by Randy Ooney
My Nickel’s Worth by Randy Ooney
PBA River City
Although I scanned the Minneapolis StarTrib for bowling news in the sports section, evidently nobody told them that there was a professional sporting event in the River City of Monticello This July. The PBA50 event was held July 17-20 at the beautiful River City Extreme bowling center in Monticello. The event kicked off with a Pro Am no tap tournament on July 17. Of course I am an AM and I was partnered with Brian Kretzer, Tom Carter, and Mike Dias for the three games. The scoring was pretty high, (After 2 games my pros had produced 23 strikes and one split.) I was in there with 513 going in and was alive until the 8th frame of game three when a 4-6-7 bit me. But I had a great time bowling with the pros and the oil pattern was very friendly. (I placed my tongue in cheek and suggested to Brian Kretzer that he may not get the same pattern tomorrow.)
The tournament began on July 18 with all entries bowling preliminary games. Gradually the field was cut to the top 32 and the cashers round match play began. All of the pros that I partnered with on Tuesday made the match play, so I assume that they learned something from me. There were a number of players from the local MSC association, however only Tom Jones made the cashers round. Tom advanced in the match play rounds to finish 11th in the tourney.
The top five qualified for the stepladder finals on July 20. The step ladder in order was 1. Michael Haugen, 2. Bob Learn Jr. 3. Lennie Boresch, 4. Brian Kretzer, 5. Norm Duke. Brian Kretzer defeated Norm Duke and Lennie Boresch climbing the ladder, but fell victim to Bob Learn Jr. Learn then lost a close match to Michael Haugen 247-246. It was the 2nd PBA50 title for Michael at age 51.
Notes – Previous winners of PBA50 events at Treasure Island are Pete Weber, Walter Ray Williams, Parker Bohn III, and Norm Duke. Duke was the only one of the four to return to Minnesota. I was told that the others had commitments in other parts of the country. John Foss, who hosted the first PBA 50 event at Treasure Island has moved to manage the River City Extreme and once again did a fantastic job hosting the event. Thanks to one and all !
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