June 5, 2023 Nolan Hughes

The first PBA50 Tour event of 2023 begins in Las Vegas

Following the season’s first PBA60 title event at the USBC Super Senior Classic, the PBA50 Tour begins on Tuesday with the USBC Senior Masters at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas.

Dino Castillo, who delivered a championship performance for the ages year ago, is the defending champion.

As the No. 5 seed, Castillo fired games of 300, 257 and 255 to reach the title match. Needing to defeat top seed Chris Warren twice, Castillo shot 253 to Warren’s 201, then took the winner-take-all game 216-199 to earn his first career PBA50 Tour title.

Castillo, one of Brunswick’s ball reps on the PBA Tour, has seen as many balls go down the lanes as anyone this year. He’ll begin his own campaign tomorrow morning in Vegas.

The Senior Masters will be livestreamed on BowlTV as the world’s premier players aged 50 and over compete for the $20,000 top prize.

Players to Watch

John Marsala’s win at the Super Senior Classic must have fellow southpaws Parker Bohn III and Jason Couch licking their chops. Coming off stellar performances of their own, right-handers Jack Jurek and Lennie Boresch Jr. have proven to match up well at Sam’s Town.

Jurek and Boresch led their respective groups in match play en route to earning the top two seeds at the Super Senior Classic. While Marsala knocked them off in the stepladder finals, Jurek and the newly minted PBA Hall of Famer Boresch should be strong contenders to not only make the bracket, but make some noise once there.

Las Vegas’ own Ron Mohr, a 2018 PBA Hall of Fame inductee, sits on the cusp of history; a win would mark his 12th career PBA50 title, tying Tom Baker, Gary Dickinson and Dale Eagle for fourth on the all-time list.

The Senior Masters is a PBA50 major championship; therefore, Mika Koivuniemi (aka Major Mika) has to be considered a factor.

The full tournament roster is available here.

Format

The first PBA50 champion of the season will have to endure the Masters’ signature 64-player, double-elimination bracket. The road to the bracket begins with three days of qualifying.

Each player will bowl one five-game round per day on the 39-foot oil pattern. The lanes will be oiled each day before the morning’s round, so players will compete once on fresh oil, once on the burn and once on the double burn.

After all 15 games of qualifying, the field will then be cut to the top 64 players, or the top 63 players and Castillo if he finishes qualifying outside of the top 63 players.

The double-elimination bracket, which begins on Friday, features three-game, total-pinfall matches. Bracket competition will whittle the field down throughout Friday and Saturday to determine the five finalists for Sunday’s stepladder finals (1 p.m. ET on BowlTV).

Tournament Schedule

All times are listed in Eastern time. The full schedule is available here.

Tuesday, June 6 | BowlTV
11 a.m. — A-squad Qualifying Round 1 (five games; fresh oil)
3 p.m. — B-squad Qualifying Round 1 (five games; burn)
7 p.m. — C-squad Qualifying Round 1 (five games; double burn)

Wednesday, June 7 | BowlTV
11 a.m. — B-squad Qualifying Round 2 (five games; fresh oil)
3 p.m. — C-squad Qualifying Round 2 (five games; burn)
7 p.m. — A-squad Qualifying Round 2 (five games; double burn)

Thursday, June 8 | BowlTV
11 a.m. — C-squad Qualifying Round 3 (five games; fresh oil)
3 p.m. — A-squad Qualifying Round 3 (five games; burn)
7 p.m. — B-squad Qualifying Round 3 (five games; double burn)

Cut to top 63 players and defending champion (Dino Castillo) for double-elimination match-play bracket

Friday, June 9 | BowlTV
Noon — Match play Round 1 (left side of bracket)
2:30 p.m.  — Match play Round 1 (right side of bracket)
4:30 p.m. — Match play (all winners)
7 p.m. — Match Play (two contenders rounds)

Saturday, June 10 | BowlTV
Noon — Match play cont.
4 p.m. — Match play cont.

Sunday, June 11 | BowlTV
1 p.m. — Stepladder finals

More information on the tournament is available here.