Tommy Jones Takes Lead of PBA World Championships

After two six-game blocks at the PBA World Championship presented by Pabst Blue Ribbon, Tommy Jones surged into the 42-game lead at +1,288. He parlayed an opening 300, his second perfect game of the Guaranteed Rate PBA World Series of Bowling XIII, into the tournament’s top seed. Jason Belmonte, Jason Sterner, Jakob Butturff and Kris Prather round out the top five with 12 games left.

Packy Hanrahan, who is one of two players to reach the top 16 in all four individual events, told FloBowling he “Rode the roller coaster of scores tonight.” He currently sits in 10th place, more than 130 pins from fifth, but has lofty ambitions. “I’m not thinking about fifth,” he told FloBowling. “I’m thinking about first. I’m only 300 back with 12 games to go. That’s 30 pins a game.”

Hanrahan has used the same bowling ball, a brand new Purple Hammer, almost exclusively throughout the 42 games of competition thus far. The 12 games bowled today on the Earl Anthony oil pattern were added to 30 games bowled over the previous three days on the Cheetah, Scorpion and Shark patterns.

After Ronnie Russell split in the 10th frame of Game 42, the door burst open for Kyle Sherman to sneak into the cut as the 16th seed. But Sherman thought his odds of advancing had already wilted away.

“The last game I literally had no idea what anyone else was doing,” he told FloBowling. “I didn’t feel any nerves—nothing. I was just out there trying to spin (the ball) and float it and see if I get to go through the pins and just kind of messing around.”

Sherman struck out in his final frame to shoot 239 and eclipse Russell by two pins to secure the final spot in the Eliminator Round of 16.

Three of Sweden’s five players remaining in the World Championship field, Jesper Svensson, Rasmus Edvall and Martin Larsen, moved on to tomorrow’s competition.

The top 16 players will bowl six games on Friday, March 11 at 1 p.m. ET, with the top eight players moving on to the final Eliminator Round of 8 Friday evening. All competition will be available to watch on FloBowling.
PBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY PABST BLUE RIBBON THROUGH 42 GAMES

Tommy Jones +1,288
Jason Belmonte +1,261
Jason Sterner +1,177
Jakob Butturff +1,158
Kris Prather +1,130
Kyle Troup +1,094
EJ Tackett +1,078
Anthony Simonsen +1,049
Cristian Azcona +1,034
Packy Hanrahan +993
Chris Via +985
AJ Johnson +959
Jesper Svensson +952
Rasmus Edvall +918
Martin Larsen +916
Kyle Sherman +871

View the full PBA World Championship presented by Pabst Blue Ribbon standings
GUARANTEED RATE PBA WORLD SERIES OF BOWLING XIII STREAMING AND TV SCHEDULE

PBA World Championship presented by Pabst Blue Ribbon: Eliminator Round of 16 and 8 – Mar. 11 on FloBowling
PBA World Championship presented by Pabst Blue Ribbon – Mar. 13, 1 p.m. ET on FOX
PBA Cheetah Championship – Mar. 14, 8 p.m. ET on FS1
PBA Scorpion Championship – Mar. 15, 8 p.m. ET on FS1
PBA Shark Championship – Mar. 16, 8 p.m. ET on FS1
PBA Collegiate Invitational presented by Storm – Mar. 20, 2:30 p.m. ET on FS1