Chris Barnes Gets A Major Win at PBA50 World Championship
Jackson, Michigan – Chris Barnes was experiencing a little bit of déjà vu on Sunday. The last time he won a PBA50 tournament was at the 2022 PBA50 David Small’s JAX 60 Open when he climbed the stepladder from the fourth seed to earn the victory.
When he won that event, it was his fourth PBA50 title and he collected $7,500. Today, in the same bowling center, it was for a major title and $25,000.
After leading the majority of the PBA50 World Championship during the inaugural PBA50 World Series of Bowling, Barnes fell out of the lead for the first time during match play on Sunday, but he was able to take what he learned on the 45-foot Dick Weber oil pattern to help him regroup and get the win.
“It was a culmination of a lot of mistakes over the last four blocks on this pattern,” Barnes admitted. “When you make that many mistakes hopefully you learn a lot. We cycled through what I knew wouldn’t work, caught some good breaks, and I am certainly going to enjoy this one.”
The opening match presented Barnes with the chance to get past Tom Hess, who defeated him in the PBA50 Petraglia Championship on Friday. Barnes threw four out of five strikes to end the game for the 245-236 win.
In match two, Barnes only missed once and that was the 3-4-6-7-9-10 split in the third frame. His opponent John Janawicz opened the match with five of six strikes. Janawicz failed to strike in the 10th frame, and Barnes, who was working on six strikes after his open frame, struck out for the 258-244 win.
Game 3 saw Barnes take on Brad Angelo, who was the first player to jump him in the overall standings on Sunday. After Angelo failed to convert the 2-10 in the fourth frame, Barnes made a ball change in the fourth frame after two single-pin spares and threw seven out of eight strikes to get the 248-211 victory.
After noticing the friction starting to get to his ball toward the end of the semifinals match, Barnes and ball rep Jim Callahan decided he should switch to a 900 Global Xponent for the championship match, based on how it had reacted on the 46-foot Petraglia pattern Friday.
“I went +200 the last four when they broke down before using that ball, so we took a swing for the fences, assuming Troy was going to shoot a big game,” Barnes said. “Every once in a while, the stars align.”
Barnes and Callahan hit a home run as Barnes slammed home six straight to start the match giving him a 41-pin lead. With Lint not having quite the same look on this pair that he had to power his way to the No. 1 seed, Barnes finished his impressive stepladder run with the dominant 278-193 win. Barnes averaged 257.25 during his four-game title climb.
“At this point, this would be the most special of the five titles I have out here,” Barnes said. “Tom (Hess) probably had the best overall week. But winning this one was my biggest goal, and this worked out as good as I could hope."
Barnes, who bowled 72 games at the World Series of Bowling this week, joked that his $25,000 first-place pay day will help pay for his family’s trip to Lima, Peru starting July 30 to cheer on his son, Ryan, who is representing Junior Team USA at the PANAM Bowling Youth Championship 2023.
In addition to Barnes winning the PBA50 World Championship, and Tom Hess winning the PBA50 Petraglia Championship, Dan Knowlton won the PBA50 Ballard Championship for his first PBA50 title, and Jon Rakoski won his first title at the PBA50 Monacelli Championship to conclude the PBA50 World Series of Bowling.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SCORES
Match 1: Barnes def. Hess, 245-236
Match 2: Barnes def. Janawicz, 258-244
Match 3: Barnes def. Angelo, 248-211
Championship match: Barnes def. Lint. 278-193
FINAL STANDINGS
- Chris Barnes, $25,000
- Troy Lint, $13,000
- Brad Angelo, $8,000
- John Janawicz, $6,000
- Tom Hess, $5,000