By Darrin Hill
TOLEDO -- A long season full of change winds down as the bowlers on the PBA Tour will be crowning a new world champion in Toledo on Sunday. Led by Comissioner Ian Hamilton and President/CEO Steve Miller, the PBA Tour has injected some fresh blood and more money into this 43-year-old organization. But, after a year and a half in this position, Hamilton announced that he would be stepping down to be executive producer for the PBA Tour telecasts on ESPN.
"We have made great strides in fixing some of the problems with the PBA Tour," said Hamilton. "My stepping down as commissioner will allow me to focus more on the PBA TV product while not having to move my family to Seattle. We have a great deal with ESPN. With a steady climb in ratings, fans around the country are turning to ESPN to watch the best bowlers in the world perform. Even on Super Bowl Sunday."
The prize fund increased 139%. With a first place check going from $25,000 to $120,000, the number of bowlers entering this year's tournament more than doubled. Out of 284 bowlers, 26 of them are from Michigan. Most of them struggled. Michigan's two best finishers were Chris Sand of Chesterfield and Brian Hatcher of DeWitt. Both reached the round of 32 match play competition. Sand was eliminated by Doug Kent in four straight games and Hatcher lost to Steve Jaros 4 games to 3 in the best of 7 series.
The PBA changed the title of this yearly event from the PBA National Championship to the World Championship to acknowledge the international bowlers particapating in it. Bowlers from France, Korea, Mexico, Finland, Venezuela traveled to Toledo this week shooting at that huge first place check.
The race for the PBA player of the year that was heated when the week began, cooled off rather quickly when three of the top five contenders didn't reach match play. The number one bowler in the world, Parker Bohn III, finished in 89th. The other two contenders, Jason Couch and Ricky Ward, finished in 94th and 116th respectively. The 13th seed, Pete Weber, ended his 2001-2002 season losing to Tommy Delutz, Jr. 3 games to 2 in the round of 16 match play. The last of the player of the year contenders, defending champ Walter Ray Williams Jr., was ousted in five games by the sixth seed Rick Steelsmith. Steelsmith bowled a 300 game in the final game to move on to the round of 8.
The round of 16 match play were filled with excitment and drama. Top seed Brian Voss beat Bryan Goebel, 3-1, Dave Arnold lost to Tom Baker, 3-1, Lonnie Wallczek beat Dave Husted, 3-2, ESPN color analyst Randy Pedersen upset second seed Jim Tomek, Jr., 3-1, Robert Smith lost to Doug Kent, 3-2, and third seed Steve Jaros beat Bob Learn Jr., 3-2. The matches in the round of 8: Voss vs. Baker, Wallczek vs. Delutz, Jr., Pederson vs. Kent, and Steelsmith vs. Jaros. The winners of those matches will bowl in the semi finals matches to be televised on ESPN Sunday from 12:30pm-2pm.
Darrin Hill is a free-lance writer, and the publisher/editor-in-chief of Motor City Bowling News. He can be contacted at: motorcitybowling@hotmail.com.
