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Holiday's two-time winner, Darin Baginski, returns tonight to defend his title in the 36th annual Florida Men's All-Star Match-Play Championship at Sunshine Bowl.
The 32-player field opens double-elimination competition at 7, with the finals scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Sunday. The winner receives $1,150.
More than 220 bowlers began elimination rounds last weekend. Three 300 games were recorded, and New Port Richey's Rich Gardner was the top qualifier with a four-game 1,073 pinfall.
Gardner takes on Jeff Boyd tonight in Match 16.
Last year, Baginski, the 2001 winner, was high qualifier with a 1,038 pinfall. He defeated Brian Halstrom 775-725 to capture his second title in three years. Brian Korcak was third, Steve Kenyon fourth and 1994 champion Bill Hicks fifth.
Justin Veitch, who took the 2002 crown, meets Chuck Brush tonight. Defending his title last year, Veitch lost his first match to Dan Knowlton.
Other interesting matches pit Korcak against Jason Gasper, 1993 champ Darryl Dempsey against Tampa's Xavier Pullara and Tim Dunbar against Kenyon.
The tournament is spiced by the appearance of Port Richey's Melanie O'Grady, the only woman in the field.
She finished 133rd in the PBA south regional in Tampa last April, when St. Petersburg's Cindy Hall and Orlando's Kendra Gaines joined the field as the PBA opened its ranks to women for the first time.
Until 2002, the women had a separate match-play championship. But in recent years, Sunshine Bowl and tournament manager Bob Fryer did not receive enough entries. Tampa's Bonnie Joel won the crown three consecutive years, including the 2001 finale.
WIBC SIGNS UP: The Women's International Bowling Congress signed a letter of agreement with the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority to extend its relationship in conducting the WIBC Championship Tournament, WIBC Queens and WIBC Senior Queens in 2012, 2015 and 2018 at National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev.
Reno is scheduled to play host to the WIBC Championship, the world's largest women's participatory sporting event, in 2006 and 2009.
The new agreement is based on the number of teams that participate in the tournament, but it will not be less than the $500,000 subsidy the WIBC will receive for 2006 and 2009.
The WIBC and ABC national tourneys will retain their names under the new United States Bowling Congress, which combines the WIBC, ABC, Young American Bowling Alliance and USA Bowling into one organization.
The 2003 WIBC Championship was the third at National Bowling Stadium. The tourney attracted more than 13,000 teams (65,000 members) and featured a record-breaking prize fund of $2.7-million.
The stadium had the tournament in 1997 and 2000.
CHARLEY BENEFITS: Ten Pin, Twedt's and Liberty lanes will have fund-raisers for victims of Hurricane Charley.
Ten Pin and Twedt's have a no-tap family tournament scheduled for Aug. 29 at 1 p.m. The entry fee is $20.
Liberty has a three-game event with a minimum $10 donation Aug. 29 from 4 p.m.-midnight. Proceeds go to the American Red Cross.
AROUND THE LANES: High scorers - Don Schroeder, 300-759, at Seminole; Al Lee, 300-804, and Errol Weaver, 300-749, Dunedin; and Michael Benyo, 299-730, Sunshine.
- Phil Gulick can be reached at xerxes8@msn.com