Don Sylvia, a senior tour rookie, defeated Gary Hiday in two games Tuesday to win the PBA Senior Manassas (Va.) Open.
Sylvia defeated Hiday 224-179 and 203-182 for his first senior title and $8,000. Hiday collected $4,500. The last player to win a senior title as a rookie was Clearwater's Mark Roth in 2001, who won rookie honors that season.
Sylvia beat two-time senior player of the year Bob Glass in the semifinals and Hiday eliminated PBA Hall of Famer George Pappas.
Roth was 21st after the first round with a 1,659 pinfall. He moved to third after the second round but lost to Bob Chamberlain in the round of 32. Roth is the defending senior player of the year, has won two senior titles and is tied for second with Ocala's Walter Ray Williams with 34 national tour titles.
Dale Eagle of Tavares was ousted by Glass in the round of 16. Bradenton's Dave Soutar, Cocoa's Pete Couture, Palm Harbor's Patsy DellaPenna and Homosassa Springs' Steve Neff missed the second-round cut and each earned $800.
The tour is at the Senior Clarksville (Tenn.) Open with the finals Tuesday.
PWBA STOP CUT: The PWBA has canceled its next stop, Bowl the Rogue Open, scheduled Sept.14-18 at Grants Pass, Ore.
"With the tour's financial status still pending, Showtime Family Lanes was unable to wait any longer to see if the fall schedule was still a go," PWBA president John Falzone said.
Two weeks ago, Falzone announced the fall schedule may have to be canceled due to insufficient operating funds and that a final decision would be announced on Friday. Falzone said the deadline has not changed.
With the Oregon stop canceled, the season would restart with the Storm Challenge, Sept. 21-25 in Victorville, Calif. The final tournaments would be the Greater San Diego Open Sept. 28-Oct. 3 at San Diego, Calif., and the Wheelchair Awareness Classic at Mesa, Ariz. A special event also is scheduled for either the week of Oct. 5 or Oct. 12.
The PWBA, for the fifth consecutive season, experienced a TV ratings increase. According to Nielsen Media Research, telecasts averaged a .64 overall rating, up from .44 in 2002. The 45 percent improvement is one of the largest in the tour's 23-year history.
MEXICAN GOLD: Team USA's Shannon Pluhowsky rallied to capture the women's singles gold medal Tuesday in the 14th Pan American Games at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
In third place entering the final game, the Phoenix left-hander rolled 246 to move past Guatemala's Sofia Rodriguez and Venezuela's Margalit Mizrachi for the second U.S. bowling gold medal in the Games. Bill Hoffman and Scott Pohl captured the men's doubles.
Mexico's Daniel Falconi and Marcos Baeza swept the top two medals while Hoffman collected the bronze in the men's singles.
Mexico's Adriana Perez Navarro and Illiana Lomeli Lemus held off a furious rally by the United States to capture the women's doubles gold medal with a 4,807 pinfall. The U.S. duo of Stacy Werth and Pluhowsky finished second (4,715).
Pluhowsky capped her junior career with wins in the Masters competition of the 2002 Federation Internationale des Quilleurs World Youth and American Zone Championships. She beat the world's best adults in the 2002 AMF World Cup and won the 2001 Intercollegiate Bowling Championships as a Nebraska freshman.
