The basis for Sterner’s petition was the extremely unusual circumstances that arose during the round robin match play portion of last week’s season ending 66th Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open.
During round robin match play, which featured 24 bowlers after 27 games of qualifying, three players withdrew due to injury.
PBA Rule 20.3.5 (Replacing the Alternate) requires that the highest finishing non-qualifier “present in the host center” be offered the opportunity to replace a player who withdraws during round robin match play.
In applying that rule, Mike Edwards, who had finished 36th and was 12 places out of the cut when round robin match play began, replaced Pete Weber who withdrew shortly prior to the start of the final eight game block on Saturday evening.
At the time Edwards replaced Weber he was in 37th place on the PBA season points list, one place behind Sterner.
This order would have resulted in Sterner being the last player off the 2008-09 PBA point list to retain his exemption for 2009-10 and Edwards to be first man out. By bowling as an alternate, however, Edwards earned enough additional points pursuant to PBA Rule 20.3.6 (Assigning Points for the Alternate) to pass Sterner on the point list and bump him from the final exempt spot for 2009-10.
“The intent of the rules in question is to protect the integrity of the competition, not to affect the order of players on the point list, said Commissioner Schreyer.
“An unintended consequence of Rule 20.3.6 was to allow one player to bump another player from the exempt protected list after both players had concluded their participation in our season ending event.
“To deny Jason Sterner a season long exemption for 2009-10 under such circumstances would have been a punitive result.
At the same time, under our existing rules Mike Edwards did earn additional points through his participation as an alternate to move up to 36th place on the point list and gain an exemption for the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season. Accordingly, both Edwards and Sterner will be awarded an exemption for the 2009-10 season.”
The decision to award the extra exemption from the point list means one less spot will be available in the weekly Tournament Qualifying Round (TQR) in exempt field events during the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.
“We will carefully review Rule 20.3.6 during the off-season and make whatever changes are deemed necessary to prevent such a situation from arising again,” added Schreyer.
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