Pete Weber Leads Qualifying At PBA60 Webb Championship
Columbus, Ohio – The inaugural Wayne Webb's PBA60 World Series of Bowling kicked off on Wednesday with the PBA60 Webb Championship. The first event of the week is named after Webb, the tournament host, and held appropriately at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl.
Leading the way is 14-time PBA50 champion Pete Weber, who is seeking his first PBA60 title. Weber averaged 230.25 with games of 252, 277, 198, 226, 198, 236, 224 and 231 to get to +242. He didn’t have to move his feet much and he was quick to make a change as soon as his ball didn’t go through the pins the correct way, which he said was key. He relied on three balls all day.
Weber, who has made three stepladder finals already this season, continues to feel comfortable on the lanes but we just might see him sporting something familiar on Thursday.
“I cut my finger open today but I have my glove with me, so I am probably going to put my glove on tomorrow when I bowl to protect my finger from cutting anymore,” he said. “When I threw it good, it didn’t hurt. When I threw it bad, it hurt. Hopefully tomorrow, the glove will help me out. It has been a year since I stopped using the glove. There are people who didn’t even notice but they will notice when I put it back on.”
The last PBA60 tournament held at this bowling center was the Tristan’s T.A.P.S. Memorial Open last July. At that event, Weber finished in third place, and he loves being at Webb’s bowling center.
“Wayne is an excellent host. He feeds us every day, and he makes sure to have volunteers to help us with the scores and everything else,” Weber said. “I have bowled good all three years I have bowled here, so I like this house.”
Bowling on the 37-foot Webb oil pattern, Wayne Webb consistently shot 236, 223, 201, 243, 233, 236, 223 and 244 to get to +239, just three pins behind Weber. Webb had a lot of support behind him while he was competing, and he drew large cheers when he converted the 7-10 split in game six.
Brian LeClair rolled a 299 in his final game, which was the highest of the day for any bowler, to move into third place at +217. He is followed by Don Breeden at +199 and Amleto Monacelli is in fifth at +189. The final player to make the cut was Robert Lawrence at +92.
Next up, the top 16 players will advance to bracket match play best-of-five matches scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Eastern on Thursday with the Round of 8 best-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 Thursday.
Looking ahead, the PBA60 Roth Championship will include eight games of qualifying on a 43-foot oil pattern. The B-squad will begin at 9 a.m. ET on Friday and the A-squad at 4 p.m. Bracket match play and the finals will all be on Saturday.
The top 18 overall bowlers after 16 games of qualifying across the Webb and Roth Championship will advance to the PBA60 World Championship. All qualifying pins carry over into match play rounds scheduled to start at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday. Overall, three PBA60 titles are available this week. You can watch the entire PBA60 WSOB on BowlTV.
PBA60 Webb Championship Match Play Advancers:
- Pete Weber, 1,842 (+242)
- Wayne Webb, 1,839 (+239)
- Brian LeClair, 1,817 (+217)
- Don Breeden, 1,799 (+199)
- Amleto Monacelli, 1,789 (+189)
- Sammy Ventura, 1,788 (+188)
- C K Moore, 1,785 (+185)
- David Rosenburg, 1,776 (+176)
- Joe Losurdo, 1,760 (+160)
- Bryan Goebel, 1,759 (+159)
- Rick Woloszyn, 1,733 (+133)
- Glenn Morgan Smith, 1,732 (+132)
- Chris Warren, 1,705 (+105)
- Parker Bohn III, 1,702 (+102)
- Skip Pavone, 1,695 (+95)
- Robert Lawrence, 1,692 (+92)