TPC Time Is Finally Here! With the Touring Players' Championship beginning Friday, we'll focus on this event for this week's JBT email.

If you're attending and haven't yet contacted us yet, please do so immediately. Some of our 'regulars' haven't contacted me, and this makes it much tougher to get lane coordination with the center done, food organized, etc. Eek! So, please let me know.

Here's a rundown of TPC events that should answer a few questions that have been coming up.

Friday at 1 PM is our optional Warm-Up sweeper. For the sweeper, we'll use the lane condition that we'll use for Sunday's Noon main event, so if you want to get a sneak peek at it, this is the way to do so. You can check in any time before 1 PM for the sweeper. Dress code is normal JBT dress code, but there's no 5 point bonus for PBA dress code for the sweeper.

All four lane conditions that will be used at the TPC will be posted starting Friday morning at the TPC office at the bowling center, so if you'd like to see graphs of the patterns, they'll be available then.

Practice will also be available for TPC bowlers anytime before 5 PM Friday, but just on their house shot. mention JBT for the discounted open play rate.

Strike Zone has also made lockers available for secure storage if you don't want to lug your equipment around. Ask any Strike Zone staffer for help if you'd like a locker.

TPC Qualifying begins Saturday, with non-exempt bowlers, plus exempt bowlers that wish to bowl these squads for brackets, practice, etc. Again, if you're an exempt bowler who hasn't yet let me know which if any of the Saturday squads you're bowling, please do so immediately.

Saturday is our awards lunch. In past year's we've done a fancy banquet-style dinner- there's simply no time to do that at lunch, no reasonably priced way to do it in Vegas, and we figure most of you would rather be on your own in Vegas at night. So, the lunch has proven to be a good option. You won't really have time to change out of bowling clothes, so you really don't need a separate outfit unless you really want to, feel free in that case. Even if you're not eating with us, or are exempt and not bowling Saturday, we hope you'll be around for the awards. We'd love you to be there as we recognize some of our top stars from the season.

Lunch is an all you can eat buffet with choices from Panda and Quiznos, we think you'll be pleased. We need a few volunteer "lunchladys" or lunchguys to man the buffet stations- if anyone would like to volunteer, just let me know!

You'll know shortly after Saturday afternoon bowling is over if you made the cut, thus moving on to Noon Sunday, or if you missed the cut, meaning you bowl early Sunday morning in the second chance squad. Unlike at Invitationals, the Second Chance Squad is included in your original entry fee. The only extras at TPC are brackets and raffle tickets.

Right after the Second Chance squad finishes, we have our All-Conference Shootout! 4 of the top bowlers from each conference have been invited into this quick battle to see which JBT Conference will have the bragging rights for the season! If you're bowling at Noon, please come early and cheer on your conference to JBT glory!!!

Sunday at Noon finally brings the main event, a "normal" JBT in every way, except the winner walks out with $2,000 for first!

You guys worked all year to get into the TPC, so if you're eligible, we sure hope you'll be there. If you're eligible and not coming, we hope you'll work hard to become TPC eligible and attend in 2009- we really think no other event around offers what we do at the entry fee we do. As the airlines (sort of) say, "we know you have a choice in who you bowl with, summer is hectic to say the least, and gas is about a million bucks a gallon, so thank you for bowling with JBT..."

With that, we'll see you in Vegas this weekend for the ultimate JBT event! Don't forget, tons more JBT action on the calendar, with Tour Trials only 9 days away as well--- get ready for all the awesome action!