Chris Barnes (bowler) - Difficulties in Televised Finals

Difficulties in Televised Finals

Although he has 14 titles, Barnes has often struggled or been the victim of bad luck in the live televised finals of many tournaments. His 14 titles have come in 76 TV finals appearances, and he has finished runner-up 25 times. In the 2000 season alone, he made 12 TV finals without winning a title—to date the most season TV finals appearances without a victory in PBA Tour history.

On two occasions, Barnes has lost a match in a PBA major by a single pin:

• On January 27, 2008, he faced Michael Haugen Jr. in the finals of the H&R Block Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas. Through six frames, Barnes held a 53-pin lead over his competitor, and seemed to have the match well in hand. Up by 41 pins in the ninth, Barnes left the 10-pin standing on his first throw and narrowly missed his spare giving Haugen hope. Haugen, who had strikes in his previous two frames, struck in the ninth to cut the lead to 19. Haugen went on to throw two strikes and 9 pins in the final frame. Barnes, needing 20 pins to tie, spared in the tenth and needed a strike on his final throw to force extra frames. But he left the 4-pin standing to give Haugen his first career major victory, 215-214. In an iconic thrill-of-victory/agony-of-defeat moment, Haugen hive-fived the crowd while Barnes sat on the approach in disbelief.

• In April, 2009, Barnes qualified as the #2 seed in the U.S. Open. A title in this tournament would have given him his second straight Player of the Year award. In the semifinal match against Mike Scroggins, Barnes needed a strike on the first ball in the 10th frame to move on to the title match. On what appeared to be a clean pocket hit, however, he left a single 8-pin standing. After making the spare, he still could have forced a sudden-death roll-off by striking on his final shot. This time, he left a single 10-pin, giving Scroggins a 200-199 victory.

On January 24, 2010, Barnes was the #1 seed in the finals of the 2010 H&R Block Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas, but was defeated by Kelly Kulick, 265-195. Kulick made history in this match by becoming the first woman to win a PBA Tour title.

In February, 2010, Barnes again qualified as the #1 seed at the USBC Masters, but was the victim of a 290 game by Walter Ray Williams Jr. in the televised championship match. After the match, Barnes expressed his frustration with recent TV finals performances: "The last two Masters here in Reno, I've gone undefeated in match play. I haven't lost a three-game match, yet I haven't won either tournament. TV is one of the best things the sport has going for it, but it is probably the worst thing I have going for me personally."

In April, 2011, Barnes had a chance to win the first-ever Dick Weber PBA Playoffs. In the final match against Ritchie Allen, he had a 25-pin lead after five frames before leaving two 7-10 splits on back-to-back pocket hits.