The Mining Journal's reporter Steve Brownlee receives a Good News Awards from Bishop James Garland during a lunch and awards ceremony Wednesday at the Landmark Inn in Marquette. (Journal photo by Dave Edwards)

One final Junior Gold tournament is coming up on Saturday, and organizers hope to draw at least a few more bowlers from the area and/or other places in the Upper Peninsula to allow multiple bowlers to qualify for the national finals in Cleveland in July.

This Junior Gold event will be held at River Rock Lanes in Ishpeming starting at 1:30 p.m.

Junior Gold is a scratch tournament series for youth bowlers through age 20 who have kept their “amateur” eligibility. Participants compete on a challenging lane condition that puts accuracy at a premium.

With enough entries, organizers would be able to offer separate divisions for boys and girls and various age groups.

For more information on the tournament, call River Rock proprietor Clay Sandberg at 486-8000.

I caught up with our most recent 300 bowler, Marty Rose of Marquette, though I also see Sandberg added his to the mix, too.

Rose, 54, got his first 300 in two seasons during the second-to-last week of the season on April 7 in the Friday 800 Mixed League at Superior Lanes.

He can actually credit a physical ailment, more specifically a twinge in the middle of bowling that night, for setting him up for 300.

“I’ve had a bunch of different injuries, a couple of hip injuries and I blew out my shoulder,” Rose said. “This time, I was bowling and my knee suddenly popped.

“I’m thinking, ‘Now what?!?'”

He turned a 179 start into something much more memorable when he was forced into an adjustment.

“It made me shorten everything after that,” he said, referring to an approach with shorter steps and also a shorter backswing.

It worked immediately, as he finished the second game with five strikes in a row to reach 217, then threw the last 12 strikes of the night for 300 to give him a 696 series using his 15-pound Storm IQ reactive resin ball.

Don’t forget, though, in case you’ve missed it, there’s bowling on ESPN one more Sunday at 1 p.m. this weekend, the finals of the PBA League Elias Cup.

Then bowling returns, first on the CBS Sports Network at 9:30 p.m. on five consecutive Tuesdays starting May 30 for the main event of the PBA Tour finals, then on July 1 and 2 at 1 p.m. on ESPN for live coverage of the Oklahoma Open.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.