PBA Regional Tour

Last updated
PBA Regional Tour
AbbreviationPBA
Formation1958 [1]
PurposeA series of regional professional ten-pin bowling events, governing body is Professional Bowlers Association and USBC.
Headquarters Mechanicsville, Virginia
Region served
USA (7 regions)
Commissioner
 Tom Clark
Website http://www.pba.com/

The PBA Regional Tour is a series of "mini tours", run by the Professional Bowlers Association, spanning across seven regions within the United States. The Tour allows PBA members and qualifying non-member amateurs to compete in weekend events. The Tour consists of seven regions: Central, East, Midwest, Northwest, South, Southwest, and West. [2]

Contents

Regional Qualifying for the PBA Tour

The majority of the PBA's 3,000+ members are Regional professionals. In a typical season, fewer than 100 players regularly compete on the national PBA Tour.

Through the 2008–09 season, Regional PBA professionals could qualify for the national tour by topping one of the seven regions in points. For the 2009–10 season, Regional qualification was revised, as bowlers had to qualify via the Regional Players Invitational (RPI) tournament. The top 25 bowlers on the RPI points list in each of the seven PBA regions (through September, 2008) earned an invitation to the 2008 RPI. The top five from each region – plus the winner of the 2008 Regional Players Championship (won by Sean Swanson in late May that year) – received airfare and accommodations for the event in December, 2008 and did not have to pay an additional fee to be eligible for a PBA Tour exemption. The next 20 players in each region were required to pay their own way to the RPI, and also had to pay an additional $750 on top of the entry fee to be eligible for a Tour exemption.

The 2008 RPI featured a similar format to the PBA Tour Trials, in that competitors bowled for five days on each of the PBA's five "animal" oil patterns. The top eight bowlers who (if necessary) paid the additional entry fee earned exemptions for the 2009–10 season, provided they finished in the top 16 overall.

The exempt PBA Tour format was discontinued prior to the 2012–13 season, which meant the end of the RPI.

Current Regional Tour

The PBA continues to run a Regional Tour to the present day. Regional Tour events are open to both PBA members and non-members, with most events requiring a higher entry fee for non-members. Any player who wins two Regional Tour events in a season as a non-member must become a PBA member to enter any subsequent events during that season. [3]

Youngest Regional Tour Champion

Brady McDonough, at the age of 15 years and 137 days, is the youngest athlete to win a PBA Regional event. He won the PBA Copperfield Southwest Challenge in Houston on April 9, 2023 by defeating Justin Veitch 253-236 in the title match. However, as McDonough was not a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) at that time, his victory did not count as an official PBA Regional title. McDonough received a $2,500 scholarship as part of his prize. [4] The youngest player to win a Regional Tour title as a PBA member was Deo Benard, who won the 2020 South Point West Challenge at age 16 years, 234 days. [5]

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ "About the PBA". PBA.com. 2011-01-17. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
  2. ↑ Regional Tour information
  3. ↑ Vint, Bill (August 28, 2018). "2019 Go Bowling! PBA Tour Tournaments on FOX to be Open to PBA Members Only". pba.com. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  4. ↑ "PBA COPPERFIELD SOUTHWEST CHALLENGE (NON-CHAMPIONS)". PBA.com. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  5. ↑ "16-Year-Old Deo Benard Becomes Youngest PBA Member to Win Regional Title". bowl.com.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norm Duke</span> American professional bowler

Norm Duke is an American professional bowler who previously competed on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour and now competes on the PBA50 Tour. He has won 40 titles on the PBA Tour, including seven major championships, and another six titles on the PBA50 Tour. A member of both the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame, Duke is one of only three players in history to reach 40 career PBA Tour titles. He has bowled 73 perfect 300 games in PBA competition, including the 16th televised 300 game in PBA Tour history on January 5, 2003. Duke is a member of the Storm pro staff.

The PBA Tournament of Champions is one of the five major PBA bowling events. It is an invitational event and the only PBA Tour major that does not have any open field. All participants must meet qualifications to be invited.

Kelly Kulick is an American professional bowler, bowling coach and sportscaster. She has won ten professional women's bowling titles, one PBA Tour title and a professional mixed doubles title. Kulick is the first woman ever to win a regular Professional Bowlers Association tour title and the only woman to win a major PBA Tour tournament. She is a 16-time member of Team USA. Kulick is currently a pro staff member for Storm Bowling, Vise grips and High 5 gear. In 2019, Kulick was inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame, Superior Performance category.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Professional Women's Bowling Association</span>

The Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) organizes and oversees a series of annual tournaments for the top competitive women ten-pin bowlers. The series is often referred to as the "women's tour" of bowling.

The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for ten-pin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association. Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, over 3,000 members worldwide make up the PBA. While most of the PBA members are Regional professionals, a small percentage of the bowling membership competes at the national and international level, forming the PBA Tour. Founded in 1958, the PBA Tour has been in continuous operation since the inaugural 1959 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Professional Bowlers Association</span> Organization

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and currently owned by Bowlero Corporation since 2019, the PBA's membership consists of over 3,000 members worldwide. Members include "pro shop" owners and workers, teaching professionals and bowlers who compete in the various events put on by the Association.

Tommy Jones is an American professional bowler currently competing on the PBA Tour. He is a member of the PBA Hall of Fame and the USBC Hall of Fame. He is also an 11-time member of Team USA.

Tom Baker is a professional bowler in the Professional Bowlers Association and a member of the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame. He has won 10 titles on the regular PBA Tour, and 12 more on the PBA50 Tour. He currently resides in King, North Carolina.

Wesley Clint "Big Nasty" Malott is an American professional ten-pin bowler and member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Originally from Pflugerville, Texas, he now resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He has won ten PBA Tour titles, and was the 2008–09 Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year. He won his lone major championship at the 2012–13 U.S. Open, and has finished runner-up in five other PBA major tournaments. Malott also won the 2006–07 Showplace Lanes Megabucks Shootout, which was not a PBA Tour event. He won the non-title PBA King of Bowling event in 2009, and defended his King position eight consecutive times through 2018.

Jeff Carter is a retired right-handed American professional ten-pin bowler, member of the Professional Bowlers Association. He joined the PBA in 1999.

This is a recap of the 2008–09 season for the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. It was the Tour's 50th season and consisted of 21 events.

This is a recap of the 2009–10 season for the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tour. It was the Tour's 51st season and consisted of 19 title events.

This is a recap of the 2010–11 season for the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. It was the Tour's 52nd season and consisted of 12 title events.

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Simonsen</span> American ten-pin bowler

Anthony Walter Simonsen is an American professional ten-pin bowler. He has been a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 2014. Simonsen became known in bowling fan circles early in the 2016 season, when he earned the distinction as the youngest player in history to win a PBA major championship. He is now the youngest player in history to own five major PBA Tour titles. He uses the two-handed shovel-style delivery with a dominant right hand. At age 25, Simonsen eclipsed $1 million in career PBA earnings during the 2022 season. Simonsen has also bowled internationally as a multi-year member of Team USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. J. Tackett</span> Professional ten-pin bowler

Eddie Dean Tackett Jr. is an American professional ten-pin bowler. A member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 2012, Tackett has won 23 PBA Tour titles, including five major championships, and is one of nine professional bowlers that have completed the PBA Triple Crown. He was named PBA Player of the Year for the 2016 and 2023 seasons, and was runner-up for the award in 2017 and 2018. Tackett is right-handed and uses a cranker-style delivery. He has been called a "unicorn" in the sport, because of his ability to use a one-handed, thumb-in delivery to achieve RPM rates comparable to most two-handed bowlers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jakob Butturff</span> American ten-pin bowler (born 1994)

Jakob Butturff is a left-handed American ten-pin bowler from Chandler, Arizona and a member of the Professional Bowlers Association. He competes in events on the PBA Tour and in global events as a member of Team USA. He has won eight national PBA Tour titles and 27 PBA Regional Tour titles. Jakob also rolled the 28th of the PBA Tour's 35 televised 300 games.

The 2022 PBA Tour season, the 63rd season of play for the U.S. Professional Bowlers Association's ten-pin bowling tour, begins on January 15 with the Regional Portions of the PBA Players Championship. The season included 16 title events, three special non-title events, and the PBA League team event.

Deo Benard is an American professional ten-pin bowler who competes as a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). At age 20, Benard won the 2024 PBA WSOB XV Cheetah Championship, defeating top seed and multiple PBA Tour titlist Marshall Kent. He bowls using the two-handed shovel style delivery with a dominant left hand.

David "Boog" Krol is an American professional ten-pin bowler from Nixa, Missouri. A member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), he is known for winning the 2024 PBA Playoffs. He has won two PBA Tour titles, both coming in the 2024 season, in addition to three PBA Regional Tour titles. He uses the two-handed shovel style delivery with a dominant right hand.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.