Australia’s two-handed star, Jason Belmonte, leads the field of four
players in Sunday’s Mike Aulby Division finals, the fourth and final
elimination round leading into the PBA World Championship finals. The
Aulby round will air in high-definition on ESPN Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
The
Aulby Division winner will join Finland’s Osku Palermaa; Ryan Shafer of
Horseheads, NY, and Sean Rash of Montgomery, IL, in the World
Championship finals on Sunday, Jan. 15, at 1 p.m. ET. At stake will be a
$50,000 first prize, the Earl Anthony Trophy and the PBA Tour’s first
major title of the 2011-12 season.
All competition will be conducted on a pair of lanes specially installed in an exhibit hall at South Point Hotel and Casino.
Belmonte,
28, hasn’t won a title since his first PBA Tour victory in the 2009
Bowling Foundation Long Island Classic propelled him to 2009-09 PBA
Rookie of the Year honors. During the 40-game qualifying portion of the
PBA World Championship, he finished third behind Rash and Tom Smallwood
of Saginaw, MI, averaging 226.18 for five rounds on five different
lane conditions. He will be joined in the Aulby elimination round by
Brian Kretzer of Dayton, Ohio; rookie Josh Blanchard of Gilbert, AZ,
and Mike Fagan of Dallas, TX.
Kretzer won his only PBA Tour title in
the 2010 Go RVing Match Play Championship. Fagan is a two-time title
winner. His most recent victory was in the 2010 One A Day Dick Weber
Open. Blanchard, a former Wichita State University star, joined the PBA
in October and won a PBA West Region Non-Champions tournament in Reno,
NV, in his first appearance as a member. Sunday’s telecast will be his
PBA Tour television debut.
In the Aulby eliminator event, all
four players will bowl a one-game match with the lowest scoring player
eliminated. The three survivors will bowl a second game, again with the
low man knocked out. The two finalists will bowl a final game to
determine who will advance to the World Championship finals.
The
four World Championship divisional finals have been named for PBA
superstars who excelled in the event during their careers. Palermaa won
the Don Carter Division berth, Shafer the Billy Hardwick Division title
and Rash topped the Johnny Petraglia Division. The championship trophy
is named in honor of Anthony, the only player ever to win the event six
times.
A preview of the Aulby Division finals will be webcast on
pba.com’s Xtra Frame beginning Wednesday, and a post-game show will be
presented on Xtra Frame immediately following Sunday’s ESPN finals.
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