Sports season
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.
Season highlights.
On October 1, 2008, the PBA began a three-year sponsorship deal with Lumber Liquidators, making the American hardwood flooring retailer the tour's title sponsor through the 2010–11 season. Denny's, the title sponsor from 2005 to 2008, remained a PBA sponsor and continued as the title sponsor of the Denny's Dick Weber Open tour stop.
The PBA kicked off its 50th season with a major tournament: the PBA World Championship was moved to the front of the PBA schedule for the first time in history. The tournament was contested October 19–25, 2008 at Northrock Lanes in Wichita, Kansas, with the live televised finals airing Sunday, October 26 on ESPN. The 20-event 2008–09 season concluded with the 66th U.S. Open, March 29 – April 5 in North Brunswick, New Jersey. Other majors in 2008–09 included the H&amp;R Block Tournament of Champions (January 19–26 at Red Rock Lanes in Las Vegas, Nevada) and USBC Masters (February 8–16 at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas).
The Dydo Japan Cup, which typically kicks off the PBA Tour season on ESPN, was delayed until late April, 2009, due to arena issues.
A special "Golden Anniversary Championship" featured 16 Senior PBA bowlers (age 50 or older) who earned entry through a dedicated qualifying round at the Hammond, Indiana tour stop. The eventual top two Senior bowlers squared off in a live televised final, airing after the final match for the regular touring pros on November 9.
The PBA Women's Series, which began on a limited basis in the 2007–08 season, continued this season with seven events ("see article: PBA Women's Series"). The series featured head-to-head women's matches airing jointly with six PBA telecasts, plus a mixed doubles event with PBA professionals that aired February 1, 2009.
Tournament schedule and recap.
"Majors are noted in bold text. The number of titles for tournament winners is noted in parentheses. The women's title count is for PBA Women's Series events only."
Exemptions for 2008–09.
The following is a breakdown of the 58 bowlers who received a PBA exemption for most tournaments in the 2008–09 season:
(+) "Rhino Page topped all non-exempt bowlers during the 2007–08 season. But because Page also won a title, this exemption went to the next-highest non-exempt bowler, Edward VanDaniker Jr."
This leaves six spots that can be earned each week through the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Qualifying Round (TQR), for a total starting field of 64 bowlers. "If a bowler from any of the aforementioned categories does not take his or her spot in a given week, the next-place bowler beyond 6th place in the TQR will take the spot."
There are some exceptions to this breakdown. The PBA World Championship, Dick Weber Open and PBA Marathon Championship events are open to the entire PBA membership in 2008–09. The U.S. Open and USBC Masters events are open to the entire PBA membership plus qualifying USBC amateurs.
Newly-exempt bowlers for 2008–09.
The following six bowlers received 2008–09 tour exemptions by finishing with the most points in their respective PBA Regions (the East Region points leader declined his exemption). This is the last year that points alone will qualify a Regional bowler for an exemption (see main article, Professional Bowlers Association).
In late May 2008, the PBA held the 2008 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Trials to determine the final seven bowlers who would attain exempt status for the 2008–09 season. At the Tour Trials, six-time PBA titlist Dave D'Entremont led the field with a 45-game pinfall of 10,051 (223.4 average) to regain the tour exemption he lost following the 2007–08 season. Below are the seven bowlers with the largest pin totals, who received exempt status for the 2008–09 season:
2008–09 Finals formats.
The 2008–09 season used a combination of bracketed and stepladder finals, plus some newly introduced finals formats. The four-player bracketed format was used four times during the season, a four-player stepladder format was used nine times, and a five-player stepladder format was used five times. In addition:
References.
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