The PBA50 Tour has just three majors this season and two of them will come back-to-back in the next two weeks as the best senior players in the world will be put to the test.

The USBC Senior Masters begins today at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas, and the PBA Senior U.S. Open begins next week, also in Las Vegas. The third major, the PBA50 National Championship, was won by Walter Ray Williams Jr. in April.

The Senior Masters features the biggest top prize on the PBA50 Tour at $20,000 and also the largest field with more than 300 players signed up to compete.

Although the event will not be broadcast on FloBowling, we will provide recaps for subscribers throughout the event. The Senior U.S. Open will be broadcast live exclusively on FloBowling as will the remainder of the PBA50 Tour.

Here are a couple nuggets about the Senior Masters:

Warren back to defend after breaking records

Chris Warren took the long road in winning the Senior Masters last year, losing his first match in the double-elimination bracket only to go unbeaten the rest of the way.

His run set records for most overall matches with 14 and consecutive wins with 13. His 243.9 average in match play was also a record.

Warren has only bowled one PBA50 event so far this season. He finished 41^st in the PBA50 Northern California Classic.

USBC reported in a press release last week that Warren has been battling health issues, and if that’s the case it might be a good thing that as defending champion he’s already guaranteed a spot in the match-play bracket this week.

“If I’m able to let go of the ball and get a loose swing, I can make it back to the stepladder,” Warren told USBC. “There’s not a doubt in my mind. I don’t have to worry about qualifying, but I need to use qualifying to find out what I’m doing and get everything in line, so I can come out and perform like I know I can.”

To win the title last year, Warren had to take down top seed Norm Duke twice in the stepladder finals. Unlike the USBC Masters, the Senior Masters follows a true double elimination format all the way through, even in the stepladder.

Warren, who entered the stepladder as the No. 4 seed, reached the title match and beat Duke 269-220 and 246-241.

The format and lane condition

The Senior Masters format is nearly identical to the USBC Masters on the PBA Tour. There are three rounds of five-game qualifying blocks and the top 63 players will join the defending champion Warren in the 64-player bracket.

The biggest difference is that the Senior Masters will bowl on fresh, burn and double burn. At the Masters, qualifiers bowl two squads on fresh and one on burn.

Qualifying squads begin Tuesday and start at 8 a.m., Noon and 4 p.m. Pacific each day through Thursday. The match-play bracket will take place Friday and Saturday and the finals are set for Sunday at 10 a.m. Pacific.

The lane condition being used is 40 feet with a total volume of oil of 31.185 mL. You can view the pattern here.