Open

The PBA Milwaukee Open featured the Badger, Wolf, and Bear qualifying totals. After a total of 30 games, there was a cut to the top 28. It took a score of +428 by Andrew Graff to advance to the casher’s round of the Milwaukee Open. Bill O’Neill led the 30-game qualifying total with a score of +873. Some of the other bowlers that did well in the Milwaukee Open were , , , and . For the cashers round the Bear pattern was used. The Tournament leader Bill O’Neil shot only +23. Eugene McCune was the leader by scoring the highest round at +180. Pete Weber was second high at +111. Brian Valenta was the number to make match play. He even shot -19 for the round. Mika Koivuniemi and Sean Rash struggled as they could not make match play. In the first round of match play the Bear pattern was used again. Pete Weber took the lead with a 7-1 match play record. He was leading by 23 pins over Chris Barnes. Barnes had a 5-3 match play record. moved up the leader board from 13th to fourth with a 6-2 record. Bill O’Neil faltered as he could only muster 3-4-1 match play. The second round of match play saw the use of the Badger oil pattern. Pete Weber still was dominating the tournament with a 13-3 match play record. He was leading Chris Barnes by 165 pins. Chris Barnes tied two games but was able to win the rest of his games. Norm Duke was able to stay in the top five with 5-3 match play record. There were six players within 160 pins going into the final round of match play. The Wolf oil pattern was used during the final round of match play. Chris Barnes started out with a in the final round. Barnes was able to lead the tournament by nearly 300 pins. Pete Weber could not win a match until the last two games. He had a big enough lead to keep him near the leader board. Jason Sterner made a charge by shooting a 300 game over Patrick Allen’s 290. He ended up doubling in the 10th frame of the last game to make the championship round despite a ten minute delay due to a power outage. Norm Duke and Mike Fagan were the other two bowlers that made the championship round. Barnes had the choice of the pattern that they would be using in the championship round because he was the Tournament leader. He picked the Badger pattern. In the first match it was a low scoring affair as Fagan defeated Jason Sterner 198-182. Fagan had the right to take on Norm Duke. Duke was able to top off Fagan 238-194. The semi-finals featured a Hall of Fame matchup between Pete Weber and Norm Duke. The game was never more than ten pins apart. Weber had a chance to double in the tenth to win but failed as he left a solid 9 pin in the second ball of the tenth giving Duke a chance in to win the match. Duke was able to prevail as he struck to advance to the championship match. Barnes started out strong by striking his first five out of six shots. This gave Barnes a huge lead in the championship match. Duke was able to string strikes together but it was too little too late as Barnes was able to rise up to the challenge. Barnes defeated Duke 246 to 237. This was Barnes 15th career PBA Tour title.

TOURNAMENT STATS CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND STATS

30 Game Cash Bowler +/- +428 Andrew Graff High Game: Chris Barnes (246) 30 Game Leader +/- +873 Bill O’Neill 35 Game Cut Bowler +/- +515 Brian Valenta Low Game: Jason Sterner (182)

35 Game Leader +/- +896 Bill O’Neill High Match: Barnes/Duke (246/237) 59 Game Cut Bowler +/- +1708 Jason Sterner 59 Game Leader +/- +2211 Chris Barnes Low Match: Fagan/Sterner (198/182)

Average Winning Game: 226.75 300 games (2) – Jason Sterner, Chris Barnes

Champion 1. Chris Barnes – 246 Chris Barnes

2. Pete Weber – 217 Norm Duke - 237

3. Norm Duke – 238 Norm Duke – 225

4.Mike Fagan- 198 Mike Fagan – 194

5. Jason Sterner – 182