PBA Bowling Tour: 2016 season

2016 is the 57th season of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. There are 26 singles title events, two doubles title events, and two team events on the 2016 schedule.

Tournament schedule and recaps

For the eighth year in a row, the PBA will hold multiple fall North American events in one location, at the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling VIII (WSOB VIII). Taking place in Reno, Nevada for the second straight season, the event will include four "animal" oil pattern events (Cheetah, Chameleon, Scorpion and Shark). While each providing individual PBA titles, the four pattern tournaments in WSOB VIII also serve as initial qualifying for the PBA World Championship. The top 25% of players in total pinfall over the 32 games of qualifying (8 games per pattern tournament) from a field of up to 312 participants move on to the PBA World Championship cashers round, and will bowl an additional six games of qualifying on the PBA World Championship oil pattern to determine the top 24. Three additional match play rounds of eight games each will determine the field for the televised finals. The WSOB field announced on November 16 includes participants from a record 22 countries.^[1]

Several international tour stops, which are part of the World Bowling Tour (WBT), are again part of the PBA schedule. As in 2015, a PBA title is awarded if any of these stops are won by a PBA member.^[2] For the second straight season, some tournaments formerly consigned as PBA Regional tour stops will now qualify the winner to earn a PBA title in addition to a minimum $10,000 top prize for each event. These nine tour stops are designated as "Xtra Frame" tournaments, because they are broadcast exclusively (start-to-finish) on the PBA's Xtra Frame webcast service. For 2016, the Xtra Frame series will have a rolling points list, with a $10,000 bonus given to the player with the most points after all eight Xtra Frame singles events are complete. (Note: The Xtra Frame series was shortened to seven singles events when the PBA Xtra Frame Tamarac Classic in Florida was cancelled due to Hurricane Matthew.) Tommy Jones was the bonus winner with 89 points, surpassing E. J. Tackett (84 points) in the final Xtra Frame event of the season.^[3]

After three seasons, the PBA dropped the "Summer Swing" series that had taken place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2013) and Shawnee, Oklahoma (2014–15), in favor of a Fall Swing series that took place September 5–11 in Allen Park, Michigan. Oil patterns and event structure, however, were the same as the previous Summer Swing series. The Swing features the shortest and longest oil patterns used in any PBA tournament (32-foot "Wolf" and 52-foot "Badger"), plus a 40-foot U.S. Open-style pattern ("Bear").

Season highlights

Young players dominated the first four majors of the season:

• 2015 PBA Rookie of the Year Jesper Svensson of Sweden won the PBA Fire Lake Tournament of Champions for his third title and first major. Svensson, who was just shy of his 21st birthday at the time, became the youngest player ever to win this tournament. The previous record-holder was Marshall Holman, who won the 1976 TOC at age 21.^[4]
• One week after Svensson's historic feat, Anthony Simonsen (age 19 years, 36 days) won the USBC Masters to become the youngest player to win a PBA major of any kind. Mike Aulby had held that distinction for over 36 years, having won the 1979 PBA National Championship at age 19 years, 83 days. The victory was Simonsen's first singles title, and second title overall.^[5]
• The PBA Players Championship, re-elevated to major status in 2016, was won by 24-year old Ontario native Graham Fach, who became the first bowler from Canada to win a PBA title.^[6]
• 23-year old Francois Lavoie, a Canadian native who bowled collegiately at Wichita State University, won the 63rd U.S. Open, and rolled a 300 game in the semifinal match. It was the 26th perfect game in a televised PBA Tour event, and the first ever to be rolled in the televised finals of the U.S. Open.^[7]

Additional highlights:

• The GoBowling.com Dallas Strikers, a five-player team headed by player-manager Norm Duke, rolled a nationally-televised Baker format 300 game in the semifinal round of the PBA League Elias Cup event (broadcast May 1 on ESPN). This is the first Baker format perfect game recorded in PBA history. Although the standard $10,000 bonus that is given for a televised 300 game by an individual did not apply, the PBA retroactively awarded the bonus to Duke and his teammates (Tommy Jones, Bill O'Neill, Shawn Maldonado and B.J. Moore) on June 30, 2016.^[8]

Tournament summary

Below is a schedule of events for the 2016 PBA Tour season. (Some events and dates are subject to change or are TBD.) Major tournaments are in bold. Career PBA title numbers for winners are shown in parenthesis (#).

• C: broadcast on CBS Sports Network
• E: broadcast on ESPN
• E2: broadcast on ESPN2
• X: broadcast on the PBA's Xtra Frame webcast service
• *Tournament finals were held in December 2015, but this counts as a 2016 season title. There was an earlier Mark Roth-Marshall Holman doubles tournament in February 2015 that counted as a 2015 title.
• (f) denotes female competitor. By tournament rules, female competitors received 8 pins handicap per game, and thus are not eligible to earn a PBA title.
• (a) denotes amateur bowler; did not qualify for a PBA title.
• + The Dallas Strikers earned an additional $10,000 for rolling a perfect game in the semifinal round.
• # Francois Lavoie earned an additional $10,000 for rolling a perfect game in the semifinal match.

References

External links

• PBA 2016 Season Schedule
• 2016 PBA International-WBT Season Schedule
• 2016 PBA TV Schedule