Story Courtesy Kevin Dornberger, WTBA

ARLINGTON, Texas - American Carolyn Dorin-Ballard surged back to the top of the World Tenpin Bowling Association World Bowling Tour rankings after earning the maximum ranking points at the Brunswick Euro Challenge, which concluded Sunday. Finland's Mika Koivuniemi continues to lead the men's rankings.

Dorin-Ballard finished first among the women at the Euro Challenge in Saint Maximin, France, to pick up 50 points, which moved her back into the top spot with 236 points. Previous leader Liz Johnson of the United States picked up 30 points and is now second at 220.

Americans Missy Parkin earned 14 points at the Euro Challenge to jump into third place with 209 points, while Kelly Kulick of the United States is fourth with 207.

In the men's rankings, both Koivuniemi and Mike Fagan of the United States made the stepladder finals at the Euro Challenge, with Fagan winning the title. However, Koivuniemi still holds onto the lead with 358 points.

Fagan earned 50 points at the Euro Challenge and is second with 327 points, just 31 behind the leader. American Chris Barnes is third with 248, while fellow Team USA member Sean Rash is fourth with 223.

The World Bowling Tour is made up of various events around the world and players earn points based on how they finish in each event. The top three men and top three women will be invited to compete in the World Bowling Tour Finals presented by the Professional Bowlers Association at the end of 2012.

The World Bowling Tour Finals will feature a total prize fund of $70,000. The top three men and top three women will bowl a stepladder finals format in their respective divisions. The prize money for each division is the same, with the winner taking $20,000, second place earning $10,000 and third place winning $5,000.

The next event on the World Bowling Tour schedule is a women's only event. The United States Bowling Congress Queens will take place April 19-24 in Euless, Texas.

The World Tenpin Bowling Association, which is made up of 115 bowling federations, governs the sport throughout the world. For more information on WTBA and the World Bowling Tour, visit WorldTenpinBowling.com.

WORLD BOWLING TOUR POINTS
Top 25
(Pos., Name, Country, Points)

MEN

1, Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, 358.
2, Mike Fagan, USA, 327.
3, Chris Barnes, USA, 248.
4, Sean Rash, USA, 223.
5, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 204.
6, Jason Belmonte, Australia, 176.
7, Dan MacLelland, Canada, 174.
8, Tommy Jones, USA, 169.
9, Bill O'Neill, USA, 137.
10, Dominic Barrett, England, 135.
11, Siu Hong Wu, Hong Kong, 124.
12, Chris Loschetter, USA, 123.
13, Ronnie Russell, USA, 121.
14, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 109.
15, Pete Weber, USA, 97.
16, Stuart Williams, England, 95.
17, Tom Hess, USA, 87.
18, Norm Duke, USA, 85.
19, Ryan Shafer, USA, 77.
20, Tom Smallwood, USA, 75.
21, Paul Moor, England, 68.
22, Bryon Smith, USA, 66.
23, Tore Torgersen, Norway, 65.
24, Walter Ray Williams Jr., USA, 60.
25, Sayed Ibrahim Al Hashemi, UAE, 60.

WOMEN

1, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, USA, 236.
2, Liz Johnson, USA, 220.
3, Missy Parkin, USA, 209.
4, Kelly Kulick, USA, 207.
5, Sandra Andersson, Sweden, 154.
6, Nina Flack, Sweden, 137.
7, Krista Pollanen, Finland, 133.
8, Jazreel Tan, Singapore, 99.
9, Shannon Pluhowsky, USA, 98.
10, Diandra Asbaty, USA, 89.
11, Wendy Macpherson, USA, 85.
12, Zandra Aziela, Malaysia, 79.
13, Birgit Poppler, Germany, 67.
14, Tannya Roumimper, Indonesia, 65.
15, Cassie Staudinger, Australia, 65.
16, Shayna Ng, Singapore, 62.
17, Putty Armein, Indonesia, 58.
18, Clara Guerrero, Colombia, 56.
19, Siti Shazwani, Malaysia, 56.
20, Mai Ginge Jensen, Denmark, 55.
21, Elin Adolfsson, Sweden, 51.
22, Helen Johnsson, Sweden, 50.
23, Kim Min-Hee, Korea, 50.
24, Angkana Netrviseth, Thailand, 50.
25, Cherie Tan, Singapore, 50.

story courtesy Herbert Bickel/bowlingdigital.com

PBA professional and Team USA member Tommy Jones captured the title in the International Bowling Championship 2012 supported by DHC Saturday in Hakata, Japan, earning the 6 million Yen (approx. $77,500) top prize.

In the men's title match, top seeded Jones, who has won three of his 13 PBA titles in Japan, flew past reigning PBA Player of the Year Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, 290-204, to wrap up the title. On the women's side, No. 2 seed Cherie Tan defeated women's top seed Dayang Khairuniza, Malaysia, 218-179, for the biggest payday in her career.

The TV Finals started on Friday evening with a shootout match between players ranked fourth to 9th after the semifinals to determine the No. 4 seed for the stepladder finals.

Zulmazran Zulkifli of Malaysia who took the ninth and last place for the men's shoot-out match, almost rolled the first 300 game of the tournament, firing a 298 game to defeat #5 Mike Fagan, United States (267), #4 Dan MacLelland, Canada (248), #6 Chris Barnes, United States (224), #7 Park Kyung-Sin, Korea (214) and #8 Shota Kawazoe, Japan (182).

In the opening match of the stepladder finals, Zulkifli fell to No. 3 seed, Choi Bok-Eum of Korea, 241-198. Zulkifli struck on six of his first eight shots but suffered two open frames. Bok-Eum bowled a clean game including a four-bagger and a three-bagger to put the match away well before the final frame.

In the semifinal match it was current World Bowling Tour point ranking leader Koivuniemi, who bowled a clean game to defeat the Korean lefty, 226-211, to advance to the title match. Heading into the final frame, Bok-Eum held a 17-pin lead behind seven strikes and two open frames. Koivuniemi struck out in the 9th and 10th frame to force Bok-Eum to strike on his first ball in the last frame. When the Korean failed to strike, the match was over.

Koivuniemi pocketed 3 million Yen for second place. Bok-Eum received 1.5 million Yen for third and Zulkifli walked away with 800.000 Yen for fourth place.

The International Bowling Championship 2012 supported by DHC was the fourth stop of the 2012 World Bowling Tour and offered a total prize fund of 30 million Yen or more than 380,000 U.S. Dollars.

Men and women competed in separate divisions. Each division consisted of 84 players - 45 local bowlers (15 each from three pre-qualifying tournament), the top 16 of the international trials (Feb. 7 and 8), as well as 23 seeded and invited players.

All 84 men and 84 women bowled nine games of qualifying divided into three blocks of three games. Based on the nine-game total, the top 24 men and the top 24 women advanced to the semifinals.

Those 24 bowled another two three-game blocks on Friday with the pinfall from the qualifying being carried forward. The top 9 men and the top 9 women with the highest 15-game total qualified for the TV Finals.

The top three in each division advanced straight to the TV stepladder finals on Saturday, while bowlers seeded fourth to ninth determined the No. 4 seed for the stepladder in a single-game shoot-out match.

In the TV stepladder finals, which were broadcasted nationwide by NHK Global Media Services, Inc., were staged on specially constructed lanes in Diamond Hall on the second floor of the building.

The prize money for each division was the same, with the men's and women's winner each taking 6 million Yen or more than $77,000, with $38,500 and $19,250 going to the second and third place finishers, respectively.

Men's Division - TV Finals

Championship Round:
1. Tommy Jones, United States, 6.000.000 JPY
2. Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, 3.000.000 JPY
3. Choi Bok-Eum, Korea, 1.500.000 JPY
4. Zulmazran Zulkifli, Malaysia, 800.000 JPY

Playoff Results:
Shoot-out to determine the No. 4 seed for the stepladder finals:
#9 Zulkifli (298) def. #5 Fagan (267), #4 Maclelland (248), #6 Barnes (224), #7 Kyung-Sin (214) and #8 Kawazoe (182)
First Match: No. 3 Choi def. No. 4 Zulkifli, 241-198
Second Match: No. 2 Koivuniemi def. Choi, 226-211
Championship: No. 1 Jones def. Koivuniemi, 290-204.

Women's Division - TV Finals

Championship Round:
1. Cherie Tan, Singapore, 6.000.000 JPY
2. Dayang Khairuniza, Malaysia, 3.000.000 JPY
3. Jeon Eun-Hee, Korea, 1.500.000 JPY
4. Missy Parkin, United States, 800.000 JPY

Playoff Results:
Shoot-out to determine the No. 4 seed for the stepladder finals:
#5 Parkin (267) def. #6 Macpherson (246), #9 Nakano (218), #7 Aziela (212), #8 Kimura (208) and #4 Gianotti (183)
First Match: No. 3 Jeon def. No. 4 Parkin, 224-206
Second Match: No. 2 Chan def Jeon, 235-189
Championship: Tan def. No. 1 Khairuniza, 218-179.

Story courtesy USBC Communications, Lucas Wiseman

ARLINGTON, Texas - After an emotional victory at the 2011 United States Bowling Congress Masters, Tom Hess of Urbandale, Iowa, thinks the key to his chances of successfully defending his title is keeping those emotions in check.

Hess was tearful and exuberant after defeating Jack Jurek of Lackawanna, N.Y., 225-214, to win last year's title at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev. When the 2012 Masters begins Tuesday at Sunset Station's Strike Zone Bowling Center in suburban Las Vegas, Hess will have around 300 bowlers looking to dethrone him.

"I'm ready to try and defend, and hopefully I can find the same kind of magic that I found last year," said Hess, whose victory last year was his first title on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour. "The key is to keep my emotions a little more level. I don't want to have the big peaks and valleys in the short matches."

Though his goal is to keep his emotions in check, Hess knows that when they announce him as the reigning champion before his first squad that he's likely to get a little teary-eyed once again.

"I can imagine when they go through and announce the previous winners of the Masters at the start of the first squad, that is going to be a pretty emotional moment and take me back to the day when I won last year," Hess said. "It was a childhood dream of mine to win on the PBA Tour. I never thought it would take until I was 41 to get that done, and to win was an amazing accomplishment."

It has been more than four decades since anyone has repeated as champion at the Masters. It's only been done twice and Billy Welu was the last to do it in 1965. So Hess knows history won't be on his side as he takes to the lanes next week.

"Do I think I can do it? Absolutely," Hess said. "But that stat right there just goes to show how hard it is to win back-to-back. If I go out and perform like I know I can perform, I like my chances."

All participants will bowl two five-game blocks of qualifying Jan. 24 and 25 before the first cut is made to the top 25 percent of the field. After another five games the morning of Jan. 26, the top 63 bowlers will join Hess in match play, which continues until the top four bowlers are determined for the TV finals. The stepladder finals will take place at 12:30 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 29 and will be broadcast live on ESPN.

The Masters, which is one of four majors on the PBA Tour, also is a part of the World Bowling Tour organized by the World Tenpin Bowling Association. For more information on the Masters, visit BOWL.com/masters.

Scott the Engineer of The Howard Stern Show bowled in the WSOB last year at South Point. This year he wasn't able to bowl, but he is watching on Xtra Frame and doing a blog throughout.

Looking back at the first week of the WSOB I am really amazed at the level of competition. The top 16 bowlers from around the world averaged a combined 223 - led by Sean Rash with a 234 average. I personally know how hard these conditions are after my experience at the WSOB last year - or are they? Well, I was used to a league shot where you have 15-20 boards of area and don’t have to be very precise, and even though I was able to practice with the PBA patterns it really didn’t prepare me for the actual tournament conditions.

As we continued through the second week the scores remained very high, scores I could never maintain even on a house shot. I wonder if this has gotten too easy for the pros, especially with the advancement of ball technology. Should the PBA find a way to lower the scores? Personally I prefer lower scores and I don't think that will mean less exciting bowling - in fact, it might make it more exciting.

At any rate, now it’s time to get down to business, the best of the best on ESPN. I think the finals will be something special to watch, and with the arena setting it should be spectacular. I know I’ll be watching, I hope you do to. Enjoy!

The Scott the Engineer WSOB blog is brought to you by DV8 at dv8bowling.com

Scott the Engineer of The Howard Stern Show bowled in the WSOB last year at South Point. This year he wasn't able to bowl, but he is watching on Xtra Frame and doing a blog throughout.

After the first two rounds of the PBA World Championship some interesting stories are developing. I think the first one is that six different countries are represented in the top ten which gives the word “world” true meaning. I have always thought American bowlers to be the best in the world, I know there have been international players on the tour for many years, but I think the overall level of competition at the WSOB from the international players is now equal to the Americans.

The next story I like is the upcoming final of the Chameleon Open. I’m sure everyone remembers “bottlegate”. How exciting will it be if we see Jason Belmonte and Sean Rash matched up in the final. This has the makings to be one of the best matches in a long time. I think I’ll look through my sound effects library and see what I can come up with to help these guys. Stay tuned.

And finally, can anyone stop Sean Rash? The term “In The Zone” describes where Sean’s game is right now. He was within a solid 9 pin from winning the All-in Showdown, he’s in the final 4 for the Viper and Chameleon Opens, and he’s leading the World Championship with a 245 average. I was able to get to know Sean pretty well from the time I spent at the WSOB last year - he spent time giving me recommendations on how to improve my game - something he didn’t have to do that I appreciated very much. I think everyone knows the amount of talent Sean has, and he certainly brings an intensity we haven’t seen in a long time, but now he’s stepped up his game to an amazing level - maybe it’s the new Brunswick gear he’s using! I know I’ll be watching him the rest of the way, I hope you do to.

The Scott the Engineer WSOB blog is brought to you by DV8 at dv8bowling.com