Some of the best bowlers in the world rolled into Marina City in 2011 for the first Professional Bowlers Association tour event held in Chicago since 1963. The GEICO PBA Team Shootout took place at 10pin Bowling Lounge over four days – May 29, 2011, through June 1, 2011 – including Memorial Day. 20 of the top PBA bowlers – including PBA Hall of Famers Pete Weber and Parker Bohn III, newly-named PBA Player of the Year Mika Kovuniemi, and PBA Triple Crown winner Chris Barnes – competed on five-person teams, each sponsored by their respective bowling ball manufacturer. (Left) Bowling Hall of Famer Pete Weber and an audience at the PBA Summer Shootout watch the ball Weber has just delivered at Marina City’s 10pin Bowling Lounge on May 29, 2011. Click on images to view larger versions.

The entire competition was videotaped and broadcast on ESPN in 16 half-hour segments on June 25, 2011. (Right) Professional Bowlers Association Player of the Year Mika Koivuniemi reacts to a strike on May 31, 2011, at Marina City’s 10pin Bowling Lounge.

(Left) Four-time titlist Ryan Shafer of Horseheads, New York, starts to breathe again after bowling a perfect game at the GEICO PBA Team Shootout at 10pin Bowling Lounge on June 1, 2011. It happened in the first game of the day, a singles match between players representing bowling equipment manufacturers Storm Products and Brunswick.

The winner of the 2011 GEICO PBA Summer Shootout was the 900 Global team. Michael Haugen Jr., Steve Jaros, Missy Parkin, Robert Smith, and Brian Voss split $70,000. (Right) Newly crowned United States Bowling Congress champion Missy Parkin (at left), the only woman in the competition, bowls for Team 900 Global.

Bowler fined for incident during PBA event

A burst of profanity at the GEICO PBA Team Shootout cost one of the competitors some money.

Professional Bowlers Association fined 28-year-old Chicago resident Sean Rash an undisclosed amount for the outburst, calling it “conduct unbecoming a professional.”

Rash was apparently annoyed by a squeaky water bottle just as he was about to roll the ball during the Eliminator match on June 1, 2011, with Australian Jason Belmonte (left). He threw a strike anyway but heatedly told Belmonte, who is suspected to have made the noise with his water bottle, to “take that, you bottle bitch.” Rash then let slip another expletive, and another one, right after the squeaky noise, muttering, “Really? Lots of [bleep] class right there.” (Left) Belmonte reacts to Rash’s outburst in this frame from video of the incident.

PBA’s Chief Operating Officer explained the outburst.

“For bowling fans who may think the GEICO Team Shootout was a so-called ‘silly season’ exhibition, I think they will find out otherwise,” said Tom Clark in a news release. “It was a fierce competition for the second annual Manufacturer’s Cup, with significant money and a great deal of pride on the line. It featured 20 of the best players in the world bowling with one goal – to win – and that shines through in this series.”

Belmonte also released a statement, saying he is “a respectful, honorable, and honest bowler and person. If you beat me, you did it because you were better than me on the day and the same goes if I beat you. Simple as that.”

(Above) ESPN videotaped the entire event for broadcast the following month. (Left) TV trucks parked along North State Street. (Right) A camera operator captures a lane at 10pin Bowling Lounge.

PBA shootout returns to 10pin the next year

2009 PBA Rookie of the Year Jason Belmonte, 2010 PBA Dick Weber Open Champion Mike Fagan, five-time PBA Tournament of Champions winner Sean Rash, and five-time U.S. Open winner Pete Weber – winner of 36 PBA events and son of Dick Weber – were just four of the bowling world’s elite who returned to 10pin Bowling Lounge for the PBA Summer Shootout in 2012.

23 bowlers competed on May 27, 28, and 29. Like the previous year, the series was videotaped for broadcast on ESPN.

“Make no mistake, ” cautioned PBA commissioner Tom Clark, “while this event is guaranteed to be fun and exciting for fans to watch on site and as it plays out over the summer months on ESPN, the radical format means it will be a unique tightrope walk for players that will have them on edge, fighting for survival from the first ball.”

This time, Belmonte, Weber, and Osku Palermaa, representing bowling ball manufacturer Storm Products, won the championship match at the PBA Summer Shootout, beating Rash and Chris Loschetter.