By JILL WINTERS
PBA Communications
FORT MYERS, Fla. — When you are bowling with your friend it’s always a good time, especially when you are both bowling well.
That has been the case for Tom Hess and Parker Bohn III bowling next to each other during qualifying at the 2023 PBA50 Fort Myers Lightning Strikes Lanes Classic this week.
Bohn III was leading B-squad Tuesday until the final game, when Hess rolled a 289 to Bohn’s 258 to overtake his friend for first place. Bohn came out firing right away with 265, 244, 241 for 750, while Hess shot 203, 208, 247 for 658.
Hess admits it takes him a little while to get going during the first squad of the day, but once he does, the strikes show up on the scoreboard in masses.
“Early in a block it’s hard for me to get in a rhythm and get going, then I took off from there,” Hess said. “It’s nice bowling next to Parker this week. We are rooting each other on and pushing each other.”
The right-hander also shot 247, 232, 244, 213 and 289 for 1,883, an average of 235.38. Bohn stayed hot with games of 258, 216, 259, 194 and 258, finishing with 1,935, an average of 241.88 on Tuesday.
Hess thought the lane conditions played similar to Day 1, which allowed him to make more educated guesses Tuesday compared to Monday’s first eight games of qualifying.
The field of 122 players was cut to the top 40. The final player in was Chuck Richey Jr. at +59. Akron’s Dong Hogue made a jump to 44th on Day 2, but fell 25 pins short of the cut (3,234).
They will bowl five games in the advancers round starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday to determine the top 24. All qualifying pins will then be dropped as they move into bracket match play starting with the Round of 24, which includes qualifiers 9 through 24 bowling at noon.
These are three game matches with the highest total pinfall moving on. The Round of 16 will feature the previous match winners and qualifiers 1-8, who earned-first round byes, and will start at 2 p.m. before the Round of 8 starts at 4 p.m.
The winners will advance to the stepladder finals, along with the highest losing seed in the Round of 8. The finals will start at 6 p.m.
See complete results here: https://www.r2sports.com/website/standings.asp?TID=40485