Rhino Page will be coming in a day early to set the men’s target score for the 58th Beat the Champions.
‘‘One of my students [Daniel Hanson] goes to school at Robert Morris,’’ Page said. ‘‘I am going to work with him at wherever they practice. He is meeting me at the airport, and we are taking the train in.’’
Contest week for BTC, the Chicagoland Bowling Proprietors Association’s charity event, begins Sunday and runs through Saturday. The Sun-Times is the media sponsor for BTC.
This will be the first time Page and Liz Kuhlkin (women) will set the target scores in BTC. The target broadcast, which will be recorded at Rolling Lanes in Countryside, will air on Christmas on NBC Sports Chicago.
Asked whether he’d approach the target show as a fun time or a serious competition, Page said of other charity events: ‘‘Most of the time, it is always a great time. But I am always caught in between. You never get the PBA juices going, but you certainly don’t want to stink up the place.’’
Page, a 35-year-old left-hander, has done well enough on the PBA Tour to have six titles. The sixth came when he beat Jakob Butturff 256-222 to win the 2017 U.S. Open. Winners of the U.S. Open are invited to set the target scores for BTC.
If you wonder where the name ‘‘Rhino’’ comes from, Page said he was given that nickname by his T-ball coach for his intensity.
The men’s and women’s champions in the BTC finals in March will win a cash prize of $7,500. But the real money is the more than $2.8 million raised for charity in BTC’s first 57 years.
