Jakob Butturff Wins PBA Xtra Frame South Point Las Vegas Open
12/7/2016Tommy Jones wins $10,000 bonus as season-long Xtra Frame Tour points leader
LAS VEGAS – Jakob Butturff of Chandler, Ariz., won his second career Professional Bowlers Association Tour title in the PBA Xtra Frame South Point Las Vegas Open at South Point Bowling Plaza in a championship round that featured three of the PBA’s rising stars.
Butturff, who won his only other title earlier in the year in the PBA Xtra Frame Lubbock Sports Open in Texas, struck on 10 of his first
11 shots to defeat 19-year-old Anthony
Simonson of Princeton, Texas, 277-211.
Butturff, a 22-year-old left-hander, led the field after 32 games of qualifying and match play by 448 pins, winning 14 of his 16 matches Sunday without an open frame. Except for his 218 game to start the tournament, the second- year PBA member led all the way to the final match.
“Everyone performed great,” Butturff said. “I just had to make as many good shots as they did.
“My mom was diagnosed with cancer recently, so I really wanted to win this one for her. One thing I’ve learned is that when someone has cancer, you have to keep their spirits up and I know she likes it when I bowl well. My title was basically for her.
“I’ve just been successful bowling here in Vegas; it was more of a comfort feeling than anything,” he added.Simonsen, who won both of his PBA Tour titles earlier in the year, won the semifinal match in a strike-fest against 21-year-old Swedish two-hander Jesper Svensson, 267-
258. The battle of contenders for 2016 PBA Player of the Year honors began with Simonsen throwing seven strikes to start the match while Svensson, the Tour’s only three-time winner in 2016, converted three single-pin spares before rolling eight strikes in a row to finish his game.
In the first match, Simonsen struck on four of his first five shots before leaving the 4-6-7-
10 split, but O’Neill had trouble gaining ground, leaving 10 pins on five of his first seven shots. He finally got on track with a late string of four strikes, but Simonsen recovered from his big split with a string of six strikes for a 242-224 victory.
Simonsen also struck on four of his first five shots against Jones in the second match, but Jones, after converting spares in his first three frames, threw three strikes to catch up. A
4-6-10 split in Jones’ seventh frame, however, gave Simonsen an opening and he jumped on it, throwing another string of five strikes to knock Jones out of the finals, 248-191.
With his fourth-place finish, Jones earned
17 points in the final PBA Xtra Frame Tour event of the year and captured the $10,000 winner-take-all bonus with a season-ending total of 87 points to overtake E.J. Tackett, who finished with 84 points, and Ryan Ciminelli, who had 83.
Article was posted with permission from Stars & Strikes, America's Bowling Newsmagazine. www.starsandstrikesbowling.com
