RENO, Nev. — Four bowlers with a combined 95 wins on the Denny's Professional Bowlers Association Tour will take the lanes today to duke it out for the title in the H&R Block Classic at the National Bowling Stadium.
All-time tour titles leader Walter Ray Williams Jr., who won his record-breaking 42nd career title in the season-opening Dydo Japan Cup, defeated amateur Patrick Flynn III, four-games-to-one, Saturday to advance to his third championship round of the season.
Flynn was looking to become the first amateur to advance to a championship round in a standard tour event.
Williams will face the top seed from qualifying, 13-time titlist Jason Couch, who defeated Brian Kretzer, 4-1. Couch finished match play with a 12-1 record and will be making his first TV appearance of the season after winning two titles last season.
Also advancing to his first championship round this season was Patrick Allen, who finished match play with a 12-0 record. The 2004-05 player of the year, who won two titles last season, will look to become just the second bowler in history to go 14-0 in winning a title. Norm Duke became the first in this season's Lake County Indiana Classic.
Advertisement | |
He credited a ball switch to his win Saturday.
"I was just trying to get my ball to read the lanes sooner," Allen said. "The lanes were a lot tighter today than they had been all week. They played like there was a lot more oil so I needed to get a ball that would hook earlier."
Allen will face Hall of Famer Pete Weber, who will be looking for his second title of the season and the 34th of his career, which would tie him for third on the all-time titles list with Mark Roth. Weber defeated Ryan Shafer, 4-2.
The nationally televised finals are at 10 a.m. Pacific time on ESPN.
