Parker Bohn III, right, falls onto his back in disbelief after beating Walter Ray Williams Jr. to win the PBA Tour Showboat Invitational on March 15, 1997. Williams drops to his knees after failing to pull out the victory in the 10th frame. After an opening strike, he needed a nine-pin count and spare conversion to win but got only six pins on his second ball. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

Parker Bohn III remembers well the championship match of the 1997 PBA Tour Showboat Invitational in Las Vegas.

After completing his game, Bohn watched helplessly as Walter Ray Williams Jr. bowled his 10th frame. Williams rolled a strike on his first ball and needed only a nine-pin count and spare conversion to win the Professional Bowlers Association title.

When Williams carried only six pins, he dropped to his knees in despair, while Bohn fell flat on his back and covered his face in disbelief at being the champion.

Fast-forward 10 years -- to last week's Dick Weber Open at Fountain Valley, Calif. -- and the outcome was reversed in the first of Sunday's ESPN-televised step-ladder matches.

Williams again needed a big count after striking on his first ball of the 10th frame. But this time the right-hander produced on his 11th ball to defeat Bohn, 227-225. Williams finished third, and the tournament was won by left-hander Jason Couch, the top seed.

"I thought back (to 1997) for a split second," Bohn said of Sunday's final frame. "I thought, 'Gee, wouldn't it be funny if he left a bucket (2-4-5-8)?' You don't expect that from Walter Ray. ... I didn't expect it then."

Las Vegas bowling fans can only hope for similar drama this week when the PBA's premier circuit returns to Southern Nevada for the Motel 6 Classic at the Strike Zone in Sunset Station. The event runs today through Sunday, with no matches Saturday.

The tournament marks the first PBA event in Southern Nevada since 2003, when the Castaways -- the former Showboat -- hosted the Storm Las Vegas Classic.

Like many tour veterans, Bohn fondly recalls the Showboat and its traditional payoff of silver coins delivered in a wheelbarrow. He wishes the tour had never left the city it first visited in 1960.

"That was one of my favorite stops," Bohn said.

The 43-year-old left-hander from Jackson, N.J., won at the Showboat in 1997 and 1999 for two of his 31 PBA titles.

Williams, 47, has won once this year to lift his record for PBA career titles to 42, including Las Vegas in 1994 and 1996.

But the Showboat/Castaways is long gone. The once-pristine 106-lane center and tour cornerstone ended in the gutter when it closed in 2004 and was imploded two years later.

Spectators at Strike Zone will see a considerably different product than they saw the last time the PBA was here.

Beginning with the 2004-05 season, top bowlers began receiving exempt status into the 64-bowler fields for standard tournaments.

The PBA will use its bracket format this week, which is similar to NCAA basketball tournaments. The field will be trimmed to 32, 16 and eight before the Friday night session determines the four TV finalists.

On Sunday, instead of the traditional step-ladder, single-elimination format, the top two from each bracket will compete in one-match roll-offs with the winners meeting for one game to determine the champion.

In recent seasons the tour has cut back on its once-lofty guarantee of at least $40,000 for tournament winners. This week's champion will receive $25,000, $1,000 more than Bohn got for winning here in 1999 and $10,000 less than for his first Showboat title.