England’s Dom Barrett, fully recovered from a broken collar bone sustained nine
months earlier in a near-tragic all-terrain vehicle accident in Saudi Arabia,
will lead the field of four finalists into the battle for the Professional
Bowlers Association’s Scorpion Open title Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on
ESPN.
Also on Sunday, PBA
fans will be able to watch the final rounds of the Xtra Frame Ricart Ford Open
presented by Columbia 300 live on the Internet from Sequoia Pro Bowl in
Columbus, Ohio.
The Scorpion Open is
the third of four PBA “animal pattern” championships conducted during the World
Series of Bowling at South Point Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.
Barrett’s Scorpion
Open opponents will include Dave Wodka of Henderson, NV, who won his only PBA
Tour title in the 1999 Greater Detroit Open; Sean Rash of suburban Chicago (Montgomery,) IL, who
qualified for the ESPN finals in a record six PBA World Series of Bowling
events, and 13-time PBA Tour titlist Patrick Allen of Baltimore, who is seeking
his first title in two years.
Barrett earned the
top qualifier position for the Scorpion finals by averaging 233.14 over 14
qualifying games, posting a 3,264 pinfall total. Wodka finished 17 pins behind,
followed by Rash and Allen.
Barrett, who
qualified for the end-of-season PBA Tournament of Champions by winning a PBA
West Regional title in Reno, NV, just before the World Series of Bowling,
hopes to join fellow British competitor Stuart Williams as the second English
player to win a PBA Tour title. Williams won his first PBA Tour title in the
Bayer Viper Open.
“I came (to the
United States) to win one of these tournaments,” Barrett said. “Winning the
regional gave me a lot of confidence. This is going to be my first (PBA) show
and I couldn’t be happier.”
Sunday’s ESPN
eliminator-format finals will feature three one-game rounds. All four players
bowl the opening game, with the lowest-scoring player after each game being
eliminated. In the two rounds to follow, the same “low man out” format applies.
In the title match, the two surviving players will bowl for a $15,000 first
prize, a PBA Tour title and a berth in the Round of 36 for the end-of-season PBA
Tournament of Champions.
In addition to the
other benefits, Barrett hopes to become the fourth straight international player
to win a World Series of Bowling title. Rash, a four-time PBA Tour champion, is
trying for his first title since the 2007 USBC Masters.
The Xtra Frame
Ricart Ford Open presented by Columbia 300 will be webcast live in its entirety
on pba.com’s online bowling channel, Xtra Frame, including Saturday’s qualifying
rounds and Sunday’s match play competition. Saturday’s schedule includes
nine-game qualifying rounds for Squads A and B at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET, with the
top 24 qualifiers advancing to match play Sunday. Sunday’s live coverage will
include round-robin match play sessions at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., with the top
four advancing to the live stepladder finals at 6 p.m.
A
Scorpion Open pre-event show will be webcast at no cost on pba.com’s Xtra Frame
online bowling channel starting Wednesday, with a follow-up post-game show
immediately following Sunday’s ESPN telecast. To subscribe to Xtra Frame, visit
pba.com and click on the Xtra Frame logo.
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