Fountain Bowl in Spotlight as It Hosts PBA Open

Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley will be in the international spotlight this weekend when it hosts the Professional Bowlers Assocation Cheetah Open, which will also mark a PBA first as the event will be broadcast live over the Internet.

The tournament begins with a practice and pro-am program Friday, along with a special $5,000 “All In” winner-take-all showdown event. On Saturday, all tournament players will bowl nine qualifying games with the top 24 advancing to the match play finals Sunday. The winner takes home $10,000 as well as a guaranteed berth in the final field of 36 players for the end-of-season PBA Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas.

Two PBA upstarts with Southern California roots highlight this year's field, one of whom hails from right here in Orange County. Costa Mesa's Scott Norton, the reigning PBA rookie of the year, will be looking for his second career title when he takes to the Fountain Bowl lanes.

Rookie and Upland native Josh Blanchard, who now makes his home in Arizona, has had a promising start to his career with four top 15 finishes. But so far, he's best known for the embarassing fall he took while bowling in the PBA World Championships, where he finished 16th. Blanchard's hand got stuck in the ball, forcing him to lose balance and fall on the lane just past the foul line.

The blooper gained widespread media attention on ESPN’s SportsCenter, Around the Horn, Pardon the Interruption, ESPNews, LIVE with Kelly Ripa, the Howard Stern Show and numerous other sportscasts.

Eugene McCune of Munster, Ind., is the defending Cheetah Open champion. McCune won his title during the 2010 PBA World Series of Bowling, nipping 2009 Cheetah Open champion Norm Duke of Clermont, Fla., 238-237.