Jason Couch Leading PBA50 The Villages Classic
The Villages, Florida – There was plenty of movement on the leaderboard Monday during the final six games of qualifying at the 2025 PBA50 The Villages Classic. After 18 games of qualifying, the two players that bowled in the championship match of last year’s tournament are now in first and second place.
Defending champion Parker Bohn III rolled games of 203, 249, 300, 247, 279 and 269 to take over the lead from Tom Adcock by just one pin at +629. Bohn III averaged 257.83 to jump from 19th in the standings to second. His only open frame was in the first frame of his first game of the day. He was then clean over his next 59 frames.
“I bowled 300 fortunately then 247 and the next game I have the front nine. Holy smokes, the last four games I got a lot of score there," he said. “I want to continue to make my next shot better than my last shot. That is regardless of how good the last shot was. If you make solid passes at it hopefully you have got an opportunity to get rewarded if you have the right ball in your hand. Obviously by all means today, I had the right ball in my hand.”
Bohn’s lead didn’t hold for long as fellow left-hander and the player he defeated last year, Jason Couch averaged 244.5 to move from fifth to first at +645. Couch admits he pays attention to the cut line number instead of the leader’s total to get a feel for where he is amongst the field, so he was unaware he moved past his good friend.
“He deserves to be right below me,” Couch joked. “The majority of my moves this week have been speed adjustments and that has been key. That is what I am really concentrating on.”
All week Couch has been able to sleep in his own bed and make the hour-long drive to Spanish Springs Lanes. He also had his wife and dad there watching as he rose to the top inside a bowling center he is comfortable in.
“It means a lot to have them both here because they don’t get to see me bowl much,” he said. “I try really hard to bowl good here. My ball has always rolled really well here. I won the 2001 event here on the PBA Tour, so I have always really done well here.”
He plans to bowl aggressively on Tuesday with the mindset he is on the cut line. When asked if he is aiming to replicate a home center type win this week like Jon Rakoski did last week at the Fort Myers Classic, Couch had a quick response. “Let’s make it two-in-a-row,” he said.
The biggest jump of the day belonged to PBA50 rookie Tom Daugherty who went +348 on the day to climb from 47th to fourth place. Daugherty had games of 266, 244, 278, 238, 243 and 279 in just his second senior tour event. Day two leader Tom Adcock started out on the fresh 37-foot oil pattern finishing well below his first two blocks with an 18-game total of +628.
“I think a lot of it was more me than the conditions themselves. I wasn’t as aggressive. I almost felt like to a degree I was trying to play overly cautious as opposed to going after the attack,” Adcock said. “The last two or three games I got back to feeling like I was throwing the ball good and getting after it. All of us have to bowl on the fresh next, so maybe I can learn a little something from my playmates that I didn’t see today.”
There has been a lot of urethane going down the lanes, but Adcock doesn’t feel that is part of his game. He admits it is something he has to work on. After 18 games of qualifying, Michael Zarnick, a resident of The Villages, was the final player to make the cut in 60th place at +244.
The Advancers Round begins at 9 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday with all 60 bowlers. From there, all pins will be dropped as the top 24 move into bracket match play. In the Round of 24, qualifiers 9-24 will begin the best-of-three matches at 12:30 p.m. Winners of those matches and qualifiers 1-8 will move to the Round of 16 starting at 2:30 p.m. followed by the Round of 8 with the remaining winners at 5 p.m.
The final four unbeaten players and the highest eliminated qualifier in the Round of 8 will be in the stepladder finals scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Watch the final day of action on BowlTV.
Top 10 PBA50 The Villages Classic standings:
- Jason Couch, 4,245
- Parker Bohn III, 4,229
- Tom Adcock, 4,228
- Tom Daugherty, 4,161
- Brad Angelo, 4,133
- Bill Watson, 4,126
- John Janawicz, 4,125
- Paul Koehler, 4,124
- Francisco Peralta, 4,105
- Russell Hunt, 4,102