John Janawicz Increases Lead at Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship
Woodbridge, Virginia – After 12 games of qualifying at the 2025 Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship, the only two players with no games under 200 are at the top of the leaderboard, defending champion John Janawicz and Michael Haugen Jr.
Janawicz padded his lead on Sunday rolling games of 255, 225, 257, 269, 206 and 254, averaging 244.33 on the day. He holds a 128-pin lead over second place after going +603 for two days. He didn’t like his look during practice until his final two shots when he finally got lined up.
“I think I was a lot deeper than most everybody else, so I wasn’t in as much of the traffic. I didn’t see as much change and that helped,” Janawicz said. “Overall, it was a very good day of bowling. I made a lot of good decisions and executed.”
Game 5 was a bit of a struggle, yet he was able to throw five straight strikes in the end to bail it out, which set him up for a strong finish.
“That was a big deal to me. I took a guess using a ball I had used on previous fill balls. Fortunately, I went off the sheet,” he said. “I really thought with the look I had I could have shot 300 the last game then I had a blower 7-10. I parlayed that into 254, so that worked out pretty well.”
Michael Haugen Jr. shot 242, 233, 255, 234, 257 and 203 to get to +475 overall.
“By the time we got on the lanes, they were almost broken down as much as last night. Yesterday, I had a little more miss right to still carry, yet today I did not have that,” Haugen Jr. said. “I used the same two balls and played them almost the same way both days.”
Haugen Jr. hasn’t won a PBA50 Tour title since 2018. He came into this year with a different mindset. He is putting no expectations on himself, which has already led to positive results. He finished 11th in the Fort Myers Classic and 15th in The Villages Classic.
“By bowling and not putting any pressure on the results, I think it has made it easier to bowl well. I am having a great time,” he said. “For the last 27 years, I have been competing against these same guys. It is fun to be competitive again for sure.”
Haugen Jr. knows he will need a new game plan bowling on the fresh 44-foot Hardwick oil pattern Monday morning. He will see what the lanes give him, trust his reads and hope the pins keep falling down.
Amleto Monacelli is in third place. While at the last tournament in The Villages, Florida, Monacelli was dealing with lower back/hip area pain. He went home for a few days and figured out the pain was a result of a movement he was making during the last step in his approach. He made the right adjustment in his delivery feeling more comfortable on the lanes. He made a run at 300 on Sunday with a 277 game.
“I am feeling the ball in my hand unbelievable now throwing the ball so good. I am working so hard not to feel the pain, so it makes me see and feel what I need to do,” Monacelli said. “It is giving me confidence in what I am doing with my physical game.”
Tom Hess averaged 243.33 Sunday to move into fourth place and Tom Adcock is in fifth at +360. The final six-games of qualifying will begin with C-squad starting at 9 a.m. Eastern on Monday followed by A-squad at 12:30 p.m. and finally B-squad at 4 p.m. Once qualifying is complete, the top 24 bowlers will move into 24-games of round-robin match-play on Tuesday and Wednesday with all pins carrying over. You can watch the final day of qualifying on BowlTV.
Also on Sunday, the 2024 PBA50 Tour award winners were recognized during a special ceremony. Donald Hogue received the Dick Weber Sportsmanship Award. Walter Ray Williams Jr. received the PBA60 Player of the Year Award. Randy Weiss got his PBA50 Rookie of the Year Award, and John Janawicz collected his 2024 PBA50 Player of the Year Award.
“It means the world to me, especially as someone who never bowled the regular tour. To be able to win Player of the Year on the senior tour to me is a dream come true. Very humbling to be able to win this award,” Janawicz said.
Top 10 Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship standings:
- John Janawicz, 3,003 (+603)
- Michael Haugen Jr., 2,875 (+475)
- Amleto Monacelli, 2,832 (+432)
- Tom Hess, 2,812 (+412)
- Tom Adcock, 2,760 (+360)
- Dino Castillo, 2,744 (+344)
- Brian LeClair, 2,717 (+317)
- Mario Quintero, 2,716 (+316)
- Mika Koivuniemi, 2,712 (+312)
- Tom Daugherty, 2,706 (+306)