男子は31名が実技合格し、3日目からトップに立った23歳の人見啓二朗が見事トップ合格を果たす。また30位通過の竹田（ちくだ）真人は、ラスト278で合格と厳しい条件ながらミラクルで299を持ってきてプラス21点で見事合格を果たした。

先日高校を卒業した18歳の平野志帆（埼玉県）が4日間首位を守り見事実技トップ合格を果たし8名が実技合格。なお合格圏内にいた平野明子はラストシリーズ143・214・147とスコアを落とし32ピン足りず残念ながら不合格。

With so much riding on the line, getting a mark in the 10th frame was never more difficult for Norm Duke.

Needing any spare to win the 65th Denny's U.S. Open, Duke left the 2-4-5-8, giving him flashbacks of the 2000 U.S. Open that slipped out of his hands by one pin. But facing the biggest spare attempt of his career, Duke converted to defeat Mika Koivuniemi, 224-216, to win his fourth career Major and 28th Denny's PBA Tour title.

Additionally, he became just the second bowler in history to win the four Grand Slam events - the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Masters, Tournament of Champions, World Championship and the U.S. Open.

The win capped a wild roller coaster ride of a season for Duke, who just five weeks ago was on the verge of losing his Denny's PBA Tour exemption. He sat 51st in the PBA World Point Rankings after battling numerous injuries and, even worse, caught the flu the week of the Denny's World Championship.

Always known for having a flair for the dramatic, Duke made an incredible run through the World Championship to win his third career Major and, more importantly, earn a two-season exemption.

Fueled by the desire to win the most coveted event on Tour and the one he has had several close calls in, Duke was a man on a mission all week. Though he lost the top seed for the finals by going just 3-5 in the final round of match play Saturday, he salvaged the No. 3 seed which meant he had to win three matches on Sunday for the title.

After looking unstoppable in defeating No. 4 Doug Kent, 234-160, and No. 2 Chris Loschetter, 267-245, to reach the title match, Duke faced the top-seed Koivuniemi, who was looking for his second U.S. Open title.

Koivuniemi held the lead until a spare in the eighth frame after which Duke struck in the eighth and ninth to take the lead. Koivuniemi had a chance to put some pressure on Duke by striking out, but he left a 2-pin with his first shot in the 10th, converting the spare and finishing with a strike to force Duke to mark.

With everything on the line, Duke re-racked but left the 2-4-5-8, one of the few bad shots he threw all day.

"I was protecting against going high because you can make the bucket but you can't make the 4-6," Duke (Clermont, Fla.) said. "But I wanted to strike, too, so it had to be somewhere in between. I didn't throw it awful, I just missed it enough. When I left that I thought, 'It's over. I've done it again.'"

Duke was referring to the 2000 U.S. Open title match against Robert Smith where he needed a strike with his first ball in the 10th frame to win, but he left the 8-pin to lose, 202-201.

"That was the longest 10th frame today," Duke, the first No. 3 seed since Dave Husted in 1996 to win the U.S. Open, said. "Under those circumstances, I was a lot calmer today than I had been on Friday and Saturday. Fatigue really plays a role in this event. If you watched last night, guys were dying and I was one of those guys. Not dying mentally, but physically. But I threw some warm-ups this morning and had the game I wanted to have and that really calmed me down."

After Duke picked up the "bucket," the diminutive crowd favorite who is one of the most emotional players the Tour has ever seen, pumped his fist and jumped wildly, showing just how much this event meant to him.

"I cannot put into words how special this is to me," Duke said. "Five years after I missed that shot against Robert I would still cry about it. It was the one thing I would constantly think about that I hadn't done. I could just never cap it off. Now, I'm the reigning champion of the U.S. Open."

The win capped off an incredible month for Duke, who became just the seventh bowler to win two Majors in one season. He moved past Mike Aulby into sole possession of sixth on the all-time titles list, moved into a tie for fifth all-time with his fourth Major and joined Mike Aulby as the only bowlers to win the Grand Slam, although his 1993 Masters title does not count as an official PBA title.

"This format, this grind... it's why so few people can actually win this event," Duke said. "There are probably 25 people out here who can actually win this. It's why Pete (Weber) has won it four times. Now after 27 years of dreaming, it means everything to my career."

Duke took home $100,000 for the win and extended his exemption through the 2010-11 season. Koivuniemi (Hartland, Mich.) earned $50,000 for second, Loschetter (Avon, Ohio) took home $25,000 for third while Kent (Newark, N.Y.) earned $13,000 for fourth.

The 65th Denny's U.S. Open concludes the 2007-08 Denny's PBA Tour. Chris Barnes wrapped up the 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year award this week, edging out six-time PBA Player of the Year Walter Ray Williams Jr. by two points in the standings to win the award for the first time in his career.

Koivuniemi went 17-7 in match play to earn the top seed for Sunday's stepladder finals in the 65th Denny's U.S. Open at Brunswick Zone Carolier, the fourth Major and final event of the Denny's PBA Tour season.
The eight-time titlist was in 65th after the first day and 63rd after the second day, but a ball change led to a 236.00 average the third day of qualifying, moving him up to eighth. He went 7-1 in each of the first two rounds of match play to take the lead, which he never relinquished.

"I started off really poorly this week but I changed balls and I changed my release and that made the difference," Koivuniemi (Hartland, Mich.) said. "I moved way left and never moved right. After that I bowled really well."

Koivuniemi is the only bowler to win Majors for his first two career titles, capturing the 2000 United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Masters and the 2001 U.S. Open. He's made three U.S. Open championship rounds since then and will look to become the sixth bowler to win the U.S. Open twice.

"Like anyone else, this is the biggest tournament of the year for me," Koivuniemi said. "If you can choose any event to win, this is it. The format, the number of games, the amount of bowlers. There's so much traffic on the lanes those first couple of days you just have to find a way to survive somehow. Then it's a new tournament in match play. I won a lot of close matches and that was the key. Last year I started well and died in the matches so I guess I learned from that."

As the top seed, Koivuniemi earned an automatic berth in the title match. The first match features 2006-07 PBA Player of the Year Doug Kent (Newark, N.Y.) taking on last year's Player of the Year runner-up, Norm Duke. After winning two Majors last season, Kent has struggled in 2007-08 and is making his first championship round of the season.

Duke, meanwhile, will look to equal Kent's accomplishment last year by becoming the seventh bowler to win two Majors in a season. He captured the Denny's World Championship a month ago for his third career Major. A win Sunday would make Duke just the fifth bowler in history to win the PBA's Triple Crown, a win in the World Championship, Tournament of Champions and U.S. Open.

The winner of that match will face No. 2 Chris Loschetter, who doubled in the 10th frame of the position round to defeat Kent and go around Duke in the standings. Loschetter, who equaled Koivuniemi's 17-7 record, will look to become the fifth player in history to win the U.S. Open for his first career Denny's PBA Tour title.

Duke, who just a month ago was in danger of losing his Denny's PBA Tour exemption, is now looking poised to capture his second Major of the season, going 8-0 Friday evening to move into the lead in the 65th Denny's U.S. Open at Brunswick Zone Carolier.

The 27-time titlist has battled injuries throughout the season and had fallen as low as 51st in the PBA World Point Rankings heading into the Denny's World Championship just four events ago. Despite battling the flu that week, Duke made an incredible run to the finals where he beat Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Ryan Shafer to capture his third career Major and secure his place on Tour for two seasons.

"This has been a lot like the last two years where I've been extremely opportunistic when I'm on the floor but I just can't make my way to the approach enough," Duke (Clermont, Fla.) said of the injuries that have kept him off the lanes.

"But I'm really enjoying bowling now because of the fact that I'm healthy again. It hurt so badly before that it took the fun out of it. Now, I feel like I'm in the heat of battle and capable again."

Duke was more than capable on Friday. After quietly hovering in the top 20 all week, he swept through his matches Friday night to jump into the lead heading into the final 16 games of round robin on Saturday. After finishing fifth in last season's U.S. Open to miss the finals by one spot, Duke will get another shot at the coveted U.S. Open crown, the only one of the Triple Crown events he is missing.

"The U.S. Open is everything to me," Duke said. "At the beginning of every season I look at the four Majors but I look at this one first. It just bugs me. It's difficult to get this tournament and how important it is to me out of my mind when I'm bowling. I can't think about winning, I just have to get it done."

Duke's first two matches Friday came against two of the top players on the Denny's PBA Tour as he dispatched of Wes Malott and Tommy Jones by scores of 215-196 and 243-214, respectively. He then faced just two other exempt bowlers over his final six wins, capping the perfect night with a 213-200 win over amateur Mark Clark.

With 16 games left, Duke is nowhere near feeling like he's in the driver's seat.

"I cannot even count the times I've missed the show by one spot in this event. It's at least three. And I've finished second once by one pin. I still throw that shot a thousand times and I still miss," Duke said. "You can't win this tournament on Friday though. I'd love it if they'd just start the show tomorrow but I can still finish 24th. The task at hand is to come in here and play my very best. That's the only thing that's acceptable. And I know I have it in me."

Mika Koivuniemi (Hartland, Mich.), who is looking to get back his "Major Mika" moniker after winning the Masters and U.S. Open for the first two of his eight titles, also made a big run Friday going 7-1 to move up to second. Shannon Buchan (Waterloo, Iowa) went 5-3 and sits third while Eugene McCune (Munster, Ind.) went 4-3-1 and is fourth. Qualifying leader Brad Angelo (Lockport, N.Y.) went 5-3 to drop to fifth.

山本　勲（41位・$1,395 獲得）