PBA Chicago Open Notes

by PBA Editor December 31, 1899 19:00
Chris Johnson, who is still looking for his first career title, had to beat two Hall of Famers in the first two rounds who own a combined 52 titles. He beat Norm Duke (21 titles) 4-2 in the round of 64 and followed that by knocking off Pete Weber 4-3 (31 titles) in the round of 16. Johnson used his best game of the week when he needed it most. Trailing Weber 3-2 in the round of 16, Johnson shot a 289 to beat Weber by 122 pins and stave off elimination. Johnson had the front 10 but left the 10 pin in the 11th frame to finish with 289. Johnson then finished the match with a 238-171 win in seventh game. Johnson improved his average progressively as the tournament went on. He averaged 218.00 against Duke, 233.43 against Weber, 247.00 against Shannon Buchan in the round of 16 and 248.33 against Robert Smith in the round of 8. Johnson was consistent in his last match, shooting between 246 and 256 in four of the six games. Marathon man Voss has bowled more games than anyone in the tournament this week. All three of his matches on Friday went the maximum seven games and his match on Thursday went five games. Voss started his game Thursday at 5 p.m. and he finished play on Friday at 8 p.m. That means in a 27-hour span, Voss bowled 28 games, or just over one game an hour. Low seeds fare well None of the top-15 seeded players advanced to the round of 8. There were just two in the round of 16, but top seed Brad Angelo and No. 2 Mika Koivuniemi lost, leaving No. 16 Brian Voss as the highest ranked player remaining. Of the final 16 players, nine were seeded higher than 35th. Leave the brooms at home How competitive is the new PBA Tour format? In 60 best-of-seven matches this week there have been just two four-game sweeps. Bob Learn Jr. swept Peter Hernandez 4-0 in the Round of 64 and Brian Himmler beat Mika Koivuniemi 4-0 in the round of 16. In all, there were 21 matches won in five games, 20 won in six games and 17 matches that went all seven games. Mika Mika is is perfect perfect Mika Koivuniemi threw two 300 games this week, one in the round of 64 and one in the round of 32. The last time Koivuniemi threw at least two perfect games in a tournament was last season’s PBA Cambridge Credit Classic, where Koivuniemi rolled three 300 games. Koivuniemi made history that weekend by throwing just the 16th televised perfect game in PBA Tour history, which carried him to his third PBA Tour career title. Weiss wins twice Qualifier Randy Weiss won his second match of the week Friday, beating No. 36 Steve Wilson to advance to the round of 16 before falling to No. 20 Robert Smith. After finishing 2nd in the PBA Tour Qualifying Round on Wednesday to earn a No. 61 seed, Weiss knocked off No. 4 seed Patrick Allen Thursday in the round of 64. On Friday, Weiss edged Wilson 4-3 after falling behind 2-0. Weiss ran off wins in three consecutive games, including a 290-221 win in game five. Wilson won the sixth game 247-236 but in a close game seven, Weiss moved on with a 246-241 win. Hurd’s so good Jason Hurd, the No. 40 seed, made it all the way to the round of 8 before finally falling to Brian Voss 4-3. Hurd rolled the seventh 300 game of the week on Friday on his way to a 4-1 win over Jim Pratt in the round of 16. Hurd’s average of 281.00 in the five-game match against Pratt is the highest average in a match this week. Chamberlain elected to Hall of Fame PBA and ABC Tournament titlist Bob Chamberlain, Detroit, was elected to the ABC Hall of Fame during Hall of Fame board meetings in Milwaukee last week. Chamberlain will be inducted during ceremonies on March 17 on the ABC Tournament lanes at River Center in Baton Rouge, La. No Weber in Cleveland Because of prior commitments, Pete Weber will not be participating in the PBA Uniroyal Classic Nov. 10-14 in Wickliffe, Ohio. With Weber out, five non-exempt PBA members will advance from the PBA Tour Qualifying Round into the single-elimination, best-of-seven match play round of 64 instead of four.
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