PBA Bowling Tour: 2008–09 season

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.[1]

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&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.[2][3]

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.

• Player Of The Year: Wes Malott
• Rookie Of The Year: Jason Belmonte
• High Average Award: Wes Malott (222.98)[5]
• Money Leader: Norm Duke ($199,630)[6]
• Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award: Ryan Shafer

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.

The following is a breakdown of the 58 bowlers who received a PBA exemption for most tournaments in the 2008–09 season:

• 40 – Current Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour (previous season champions and 2007–08 point leaders among non-champions)
• 6 – Point leaders from PBA regions
• 7 – 2008 Lake County Indiana Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Trials
• 1 – Non-exempt Points Leader from the 2007–08 Denny's PBA Tour (+)
• 4 – Deferred Exemptions from the 2007–08 Denny's PBA Tour

(+) 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.

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:

• The Don Johnson Buckeye State Classic (March 8) featured an "Eliminator" format. In the opening match, the top four bowlers from match play competed with the low bowler being eliminated. In the next match, the low bowler was again be eliminated from the remaining three. The final match was standard: two bowlers faced each other, with the winner crowned champion.
• Inspired by NCAA Basketball's "March Madness," the PBA Match Play Championship (March 22) started by ranking the Top 64 bowlers in points through this point of the season. The first round paired the 1st-ranked bowler against the 64th-ranked, 2nd-ranked versus 63rd-ranked, and so on in single-game match play to cut the field to 32. Using the same seedings, the field was cut from 32 to 16, from 16 to 8, from 8 to 4, and from 4 to 2. Only two bowlers remained for the televised final. These two bowled three games each, with total pinfall deciding the champion.[8]

• 2008–09 Season Schedule