Weber tops USBC Masters field after opening round

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Pete Weber of St. Ann, Missouri, has won 37 career Professional Bowlers Association titles, including 10 majors, but the one tournament that has always eluded him has been the United States Bowling Congress Masters.

Weber got off to a stellar start in Tuesday's opening round at the 2015 USBC Masters, finishing with a five-game total of 1,308 (261.6 average) to lead the sold-out field of 336 of the top bowlers in the world at The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley. The finals of the event will be broadcast live on ESPN on Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern.

After starting with games of 235 and 250, Weber finished the day with games of 287, 257 and 279 to lead the tournament by 79 pins.

"It always feel good to get off to such a good start," said Weber, a member of the USBC and PBA Hall of Fames. "I wasn't feeling really good after the practice session yesterday because of my ball reaction. Fortunately, the stuff I drilled up worked well."

Chad Roberts of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, sits in second place with 1,229, while EJ Tackett of Huntington, Indiana, is third with 1,206. Andrew Anderson of Holly, Michigan, fired a 300 game in the opening round and is fourth with 1,203.

Denmark's Thomas Larsen also had a perfect game in the first round and is 19th with 1,157.

All competitors will bowl 15 games of qualifying over three days before the field is cut to the top 63 plus defending champion Jason Belmonte of Australia for the double-elimination match-play bracket starting Friday.

The top five players at the conclusion of the bracket competition will compete in the live two-hour championship round on ESPN.

The Masters, which features a first-place prize of $50,000, is a major event on the PBA Tour and is part of the World Tenpin Bowling Association World Bowling Tour.
    
All qualifying and match play rounds of the Masters are being covered live on Xtra Frame, the PBA's online bowling channel. For subscription information, visit pba.com.

For more information on the Masters, including live scoring, visit BOWL.com/Masters.