On paper, the team of Norm Duke and Walter Ray Williams Jr. should have been dominant in the first outdoor PBA event since 2001. In reality, there were.

Duke and Williams, two of the most decorated bowlers in history, completed their march through the special summer doubles event, sweeping the championship round matches against Tony Reyes and Robert Smith to win the GEICO PBA All-Star Shootout Hosted by Six Flags at Six Flags St. Louis.

Although Reyes and Smith came into the finals as the only team to go 3-0 in round robin match play, they were no match for Duke and Williams, who swept the two singles matches - worth one point each - and the final doubles match worth two points for the 4-0 win. The pair of Hall of Famers - Williams a PBA and USBC Hall of Famer and Duke a USBC Hall of Famer - with a combined 68 Denny's PBA Tour titles split the $50,000 top prize.

The event featured 16 of the PBA's biggest stars split into eight teams for an alternate shot doubles event, where any split converted was worth five bonus pins and teams striking on their fill ball were allowed an extended 10th frame.

In the finals, Duke won the first singles match over Reyes, striking seven consecutive times in frames 3-9 to give "Will Duke 'Em" a 1-0 lead. Duke finished the match with a score of 258, striking on his fill ball to give himself the extra frame possibility. Reyes had a chance to take the lead by striking out in the 10th and throwing one extra strike, but he left a 3-10 split in the 10th frame to fall, 258-233.

The second match also featured some drama as Williams converted a 2-5-7-8 split in the sixth frame to earn five bonus pins which turned out to be the difference. Smith led after a five-bagger in frames 2-6, but a spare in the seventh frame stopped his momentum. After the split conversion, Williams struck four consecutive times to take the lead, but a nine-spare with his second ball in the 10th meant he didn't have an endless 10th frame opportunity.

That gave Smith a chance to double in the 10th to win. After a strike with his first shot, he knocked down just eight on his next shot, giving Williams the 259-255 win and his team a 2-0 lead in the finals.

With the doubles match worth two points, Reyes and Smith could have sent the finals to a one-ball sudden death roll-off with a win.

Both teams had opens early in the match but Reyes and Smith held a slight edge heading into the seventh frame. Then Duke and Williams stepped up their game and struck four consecutive times, but were unable to strike with their fill ball and finished with 219. They watched as Reyes and Smith left a 2-4-5-7-8 but converted in the 10th then needed a strike on their fill ball to push the match to extra frames. Instead, Smith left a 10-pin and the game and match went to Duke and Williams, 219-202.

Duke and Williams split $50,000 for the win, while Reyes and Smith, who beat Doug Kent and Danny Wiseman, 222-219, in the final round robin match to advance to the finals, took home $30,000. Each team earned an additional $2,500 for each round robin win as well.

久保田法美

前半トップの久保田が後半も1070とスコアを伸ばしトップで準決勝へ！昨年優勝の清水弘子は7位、前大会体調不良でBIG BOX 東大和カップブラインドの斉藤志乃ぶは23位、そして新人2名仲谷和世（20位）・森本由希（25位）らが準決勝へ進出。

If anyone doubted Tom Baker during a rough first half of the 2007 PBA Senior Tour season, he's proved over the last two weeks that this is still his Tour.

Baker set a new PBA Senior Tour record with his fourth career Major title and became just the second bowler in history to win back-to-back United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Senior Masters titles, defeating Shannon Starnes, 658-625, to win the 2007 USBC Senior Masters at the National Bowling Stadium.

This year's road to the title was much easier for Baker as it took him just 24 games to win compared to 54 last season, when he made history by winning 11 consecutive games out of the loser's bracket. This year's title match, however, was much more dramatic.

The PBA Hall of Famer beat Starnes in the final winner's bracket match Friday morning to advance to the title match where he would await either Starnes or Bob Chamberlain, who knocked off Sam Zurich earlier in the day. Starnes defeated Chamberlain to set up a rematch with Baker, whom he would have to defeat twice for the title.

In the first three-game match based on total pins, Starnes held a 26-pin lead heading into the final game. Baker stayed close until he left a 4-10 split in the eighth frame and opened, and Starnes responded with strikes in the eighth and ninth to snap Baker's record 17-match winning streak over the last two years in the Senior Masters, and send the finals to a deciding three-game match.

The final was neck-and-neck throughout the three games, with Baker holding a slight advantage after game one, 210-203. Starnes then pulled within one pin heading into the final game despite getting outscored by Baker, 222-221, in game two. Starnes missed an opportunity to take the lead in game two, however, opening in the 10th frame.

In a tense deciding game, Baker struggled on the right lane, unable strike in the first, third and fifth frames on the lane. Meanwhile, Starnes was breathing down Baker's neck, striking in four of five frames to pull within one pin of Baker. It was at that point Baker made a key ball change and picked up a crucial strike on the right lane in the seventh.

"I just lost the feel with that ball. My hand was sweating and I was making bad shots," Baker (King, N.C.) said. "The more I thought about it, the worse it got so I switched balls and that made the difference."

Though he failed again to strike on the right lane in the ninth frame, Baker was still in the match after Starnes' nine-spare in the eighth frame. The two-time defending PBA Senior Player of the Year then stepped up in the 10th frame, needing at least the first strike to force Starnes to strike in the 10th. Showing nerves of steel, Baker struck all three times in the 10th, forcing Starnes to strike out to win the match by one pin.

Instead, Starnes, looking for his first career PBA Senior Tour title, left the 2-4-5-8, giving Baker his fourth Major title in just six tries.

"I'm still chocked up by this. I was really fighting myself out there," Baker, the only senior bowler also exempt on the Denny's PBA Tour, said. "My hat goes off to Shannon. He bowled great and every time I made a mistake he came back and put the pressure on me.

"It feels great to win two in a row. I bowled a lot more games last season, but this is the toughest match I've had here in two years."

Baker has now won three of the last four Majors after winning both the PBA Senior U.S. Open and the USBC Senior Masters last season. He also finished third in this season's Senior U.S. Open.

"I think the format in the Majors suits me better. The longer the format, the better I am," Baker, the first bowler since Dave Davis in 1995 and '96 to win back-to-back USBC Senior Masters, said. "I can make the adjustments I need to make and I'm a good spare shooter. I was able to do that today. I left two 3-6-9s in that match and that's a tough spare. Making those was key."

With seven titles in less than three full seasons, Baker is now tied for eighth on the all-time PBA Senior Tour titles list with Earl Anthony, John Hriscina and Dave Soutar. He also pulls ahead in the 2007 PBA Senior Player of the Year race, which coming into this week was up for grabs. Baker, who won last week's PBA Senior Northern California Classic, is looking to become the first bowler to win the award three consecutive seasons.

In addition to the $16,000 Baker wins for his title, he also solidified his spot in the 2008 PBA Tournament of Champions. Baker is still eligible due to his 2004 PBA World Championship win, but was in danger of getting bumped from the roster. Now, he's assured a spot in the event which will be held next January in Las Vegas.

Starnes (Ft. Worth, Texas) earned $8,000 for second, Chamberlain (The Villages, Fla.) took home $5,500 for third while Zurich (Grant, Fla.) earned $4,500 for fourth.

Norm Duke brought home his third Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPY) award Wednesday night at the 2007 ESPY awards show at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The show will be shown tape-delayed on ESPN on Sunday, July 15, at 9 p.m. ET.

Highlights of Duke's 2006-07 Denny's PBA Tour season include:
・ Collected a Tour-high three titles despite withdrawing from eight events due to injury.
・ Posted an average of 228.47 - a new single-season PBA record.
・ Became the first bowler to go 14-0 in match play en route to the title in the 2006 Lake County Indiana Classic.
・ Finished second in the Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year voting.

Duke had previously won the award back-to-back in 1994 and 1995.

Other nominees for the award included 2006-07 Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year Doug Kent and 64th U.S. Open champion Pete Weber.

清水弘子

やっぱり来ました！ディフェンディングチャンピオンの清水がポジションマッチで近藤にビッグゲームで勝ち（253-216）トップシードﾞでステップラダーへ進出、大会2連覇を狙う。
2位に前半トップ独走も後半何とか踏ん張った板倉、3位は6連勝スタートも後半2連敗の近藤、そして4位は7G目が終了しトップに立つもポジションマッチで板倉に202-148のロースコアで敗れ急降下の大山が4位で粘った。