PBA Senior Tour returns to Florida to kick off 2011 season

The 2011 Professional Bowlers Association Senior Tour season will get underway with a sold-out field of 120 players in the PBA Senior Don Carter Open at Carter Family Bowl in Winter Garden, Fla., April 17-21.

The Senior Don Carter Open will be followed by another Florida stop when the 50-and-older generation returns to Spanish Springs Lanes in The Villages, Fla., April 23-26, after a one-season absence for the PBA Senior Sun Bowl In The Villages.

Heading up the 120-player field in Winter Garden will be PBA Hall of Famer and 2010 Senior Rookie of the Year Walter Ray Williams Jr. (right) of Ocala, Fla.

The 2010 Senior Tour was one of the most exciting in history with a Senior Player of the Year race involving three Hall of Famers that was decided in the last tournament of the season. Wayne Webb (left) secured Senior Player of the Year honors by winning the Senior Jackson Open, outlasting Williams and another Hall of Famer, Mark Williams (right) of Beaumont, Texas.

W.R. Williams, who earlier in the 2010 season earned PBA Player of the Year, narrowly missed in his bid to become the first to win PBA Player and Senior Player of the Year honors in the same year.

Named after one of bowling's all-time greats, the Senior Don Carter Open, will also benefit two charities — United Cerebral Palsy and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Other stars scheduled to compete are PBA Hall of Famers Dave Soutar (left), Bradenton, Fla.; Johnny Petraglia, Jackson, N.J.; Tom Baker, King, N.C.; Dale Eagle (right), Frisco, Texas; and Ernie Schlegel, Vancouver, Wash.

Also entered are 2009 Senior Player of the Year Ron Mohr of Eagle River, Alaska, and 1998 Senior Player of the Year Pete Couture, Titusville, Fla.

Other Florida standouts entered are five-time PBA Tour and one-time Senior Tour titlist Bob Handley of Winter Park, six-time Senior Tour and four-time PBA Tour winner Steve Neff of Homosassa Springs and four-time Senior Tour and two-time PBA Tour winner Bob Chamberlain of The Villages.

Qualifying rounds will be conducted April 18-20 and match finals rounds on April 21. Practice rounds will be conducted the morning of April 17 with pro-am squads conducted at 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. with a special youth pro-am conducted April 16 at 5 p.m.

Pro-am entry information may be obtained by contacting Carter Family Bowl at (407) 656-2000. Tickets for qualifying and match play finals rounds are also available by calling Carter Family Bowl. Admission is free for practice sessions on April 17.

In addition to Carter Family Bowl, Playdrome Rose Bowl in Allentown, Pa., will be a first-time Senior Tour host when the PBA Senior Mark Roth Allentown Open is conducted May 21-24.

The Senior Tour's first major, the PBA Senior U.S. Open presented by the Suncoast, returns to the Suncoast Bowling Center in Las Vegas June 12-17. The second major of the season, the USBC Senior Masters moves from Las Vegas to Wayne Webb's Columbus Bowl in Columbus, Ohio, July 31-Aug. 5.

 

• April 17-21 – PBA Senior Don Carter Open, Carter Family Bowl, Winter Garden, Fla.


• April 23-26 – PBA Senior Sun Bowl In The Villages, Spanish Springs Lanes, The Villages, Fla.


• May 1-4 – PBA Senior Miller High Life Classic, George Pappas Victory Lanes, Mooresville, N.C.


• May 21-24 – PBA Senior Mark Roth Allentown Open, Playdrome Rose Bowl, Allentown, Pa.


• June 12-17 – PBA Senior U.S. Open, Presented by the Suncoast, Suncoast Bowling Center, Las Vegas


• June 19-22 – PBA Senior Northern California Classic, Harvest Park Bowl, Brentwood, Calif.


• July 31-Aug. 5 – USBC Senior Masters, Wayne Webb's Columbus Bowl, Columbus, Ohio


• Aug. 8-11 – PBA Senior Lake County Open, Olympia Lanes, Hammond, Ind.


• Aug. 13-16 – PBA Senior Decatur Open, Spare Time Lanes, Decatur, Ill.


• Aug. 22-25 – PBA Senior Jackson Open, Airport Lanes, Jackson, Mich.


• Aug. 27-30 – PBA Senior Dayton Classic, Capri Lanes, Dayton, Ohio