The race for a coveted spot on the Denny's Professional Bowlers Association Tour resumes today at Lava Lanes.

The two leaders in the non-exempt points standings, Steve Rogers and Liz Johnson, will vie along with more than 50 others for entry to the Earl Anthony Medford Classic through qualifying. Included is a handful locals.

The qualifying round is comprised of seven games and runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The top six regional pros and one amateur, based on total pinfall, will advance to the field of 64 Thursday.

Rogers and Johnson have followed the tour through the first half, jockeying for the top position. The non-exempt points leader at season's end earns a card for next season.

A much quicker route — one that all of today's entrants are dreaming about — is to get in and win the tournament, thereby earning exempt status for next season.

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Johnson has been in the limelight before. She's the first woman to have made the TV finals of a PBA event, doing so in the Banquet Open in March 2005 at Wyoming, Mich. She defeated Wes Malott in the semifinals, 235-228, then lost to Tommy Jones, 219-192.

This season, Johnson took the first-half non-exempt points lead when she placed eighth in the Etonic Championship in November in her hometown of Cheektowaga, N.Y. She lost in the quarterfinals to that tournament's eventual winner, Hall of Famer Pete Weber.

Rogers overtook Johnson in the points race last week at the H&R Block Classic in Reno, Nev. He and Johnson both made it to the round of 64, but only Rogers got into match play. It was his second appearance in head-to-head competition this season and led to an 11th-place finish.

Rogers has 32,573.5 points to Johnson's 30,276. Chad Kloss, running a close third with 30,078.16 points, is also in the field today.

Other pros of note in the qualifier are TV color analyst Randy Pedersen, a 25-year tour veteran who will make his 2006-07 competitive debut, and Bryon Smith of Roseburg, who competed full time on tour for a decade but has been away from it the past couple years.

On the local front, Jerome Lee, Chuck and Matt Eilenberger, Kevin Croucher, Jon Magerle, Greg Newtson and Robert Reed are entered.

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NORM DUKE continues to make progress with an injured little toe on his right foot and plans to compete this week.

The tour's only two-time winner this season, Duke kicked a hotel-room doorjamb in the dark last week and was forced to withdraw from the H&R Block Classic in Reno, Nev.

"I'm feeling much better today," he said Tuesday, "so I'm going to go in and give it a run-through. How long I bowl will be determined by whether it hurts or not. I'm walking much better today and the swelling is down a little bit. I'm thinking if I can go forward rather than backward, I'll at least be able to finish tomorrow."

Exempt players practice from 4 to 5:30 p.m. today, and Duke is scheduled to participate in a pro-am at 6 p.m. His availability for the latter won't be known until he tests the toe in practice.

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WHEN LAST WE saw Walter Ray Williams Jr., he left town one win shy of Earl Anthony's all-time record of 41. The record had been a topic of conversation almost from the time Medford had a PBA stop, and it only intensified as he drew closer to the mark.

Well, those days of pestering him about it are over. Sort of.

Williams picked up a win at the end of last season to tie Anthony, then won the season-opening Japan Cup to take the record for himself. So we'll address it one more time.

"It kind of got ... I don't know if 'irritating' is the right word ... but that's what the media's job is, to come up with good story lines," says Williams. "And that was a pretty good story line, so I didn't fault them. I didn't feel like there was undue pressure on me. When I'm out here, I'm trying to win every week."

Occasionally, he says, it seemed like the media was "making it sound like I couldn't handle the pressure."

As he returns to Lava Lanes, Williams says he has one goal: "Stay ahead of Mr. Holman."

Medford Hall of Famer Marshall Holman received a Commissioner's Exemption for the third straight year and will open competition Thursday in the round of 64.

Holman and Williams go way back.

"When I first came out," says Williams, "he was one of the top players ... We had one or two confrontations on the lanes."

In January 2003, Holman defeated Williams in the most electrifying match of the tournament's history.

The two have come together since — on the golf course. Both are low-handicappers and teamed with Andy Van Slyke to win the Tom Dreesen Celebrity Invitational two summers ago in the Chicago area. Holman had won it previously with other partners.

Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail ttrower@mailtribune.com