Tom Smallwood defeated Wes Malott in an absolutely thrilling PBA World Championship final showdown. This tournament finale brings to an end the inaugural World Series of Bowling, which over the last year has been debated nearly non-stop on the PBA message boards and through the media.

Many people commended the PBA for taking this drastic step to build the profile of the PBA to a worldwide audience, while many others nit-picked pieces and parts that challenged the tradition and history of the PBA Tour.

The WSOB spanned a little over a month in August and September. Seven different PBA tournaments were conducted in that span of time alongside Women's Series events, and even the PBA Senior World Championship.

The WSOB challenged the greatest bowlers in the World to compete on physically and mentally demanding conditions with very little recovery time between events. Many were hampered by injuries and exhaustion, let alone a revised set of lane patterns that were incredibly difficult to navigate.

The WSOB inspired a wealth of international talent to test their skills against the best players in the world for one month in August. Talents like Osku Palermaa (left), Martin Larsen, (right) and Paul Moor (below left) traveled over the Atlantic Ocean and into Detroit for a shot at bowling stardom in America.

The WSOB led to the dramatic improvements in Xtra Frame and coverage of professional bowling via live internet stream. Including post day recaps on PBA:39X60, player interviews, product spotlights, and nearly non-stop qualifying and match play action.

But everything about the WSOB wasn't well received by fans. Almost all of the telecasts were tape-delayed by nearly two months and with the tour stationed in one location for seven events, other towns that would have hosted some of those events were left without one.

Two weeks ago, the WSOB concluded with an incredible live final that sent the PBA and former GM employee Tom Smallwood (right) on a whirlwind media tour. But that wasn't the only incredible story to come out of the WSOB.

Walter Ray Williams, Jr. (left) kicked it all off by winning the Motor City Open and topping one of the most star studded PBA finals fields in this decade. A final that included Tommy Jones, Bill O'Neill, Pete Weber, Chris Barnes and 103 combined titles.

Next, Norm Duke (right) defeated Ryan Ciminelli in a seven-game Cheetah Championship final which aired using a unique documentary style telecast. This telecast helped the average viewer take a peek into the inner workings of a PBA tournament and the difficulty of winning one. And it was, in my opinion, the best of all of the named pattern championships.

Rhino Page (left) arrived at the WSOB with new motivation and a new haircut and made his first telecast of the season at the Viper Championship. He would face fellow lefty Ryan Ciminelli, who was making back-to-back finals and trying to earn an exemption for the following season with a victory. The two put on a clinic on how to strike using urethane, which hadn't been seen in quite some time. A couple stubborn 7-pins in the last few frames sealed Ciminelli's fate. Well that, and Rhino just kept striking.

The Chameleon Championship held true to its name, changing on what seemed to be every shot. And the leaders of each match changed at a pretty frequent rate too. Ronnie Russell pushed Bill O'Neill i(right) nto a position where O'Neill had faltered in the past. Needing 18 pins in the 10th (which by the way, was pretty hard to come by during the day) O'Neill peppered the pocket with two rack busting strikes to win and get that annoying monkey off his back.

The Scorpion Championship saw Mike DeVaney (left) earn only his second title in nearly seven stellar years by defeating Jason Belmonte in the final. Maybe more newsworthy than his victory was the fact that he was living out of his car before the WSOB to save money for it. A good win for one of the good guys on tour.

If seven years between victories seemed like a lot, how about 14? Jack Jurek (pictured right with Kelly Kulick) took down reigning Player of the Year and King of Bowling Wes Malott and then outlasted Mike Fagan in a one frame roll-off for his first title in 14 years!

And who can forget the Women's Series? Shannon Pluhowsky (left) made three out of five shows and won twice. Kelly Kulick made two out of five shows and won twice.

Liz Johnson (right) made two out of five shows and one once. Carolyn Dorin Ballard made two shows without winning. The only other lady to make a show during the Women's Series at the WSOB was Lynda Barnes. Those are the only five names that made the show in a Women's Series that was averaging over 30 women per event.

With that said, I'm wondering who your 2009 PBA World Series of Bowling MVP's are? Shannon Pluhowsky and Kelly Kulick are clearly the frontrunners on the Women's side with a slight edge to Pluhowsky since she made one more show than Kulick.

As for the men, I think you have to engrave the mythical award with Tom Smallwood's name. I don't think the major is the only reason either. Nothing like losing your job and deciding that your best career move at that point is to try your hand at the PBA Tour where you have amassed only $12,077 in career earnings over the course of nine events in five years. With all that added pressure to perform he managed to make match play in six out of seven events, with three top 10's and a major victory.

 

 

The Big Four

 

• No bigger story in bowling than Tom Smallwood capturing the PBA World Championship last week. What an incredible final! Seriously, I got goose bumps watching those last couple of clutch shots.
• Scott Norton won the Regional Players Invitational in Reno this past week. More importantly, Ryan Ciminelli won an exemption for next season, which means your non-exempt point's race just got a lot more interesting. Currently leading that race is Dave D'Entremont with Andres Gomez nipping at his heels.
• Have you seen Wayne Garber throw the ball lately? I think he takes the cake for uniqueness in his approach to throwing the ball. When I was about 12 years old, I used to take about 11 to 13 steps depending on what mood I was in. I cut back to a five step approach the week after I forgot how to coordinate my random approach so that I would slide on the correct leg (Yes, it got that bad). I counted 11 steps for Garber on a consistent basis. It would be pretty impressive to me if his slide foot and body line up with the same boards shot after shot because he does side step a little bit over the course of the 11 steps. I mean, isn't it hard enough to drift consistently with a four or five step approach? Anyways, if you haven't seen it yet, you will when the Pepsi Red, White & Blue Open presented by USBC final airs in January, as he qualified second.
• The PBA redesigned their website and I have to say I like it. Best part is that you can comment now on all my blogs at the bottom of the page. Let me know how I am doing or if there is something you'd like my opinion on.

   

  
  

  My Top Ten

   

  1. Rhino Page (E) Rhino and Wes had a good match and it could have gone either way, but I didn't see anything that was worthy of knocking him off his perch atop this list.
  2. Chris Barnes (E) (Channeling my inner Kanye West) "Tom, I'm really happy for you, and I'm going to let you finish, but Barnes had one of the best WSOB's of all time," (even though he didn't win)
  3. Tom Smallwood (NR) OK, maybe I was wrong about the guy. Shows up at the PBA World Championship and outsmarts one of the best on tour and overcomes two Brooklyns from the reigning PBA Player of the Year and King of Bowling Wes Malott in the final to win.
  4. Wes Malott (+3) Bloody thumb and all, you fought until the end and were beaten by a better bowler that day. No biggie. (Plus you got hosed to barely miss the R, W&B show). As Brian Voss says, he's bowled over 600 events and lost 576 of them.
  5. Bill O'Neill (-2) In a one game roll-off, you better make the right lane-play choice out of practice or you'll lose. Bill made the wrong choice and he lost.
  6. Walter Ray Williams, Jr. (-1) WRW, Jr. loses a spot only because other guys gained.
  7. Sean Rash (-3) I fully expect this to be his lowest rating for the rest of the season. I've got a hunch that he's going to break back into the winner's circle real quick.
  8. Norm Duke (-2) Norm's kind of a mystery to me. When he makes the show he's the greatest player in the World. And then he just disappears like a comic book hero.
  9. Jack Jurek (-1) Jack had one of the best WSOB performances on tour.
  10. Jason Couch (+1) Injury free and bowling very well.

   

   

  Quotes of the Week

  
  "My career is set."
  
  Ryan Ciminelli after securing his exemption for the 2010 season during the Regional Players Invitational. I guess I can't argue with him and I think we all expect him to do well on tour as a full time exempt player.

   

  
  "I think I'm pretty much done as a full-time touring player. I've done some soul searching. I like my normal family life. I like being able to go watch my oldest son bowl in collegiate matches. I'm not at the top of my game any longer. So I think I may bowl the majors and maybe the open entry events, but not much else."
  
  Doug Kent contemplating retirement as a full-time player from the PBA Tour.

   

  
  "The scores were very high, but people need to realize the Red, White and Blue patterns are house patterns, not USBC Sport Bowling or PBA patterns. Even the USBC Blue pattern, which is the hardest of the three, is a great deal less challenging than what the PBA pros bowl on week in and week out. Remember, these are the best bowlers in the world. They routinely average 220 or better on most of their patterns, so it really isn't surprising to see them average 10-20 pins higher on the Red, White and Blue house patterns."
  
  USBC Technical Director Steve Kloempken commenting on the high scores at the PBA Red, White & Blue Open. I think this is important to note since many people seemed to think the Blue pattern should have provided a significant decrease in scoring. I read somewhere that the red was an 8-1 ratio, white was a 6-1 ratio and blue was a 4-1 ratio. Most PBA patterns are 2-1 ratio or less, which is essentially flat.