Barnes completes triple crown

Chris Barnes found the ideal way to prepare for the biggest PBA Tour event ever held, and he was paid $50,000 for the effort.

Barnes will have momentum when qualifying begins today at Red Rock for the Tournament of Champions in which Saturday's champion will earn $250,000 of a $1 million purse. Both are PBA Records.

Before heading to Red Rock Sunday afternoon, however, Barnes had some unfinished business on the lanes at South Point.

Barnes, 40, reached a milestone when he won three matches and the PBA World Championship at South Point that makes him one of six PBA players in 62 years to complete a career "triple crown" by winning the three major tournaments ---- the U.S. Open (2005), Tournament of Champions (2006) and Sunday's World Championship.

"A lot of guys have won the PBA World Championship, but it's a short and distinguished list of guys who have won the triple crown," said Barnes, adding that one of those is hall-of-famer Billy Hardwick. "He called my wife and told her to welcome me to the club."

In the title match against tournament leader Bill O'Neill, Barnes started with six strikes to build a 31-pin lead after seven frames.

O'Neill was able to string together strikes only three times before finishing with four straight that forced Barnes to at least spare in the 10th frame. Barnes started the final frame with a strike to win the title and end one of his longest winless streaks.

Barnes, one of eight right-handers in three days of eliminations, opened Sunday by beating Osku Palermaa 246-176 and followed by eliminating Sean Rash 237-161 to reach the final game.

"My problem hasn't been making the (TV) show but what I did on it," Barnes said. "I think (winning this) will make more of a difference if I make the show next week."

Barnes won his last PBA title in March of 2009, but advanced to the televised final rounds four times last year.

One of his three runner-up finishes during the 2009-10 season was at Red Rock when he lost to Kelly Kulick for the Tournament of Champions title.

Kulick won that game, 265-195, to become the first woman to win a major PBA title. Barnes was eliminated on TV rounds last season when his opponents averaged 262.

"You bowl two or three bad frames in this deal and you're beat," he said. "My difficulty had been the second, third or fifth frame, and I would fall behind 20 or 25 pins halfway through the match.

"And (my opponents) did what champions are supposed to do and put a lot of pressure on me early. If you're losing by 30 pins by the fifth or sixth frame then you likely are going to lose against the competition we face."

He reversed that trend Sunday by averaging 250 and a 78-percent strike rate and jumped out to big leads by the middles of each game.

With the triple crown in tow and a new winning streak, Barnes' celebration was cut short so he could get to Red Rock to practice.

"I've already been thinking about which bowling balls to use and things that have worked there for me in the past," said Barnes, whose first qualifying session is at 4 p.m. today.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.