Pro Bowlers Tour conducts 5 tournaments at Thunderbowl Lanes

Week's center of international sports universe: Allen Park!

ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Remember when the PGA Tour had the Buick Open here at Warwick Hills every year?  That was a single professional golf tournament, competed from Thursday to Sunday.  Now, imagine if the PGA conducted five tournaments here that week, with qualifying from Monday through Friday, and the finals for all five tournaments on Saturday and Sunday.  That would be incredible, which is why this week is incredible here in Metro Detroit.  The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is bringing its entire Fall Swing tour to Allen Park’s historic Thunderbowl Lanes this week, with virtually all of the world’s greatest bowlers here for all of it.  Forty-six of the bowlers competing here have won national PBA tournaments, with bowlers from four different continents all converging here for an amazing career opportunity. 

I was at Thunderbowl this morning, and one of the best things about watching these pros is how close you can stand or sit and watch them compete.  I’m not kidding when I say that you are literally right on top of the action.  The second best part is that professional bowlers are easily and by far the most approachable professional athletes ever.  In fact, to give you an idea as to just how grounded these athletes are, I had just finished shooting video of tour star Kyle Troup (check out his wild outfit in the video below), when he turned around after finishing his shot and saw me.

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He walked right up to me and started a nice conversation with me about the oil pattern and why he switched to a different type of ball for this pair of lanes.  What athlete in ANY sport will walk up to you during competition and chat with you?  And he wasn’t the only one today to talk to me while they were competing.  Obviously, many won’t do this during competition, but before or after they finish their qualifying matches, fans can walk right up to most of them and take a picture, or have them sign a bowling pin for you (they sell beautiful new pins at the souvenir stand).  Think about attending a Tigers game and trying to get a photo with your favorite player or a ball signed (it’s not impossible, but very, very difficult), let alone at a Lions, Red Wings, or Pistons game.  If your kids have any interest in bowling at all, take them over to Thunderbowl this week or weekend…it’s a GREAT fan experience, and they can actually meet the stars.

There are so many different storylines to share with you that I cannot possible put them all in this article.  But here are a few…

Some women are competing against the men

Bowling is the only mainstream sport in which women can compete against the men, and they occasionally win!  In fact, not only can they win, but on January 24th, 2010, Kelly Kulick not only became the first woman to win a regular PBA title, she did it in a MAJOR:  the PBA Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas.   If you have a daughter who loves to bowl and wants some inspiration, bring them to Thunderbowl this week to watch (and meet) the four women competing.  Here’s some video of Maria Rodriquez from Texas and Danielle McEwan from New York.

Bowling is the only sport where hall-of-famers over 50 years old can compete and beat the “young guns”

Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams, Jr. is here trying to become the first player to reach 100 total PBA titles.  He’s tied with fellow Hall-of Famer Pete Weber with 99 wins and, since Weber can’t be here due to an injury, it’s Williams’ chance to be the first…and he has five tournaments to do it!  Could history be made here in The Bowling Capital of the World?  What a story THAT would be!  Other hall-of-famers competing here include tour favorites Norm Duke, Parker Bohn III, and Amleto Monacelli.

Two-handed bowling sensations tearing up the sport

If you’ve ever bowled, you kind of know how it goes:  fingers go in the ball, you start walking, swing your arm, and that one arm delivers the ball.   Several years ago, some bowlers started delivering the ball with two hands, and that new type of bowling approach added significantly more power to their shots, and these bowlers are truly amazing to watch.  If you’ve never seen two-handed bowlers before, then you really need to check them out at Thunderbowl this week.  Here’s some video of two-handed stars Jason Belmonte from Australia and Jesper Swensson from Sweden.

Professional bowlers are amazing athletes using as much focus and concentration as you’ll see in any professional sport.  Take a look at this video I happened to shoot of hall of famer Norm Duke.  Just before he delivered the ball, a baby in the crowd screamed, and Duke somehow was able to abort his shot – actually stepping into the gutter without releasing the ball (or falling).  That he was even able to do this is almost unthinkable.  Think about all of the major league baseball players who try to check their swing on a pitch…barely stopping short of what would be called a strike (and many of them fail).  Norm Duke showed the same level of concentration, and this shows the high level of skill these pros brought to Allen Park this week.

Thunderbowl Lanes is perfectly built to host these tournaments, and their respective televised TV finals

Thunderbowl Lanes is renowned nationally on the PBA Tour.  Not only can we brag that the proprietor, Tom Stroble, is one of the most respected on tour, but the bowling center is a tremendous venue to watch the pros.  The long concourse makes it easy to walk up and down to see different bowlers during qualifying, and the arena lanes where the finals will be competed is perfect for national television (they are tape-delayed and will air on later dates).  In fact, Thunderbowl made bowling history when, in 2009, it was the first bowling center to host the multi-event PBA tournament concept, when the PBA World Series of Bowling came here.  The PBA’s Jerry Schneider said it best in the official press release for this week’s events:  “Thunderbowl Lanes continues its role as part of PBA tradition.”

Here’s the schedule for all of this week’s action:

Qualifying for the PBA Wolf Open is today, and the final qualifying to get to the finals will be competed tonight from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Qualifying for the PBA Bear Open is Tuesday, with preliminary qualifying from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and final qualifying from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Qualifying for the PBA Badger Open is Wednesday, with preliminary qualifying from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and final qualifying from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Qualifying for the PBA Detroit Open is Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m…four different squads of qualifying on three different oil patterns.

Friday is a set-up day for the national TV technical folks, and practice time for the players.

The TV finals are this weekend, with the PBA Wolf, Bear and Badger championships being competed on Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The PBA Detroit Open finals are Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

The week then wraps up with the PBA Fall King of the Swing competition, in which the four title winners plus a “wild card” player all square off for an overall championship…that is scheduled to be competed between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Tickets are surprisingly reasonable:  $10 for individual qualifying squads, or $15 for an all-day pass, $20 for each individual televised final, or $30 for a full-day pass (can’t beat that deal).