Abbreviation PBA Headquarters Seattle, Washington Chairman Chris Peters | Formation 1958 Region served Worldwide | |
Purpose A series of regional professional ten-pin bowling events, governing body is Professional Bowlers Association and USBC. | ||
The PBA Regional Tour is a series of "mini tours", run by the Professional Bowlers Association, spanning across seven regions within the United States. The Tour allows exempt and non-exempt members, and amateurs to compete in weekend events. The Tour consists of seven regions: Central, East, Midwest, Northwest, South, Southwest, and West.
Regional Qualifying for the PBA Tour
Through the 2008-09 season, Regional PBA professionals could qualify for the national tour by topping one of the seven regions in points. Regional qualification has been revised for the 2009-10 season, as bowlers must now qualify via the Regional Players Invitational (RPI) tournament.
The top 25 bowlers on the RPI points list in each of the seven PBA regions (through September, 2008) earned an invitation to the 2008 RPI. The top five from each region – plus the winner of the 2008 Regional Players Championship (won by Sean Swanson in late May) – received airfare and accommodations for the event in December, 2008. The normal $150 entry fee was still required for these players, but they did not have to pay an additional fee to be eligible for an exemption.
The next 20 players in each region paid their own way to the RPI and were also required to pay an additional $750 to be eligible for the exemptions on top of their $500 entry fee. All bowlers competing in the event were guaranteed a minimum $400 cash payout.
The 2008 RPI featured a similar format to the PBA Tour Trials, in that competitors bowled for five days on each of the PBA’s five standard oil patterns. The top eight bowlers who paid the additional entry fee earned exemptions for the 2009-10 season, provided they finished in the top 16 overall.