A sold-out field including 120 of the world’s best bowlers will resume competition when the Professional Bowlers Association returns to FireLake Bowling Center and the Grand Casino Hotel and Resort May 9-17 for the second annual Oklahoma’s Grand Casino Hotel & Resort PBA Summer Swing.
The Summer Swing will include four PBA Tour title events plus a special Oklahoma’s Grand Casino Hotel & Resort King of the Swing finale, all of which will air on CBS Sports Network. The finals will be contested in a special bowling arena installed inside the Grand Casino Event Center while the preliminary rounds will be hosted by the FireLake Bowling Center and covered by PBA’s online bowling channel Xtra Frame.
CBS Sports Network’s coverage begins Tuesday, May 26 (8 p.m. ET) with the Wolf Open. Coverage continues with the Bear Open (June 2, 9 p.m.), Badger Open (June 9, 9 p.m.), Oklahoma Open (June 16, 9 p.m.), and King of the Swing (June 23, 9 p.m.).
The Summer Swing will again include four PBA Tour title events – the Wolf, Bear and Badger Opens and the PBA Oklahoma Open. The Oklahoma’s Grand Casino Resort King of the Swing special event will feature the four winners plus a “wild card” player.
Returning to defend their titles will be Wolf Open champion Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill.; Bear Open winner Ronnie Russell of Marion, Ind.; Oklahoma Open champ Jason Belmonte of Australia, and Badger Open and King of the Swing winner Bill O’Neill of Langhorne, Pa.
Heading into the Summer Swing, Belmonte is the front-runner for a third consecutive PBA Player of the Year title, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Walter Ray Williams Jr. won the PBA’s highest annual honor in 1996, ’97 and ’98. The only other player who has earned POY honors three years in a row was the late Earl Anthony, who did it twice (1981-83 and 1974-76).
Through the first 10 events of the 2015 campaign, Belmonte has won the first two major titles of the season (the USBC Masters and Barbasol PBA Tournament of Champions) to take the lead in the PBA Tour earnings race ($152,161 vs. $106,710 for current runner-up Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas) and is fifth in scoring average (231.46 vs. the 234.59 pace by leader Rhino Page of Dade City, Fla.).
In its brief three-year history, the PBA Summer Swing has established itself as one of professional bowling’s most demanding competitions. It involves three unique “animal pattern” lane conditions to test a variety of bowling skills, and requires players to excel on all three scoring environments in order to advance to the Oklahoma Open, where the three match play rounds are contested on each of the three lane conditions.
The Wolf Open uses the shortest of all PBA animal patterns, with oil applied only 32 feet down the lane. The Badger is the longest of all animal patterns, with oil applied 52 feet down lane. The Bear pattern may be the most challenging of all, applied to 40 feet, but virtually flat from gutter to gutter.
“The Summer Swing has quickly become one of the hallmark events on the PBA Tour calendar,” said PBA Commissioner Tom Clark. “It’s a great competitive challenge for our members, it has a great sponsor in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and Grand Casino Hotel & Resort, and it will provide PBA fans around the world with more than 50 hours of live coverage on Xtra Frame in addition to 10 hours of nationally-televised coverage on CBS Sports Network.”
All qualifying and preliminary match play rounds of the PBA Summer Swing will be covered exclusively live on Xtra Frame. Three-day ($3.99), monthly ($7.99) and 12-month XF Season Ticket ($64.99) subscriptions are available.
CBS Sports Network is available across the country through local cable, video and telco providers and via satellite on DirecTV Channel 221 and Dish Network Channel 158. For more information, including a full programming schedule and how to get CBS Sports Network, go to http://www.cbssportsnetwork.com/
Fans can also catch a recap of last year’s Oklahoma’s Grand Casino Hotel and Resort PBA Summer Swing by visiting PBA’s Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVavkPbUzAI
For fans who will be attending the Summer Swing, individual day passes can be purchased at http://www.grandboxoffice.com/event?eventid=66 for $25.
Day passes are for general admission seating in the balcony overlooking the two-lane bowling installation, and are good for all telecasts happening the day of purchase. Weekend passes can be purchased at http://www.grandboxoffice.com/event?eventid=65. Tickets are $60 each, allow access to all finals conducted over the weekend, and will be good for general admission seating on the first floor bleachers next to the lanes.
The May 16 schedule includes the Wolf Open finals at 11 a.m. (CT), Bear Open at 2:30 and Badger Open at 5:15. The May 17 schedule includes the Oklahoma Open finals at noon and the King of the Swing at 3:30 p.m.
OKLAHOMA’S GRAND CASINO HOTEL & RESORT PBA SUMMER SWING SCHEDULE
FireLake Bowling Center and Grand Casino Hotel & Resort, Shawnee, Okla., May 9-17 (all times are Central)
Saturday, May 9
2 p.m. – Pro-am
Sunday, May 10
Noon – A Squad practice session
3:30 p.m. – B Squad practice session
Monday, May 11 – PBA Wolf Open
8 a.m. – A Squad, 6 qualifying games
2 p.m. – B Squad, 6 qualifying games
Top 18 advance to second qualifying round
7:30 p.m. – Top 18, 6 qualifying games
Top 5 after 12 games advance to stepladder finals
Tuesday, May 12 – PBA Bear Open
8 a.m. – B Squad, 6 qualifying games
2 p.m. – A Squad, 6 qualifying games
Top 18 advance to second qualifying round
7:30 p.m. – Top 18, 6 qualifying games
Top 5 after 12 games advance to stepladder finals
Wednesday, May 13 – PBA Badger Open
8 a.m. – A Squad, 6 qualifying games
2 p.m. – B Squad, 6 qualifying games
Top 18 after 6 games advance to second qualifying round; top 18 after 18 games (combined 6-game first-round Wolf, Bear and Badger totals) advance to Oklahoma Open match play
7:30 p.m. – Top 18, 6 qualifying games
Top 5 after 12 games advance to stepladder finals
Thursday, May 14 – PBA Oklahoma Open Round Robin Match Play
10 a.m. – Top 18, 6 games match play, Wolf pattern
2 p.m. – Top 18, 6 games match play, Bear pattern
6:30 p.m. – Top 18, 6 games match play, Badger pattern
Top 5 advance to stepladder finals
CBS SPORTS NETWORK STEPLADDER FINALS
Grand Casino Resort Event Center, Shawnee, Okla.
Saturday, May 16
11 a.m. – PBA Wolf Open five-player stepladder finals
2:30 p.m. – PBA Bear Open five-player stepladder finals
5:15 p.m. – PBA Badger Open five-player stepladder finals
Sunday, May 17
Noon – PBA Oklahoma Open five-player stepladder finals
3:30 p.m. – Oklahoma’s Grand Casino Resort King of the Swing five-player stepladder finals (four title winners plus “wild card” player – highest in combined points for four events without a title).