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By PHIL GULICK
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 28, 2001
Two months before its season opens, the PBA announced a new format for its standard tournaments designed to challenge players and entertain fans. The format for the four major tournaments and a TV schedule will be announced later.
Beginning with the pro tour qualifier, the standard events will encompass six days. On Day One, the field will be reduced to 128 players, broken into two squads. Day Two will be for practice and the pro-ams. On Day Three, the 128 players will roll nine games, with the field cut in half. The top 64 scorers will bowl nine games on Day Four, with the top 32 advancing to the single-elimination match play.
The field will be cut to the top 16, with four lanes selected for the championship and arena seating down both sides of the lanes. Match play will continue on Day Five, with the field pared to four qualifiers, plus one player for a wild-card match.
The wild-card match is a new feature. Wild-card match one will feature the bowler in the top eight who finished with the best match-play mark without making the final four against the player in the final four who lost the most in match-play.
Match two will send the top two qualifiers against each other. The match one winner will face the remaining final four qualifier in match three. The two winners meet for the championship in match four.
The prize fund for standard tournaments also has been increased. Winners will earn $40,000, second place $20,000 and third to fifth place $10,000 each. The 33rd to 64th qualifiers each will earn $1,000.
Under a new three-year contract, ESPN will air 20 regular tournaments, plus four to six summer telecasts, all on Sundays or Tuesdays.
NEFF WINS SECOND: Steve Neff, a bowling center proprietor from Homosassa Springs, won his second PBA Senior title by beating Bob Chamberlain 214-196 at the Orleans Casino Open last week at Las Vegas. He collected $20,000.
Johnny Petraglia defeated Mark Roth 257-194. Chamberlain stopped Petraglia 237-225, then defeated Bob Glass 235-195 to reach the final. Chamberlain won the Northwest Senior Classic three weeks ago, and Petraglia captured the Epicenter Classic at Klamath Falls, Ore., two weeks ago.
BOHN A MASTER: Parker Bohn III beat Clermont's Jason Couch 248-237 to win the ABC Masters title and $40,000 at the National Bowling Stadium on June 16 in Reno, Nev. It was Bohn's 27th pro title but his first major, and it ties him with Mike Aulby for fourth on the all-time winner's list. Couch earned $20,000 in the matchup of left-handers.
Tampa's Chris Hayden finished fifth, collecting $7,500.
Clermont's Norm Duke was 13th. Steve Hoskins of Tarpon Springs finished 20th, and defending champion Mika Koivuniemi was 40th.
DORIN-BALLARD ON A ROLL: Carolyn Dorin-Ballard won her third Professional Women's Bowling Association title this season, stopping Dede Davidson 217-213 at the Fort Worth (Texas) Classic last week. She earned $9,000.
Davidson defeated Sebring's Kendra Gaines and Cara Honeychurch 224-189-180 in a shootout, then stopped Liz Johnson 232-202 to reach the final. ESPN2 will air the final at 1 p.m. today.
The tour is in Tennessee for the Greater Memphis Open, which ends today.
- Phil Gulick can be reached at xerxes8@msn.com.