U.S. Open

The U.S. Open is one of the four major tournaments in the Professional Bowlers Association. The first modern-day U.S. Open tournament in the PBA took place in 1971 and was won by Mike Limongello. (Prior to 1971, this event was known as the BPAA All-Star.) With four victories, Pete Weber holds the most modern-day U.S. Open trophies.

The U.S. Open winner currently earns $100,000 and a three-year Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour exemption. This means the winner gains automatic entry into the Top 64 field each week for the following three seasons, without having to go through the Tour Qualifying Round (TQR).

Previous U.S. Open Champions

U.S. Open Oil Pattern

The U.S. Open features what PBA.com describes as "the toughest lane oil design in all of bowling." The pattern is considered "flat," meaning equal amounts of oil are applied to every lane board.[1] Many claim the oil pattern is responsible for the lack of left-handed winners in this tournament, because there isn't enough ball traffic on the left side to create a "track area."^[1] When Mike Scroggins won the 2009 event in North Brunswick, NJ, he became the first left-hander in 20 years (Mike Aulby, 1989) to earn a U.S. Open title; interestingly, Aulby's win was on an oil pattern where oil was applied more heavily on the outer boards (that is, those closest to the gutters) to the point where the outer parts of the lanes were effectively unplayable. In all, left-handers account for five victories (Moser [1976], Petraglia [1977], Cook [1986], Aulby [1989], and Scroggins [2009]) and eight runner-up finishes (Anthony [1973, 1979, 1980], Davis [1974], Devers [1992], Bohn [1994], Couch [1999], Allen [2005]) at the U.S. Open since 1971. It is also the only major title that left-hander and 43-time titleist Earl Anthony never won in his career, though he did finish runner-up three times.

See also

• U.S. Women's Open

External links

• PBA.com Site

References

1. ^ Pedersen, Randy. Transcript of 4/5/2009 U.S. Open broadcast on ESPN.