicz, sons Ryan and Troy, and his wife, Lynda. Today was their 26th wedding anniversary.
“She is in more halls of fame than I am. We knew what we were getting into, which is probably the key to our success. This is not for everyone for sure,” he said. “To be able to lean on each other, for her to be independent enough to run a household and twins on her own is not for the faint of heart. To be able to share her successes, share wins and help out each other occasionally along the way, while having a couple of kids we are proud of, is pretty incredible.”
In the opening match, No. 5 seed Dan Knowlton faced No. 4 seed Larry Verble. Verble, who was competing in his home center at JAX 60, started off with three straight strikes and two spares. Knowlton had three strikes and two spares through five frames. Knowlton added spare, strike and another spare through eight frames.
Verble responded with strike, spare, strike and he covered the 3-6-10 in the ninth frame. Knowlton finished first with another spare. He slowed himself down and rolled three straight strikes on a tough left lane he had only struck on twice before that. Knowlton finished with 218. Needing a double for the win, Verble left the 2-8, picked it up and struck for 215.
All the urethane that went down the lanes in the opening match caused some difficult conditions in the second match. Higher-seed Amleto Monacelli elected to finish on the more favorable right lane. He began with a double followed by a 4-9 split for an open in the third frame. Knowlton, who won his first title in 2023 at JAX 60, rolled a strike, spare and then had an open frame with a 4-6-7 split. He responded with a strike then three straight single-pin spares through seven frames.
Monacelli struck three more times on the right lane yet had two more splits for opens on the left lane trailing in the match. Knowlton left the 4-9 split on the left for an open in the eighth frame. Finishing first, Knowlton had back-to-back spares and got eight for 168. After a mark on the left lane, Monacelli struck two more times on the right lane and got eight for 178 and the win.
In the semifinal match, the strikes returned. Again, the higher seed, this time Jon Rakoski, chose to finish on the right lane. He started out with double, spare, strike and a spare through five frames. Monacelli rolled a strike followed by two spares and a double halfway through the match. He converted the 2-8 combination then Rakoski responded with three straight strikes and a spare through nine. Monacelli rolled six straight strikes for 246 and Rakoski finished with 225.
With the win, Barnes is tied with John Janawicz at eight career PBA50 Tour titles. The friends will now be battling it out in the PBA50 World Championship on Friday and Saturday. Barnes is the No. 1 seed, sitting just 12 pins ahead of Janawicz. Barnes won the inaugural World Championship in 2023.
“This is the event we all came here really to try and win. Mika and I will talk strategies, reset and refocus and have to come out firing on Friday,” Barnes said. “J.J. (John Janawicz) is not going to slow down anytime soon, so I better keep going.”
The top 18 players will bowl two six game blocks of round-robin match play, with bonus pins, starting at 9 a.m. ET then at 2 p.m. on Friday. The final six games will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday to determine the top five bowlers for the stepladder finals at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The winner will earn a major championship title and the $25,000 first-place check. You can watch the conclusion of the World Series of Bowling III on BowlTV.
PBA50 Holman Championship Final Standings:
- Chris Barnes, $5,000
- Amleto Monacelli, $2,500
- Jon Rakoski, $2,000
- Dan Knowlton, $1,750
- Larry Verble, $1,500
MATCH SCORES:
Match 1: Knowlton def. Verble 218-215
Match 2: Monacelli def. Knowlton 178-168
Match 3: Monacelli def. Rakoski 246-225
Championship match: Barnes def. Monacelli 259-223
Final standings - PBA50 Holman Championship
PBA50 World Championship Advancers:
- Chris Barnes, 7,369 (+969)
- John Janawicz, 7,357 (+957)
- Mark Clark, 7,306 (+906)
- Tom Daugherty, 7,266 (+866)
- Brian LeClair, 7,180 (+780)
- Larry Verble, 7,168 (+768)
- Ron Hurt, 7,101 (+701)
- Jon Rakoski, 7,044 (+644)
- Randy Weiss, 7,030 (+630)
- Tom Hess, 7,011 (+611)
- James Krafft, 7,006 (+606)
- Dan Knowlton, 7,006 (+606)
- Clint Dacy, 7,004 (+604)
- Pete Weber, 6,994 (+594)
- Brad Angelo, 6,987 (+587)
- Mika Koivuniemi, 6,980 (+580)
- Mario Quintero, 6,951 (+551)
- Tom Adcock, 6,937 (+537)
More information on the WSOB III is available here.