Hoping for his third Professional Bowlers Association Tour title, Mike Fagan (pictured left) of Dallas, led an international field of four players Saturday who advanced to the televised finals of the PBA Bayer Viper Open at South Point Lanes.

After 14 games of qualifying in the first tournament of the PBA World Series of Bowling, Fagan had a 3,393 pinfall (242.3 average). In Saturday's final six-game round he bowled games of 209, 237, 246, 279, 237 and 269.

Fagan finished 90 pins ahead of second-place finisher Stuart Williams (right) of England, who had a 3,303 pinfall.

Four-time PBA Tour winner Sean Rash (left) of Montgomery, Ill., finished third with 3,261 and Ildemaro Ruiz (right) of Venezuela rounded out the top four with 3,240.

"I had some momentum coming into the final round and was able to get into cruise control," said Fagan. "It's nice to be the tournament leader but you still have to win when it counts on TV."

Williams, whose previous best Tour finish was sixth in the 2009 PBA Cheetah Championship, felt he could capitalize on the Viper lane condition especially in Saturday's final qualifying round.

"My goal was to stay steady for the whole round and hope to maybe catch a couple pairs where I could shoot a big game to vault up the standings and that's pretty much what happened in that round," said Williams.

The Bayer Viper Open is the opening event of the 2011-12 PBA Tour season, and the first leg in the PBA World Championship. In addition to competing for a spot in the Viper Championship televised finals which will be taped by ESPN at 1 p.m. PT Nov. 18, all World Series of Bowling competitors will bowl three more eight-game qualifying rounds in the PBA's Chameleon, Scorpion and Shark tournaments over the next three days to qualify for the PBA World Championship cashers round.

The top 16 players after 40 games will then advance to the World Championship ESPN-taped divisional finals scheduled for Nov. 19 starting at 10:30 a.m.

 

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PBA Bayer Viper Open

Standings after 14 games; top 4 advance to ESPN finals.

1, Mike Fagan, Dallas, 3,393
2, Stuart Williams, England, 3,303
3, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 3,261
4, Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela, 3,240

Did not advance (after 14 games)
5, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 3,219, $2,500
6, Bill O'Neill, Southampton, Pa., 3,215, $2,400
7, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 3,206, $2,300
8, Kimmo Lehtonen, Finland, 3,193, $2,200
9, Dom Barrett, England, 3,187, $2,150
10, Mike DeVaney, Murrieta, Calif., 3,163, $2,100
11, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 3,148, $2,050
12, Jason Sterner, McDonough, Ga., 3,124, $2,000
13, Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y., 3,100, $1,950
14, Brian Kretzer, Dayton, Ohio, 3,078, $1,900
15, Kurt Pilon, Warren, Mich., 3,065, $1,850
16, Kim Hyun Bum, South Korea, 3,054, $1,800

Did not advance (after 8 games)
17, Rhino Page, Dade City, Fla., 1,820, $1,300
18, (tie) Billy Rogers, Dallas, and Nathan Bohr, Wichita, Kan., 1,817, $1,225
20, Wu Siu Hong, Hong Kong, 1,814, $1,150
21, Dino Castillo, Carrollton, Texas, 1,811, $1,110
21, Andy Mortensen, Tulsa, Okla., 1,811, $1,110
23, (tie) Clara Guerrero, Colombia, and Stevie Weber, Chalmette, La., 1,810, $1,085
25, (tie) Tom Hess, Urbandale, Iowa, and James Wallace, Hicksville, N.Y., 1,804, $1,065
27, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 1,800, $1,050
28, (tie) Dave Wodka, Henderson, Nev., and Scott Norton, Costa Mesa, Calif., 1,799, $1,035
30, Danny Wiseman, Baltimore, 1,798, $1,020
31, Zack Hattori, Las Vegas, 1,795, $1,010
32, Mitch Beasley, Clarksville, Tenn., 1,788, $1,000
33, Andres Gomez, Colombia, 1,787
34, John DeBenedetta Jr., Las Vegas, 1,786
35, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 1,781
36, Adrian Anderson, Roseburg, Ore., 1,776
37, Eddie VanDaniker Jr., Essex, Md., 1,774
38, Jack Jurek, Lackawanna, N.Y., 1,768
39, Michael Haugen Jr., Carefree, Ariz., 1,764
40, (tie) Jon Brandon, Santa Clarita, Calif., and Dick Allen, Columbia, S.C., 1,762
42, (tie) Ray Eddy III, Saginaw, Mich., and Gu Yong-Jin, South Korea, 1,761
44, (tie) Brad Angelo, Lockport, N.Y., and Mike Wolfe, New Albany, Ind., 1,759
46, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 1,758
47, Patrick Allen, Baltimore, 1,757
48, (tie) Matthew O'Grady, South Amboy, N.J., and Antonio Medina, Louisville, Ky., 1,756
50, Eddie Graham, Centerville, Ohio, 1,754
51, Joshua McBride, Wichita, Kan., 1,753
52, David Beres, Waukesha, Wis., 1,752
53, (tie) Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J., Lee Vanderhoef, Greenville, S.C., and Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 1,751
56, PJ Haggerty, Roseville, Calif., 1,748
57, Floyd Raymond, Gaylord, Mich., 1,743
58, Bryon Smith, Roseburg, Ore., 1,739
59, (tie) Diandra Asbaty, Chicago, and Jason Couch, Clermont, Fla., 1,737
61, Andre Eubanks, Los Angeles, 1,731
62, (tie) David Haynes, Las Vegas, and Tyler Jensen, Ft. Worth, Texas, 1,727
64, Steve Jaros, Yorkville, Ill., 1,726
65, Patrick Girard, Canada, 1,724
66, Lonnie Waliczek, Wichita, Kan., 1,722
67, Jesse Buss, Wichita, Kan., 1,721
68, Paul Moor, England, 1,720
69, Craig Auerbach, Sunrise, Fla., 1,718
70, (tie) Matt Freiberg, Somerset, N.J., and Dan MacLelland, Canada, 1,717
72, John Szczerbinski, North Tonawanda, N.Y., 1,716
73, Daniel Falconi, Mexico, 1,715
74, Cha Ji-Hyun, South Korea, 1,713
75, (tie) Jason Belmonte, Australia, and Martin Larsen, Sweden, 1,712
77, Amleto Monacelli, Venezuela, 1,708
78, (tie) Chad Lusche, Arvada, Colo., and Joseph Hostetler, Minerva, Ohio, 1,706
80, Billy Rohde, Marietta, Ga., 1,705
81, William Guszczo, Orland Park, Il., 1,704
82, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 1,701
83, D.J. Archer, Mineral Wells, Texas, 1,700
84, Dennis Eklund, Sweden, 1,694
85, Martin Paulsson, Sweden, 1,693
86, (tie) Lennie Boresch Jr., Kenosha, Wis., Scott Newell, Deland, Fla., and John Nolen, Waterford, Mich., 1,692
89, Eugene McCune, Munster, Ind., 1,691
90, John Furey, East Windsor, N.J., 1,689
91, (tie) Chris Warren, Grants Pass, Ore., and Kevin Croucher, Grants Pass, Ore., 1,687
93, (tie) Mike Scroggins, Amarillo, Texas, 1,685
93, Connor Pickford, Charlotte, N.C., 1,685
95, (tie) Michael Machuga, Erie, Pa., and Dennis Horan Jr., Temecula, Calif., 1,684
97, (tie) Andrew Cain, Phoenix, and Jaime Gonzalez, Colombia, 1,682
99, Rikke Holm Agerbo, Denmark, 1,674
100, (tie) Wayne Garber, Modesto, Calif., and Thomas Larsen, Denmark, 1,673
102, Brian Robinson, Morgantown, W.V., 1,670
103, (tie) Ron Mohr, Eagle River, Alaska, and Brian Valenta, Lockport, Ill., 1,668
105, (tie) Tommy Gollick, Oberlin, Pa., and Frank Guccione, Castle Rock, Colo., 1,662
107, Ernest Lukacs Jr., Manville, N.J., 1,661
108, Noel Vazquez, Sacramento, Calif., 1,660
109, Richard Horsley, Morrisville, N.C., 1,658
110, J.T. Jackson, Tarzana, Calif., 1,657
111, Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, 1,656
112, (tie) Park Kyung-Shin, South Korea, and Joe Paluszek, Bensalem, Pa., 1,655
114, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 1,652
115, Kenneth Bland Jr., Germany, 1,646
116, Erik Andersin, Sweden, 1,645
117, Chris Hayden, Las Vegas, 1,641
118, Patrick Dombrowski, Parma, Ohio, 1,639
119, Matthew Thornton, Montgomery, Ill., 1,636
120, Robert Piroozshad, Ranch Santa Margarita, Calif., 1,635
121, (tie) Chuck Tillson, Rohnert Park, Calif., Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, and
Jake Peters, Decatur, Ill., 1,634
124, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla., 1,632
125, Yousif Falah, Bahrain, 1,628
126, Kasey Normandin, Canada, 1,626
127, Anthony LaCaze, Melrose Park, Ill., 1,625
128, Kurt Bogner, Longview, Wash., 1,621
129, Mike Armstrong Jr., Tucson, Ariz., 1,618
130, Johnathan Bower, Middletown, Pa., 1,617
131, (tie) Jason Poli, West Des Moines, Iowa, and Juhani Tonteri, Finland, 1,615
133, Kerry Painter, Henderson, Nev., 1,609
134, Adam Monks, San Diego, 1,608
135, (tie) Sean Mamlok, San Jose, Calif., and Krzysztof Olesinski, Poland, 1,606
137, Jesper Agerbo, Denmark, 1,605
138, Liz Johnson, Cheektowaga, N.Y., 1,599
139, Travis Celmer, Wernersville, Pa., 1,597
140, Masoud Saberi, Bahrain, 1,595
141, (tie) Andrew Graff, Las Vegas, and Howard Partell, Las Vegas, 1,592
143, (tie) Glenn Morgan, Carson City, Nev., and Carl Labayan, Long Beach, Calif., 1,591
145, Eric Malone, Brewster, N.Y., 1,590
146, Mohammed Al Swawoosh, Bahrain, 1,589
147, (tie) Paola Gomez, Colombia, and Paul Gibson, Brunswick, Ohio, 1,586
149, Jeff Toyne, Columbia, S.C., 1,585
150, Chris Cundiff, Lake Station, Ind., 1,584
151, (tie) Ricky Schissler, Henderson, Colo., and Jerry Johnson Jr., Las Vegas, 1,581
153, (tie) Brett Cooper, Fort Worth, Texas, and Manuel Otalora, Colombia, 1,580
155, Julio Cesar Blancas, Mexico, 1,579
156, Steve Cook, Granite Bay, Calif., 1,576
157, (tie) Tony Campagna Jr., Hendersonville, Tenn., and Jimmy Mortensen, Denmark, 1,572
159, Santiago Garcia, Colombia, 1,569
160, (tie) Josh Blanchard, Gilbert, Ariz., and Carlos Cottone, Venezuela, 1,567
162, Fawaz Abdullah, Bahrain, 1,565
163, Alan Mojado, Pala, Calif., 1,564
164, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., 1,562
165, Rocio Restrepo, Colombia, 1,559
166, David Peterson, Plano, Texas, 1,557
167, Mahd Assad, Bahrain, 1,553
168, Isaac Amkie Amkie, Mexico, 1,552
169, Steve Ford, Seaside, Ore., 1,545
170, Michael Ciardulli Jr., Valley Stream, N.Y., 1,538
171, Park Jong Soo, South Korea, 1,532
172, Kevin Gallagher, Torrance, Calif., 1,531
173, (tie) Jaime Monroy, Colombia, and Adam Miller, Charlotte, N.C., 1,508
175, Bubba Harrison, Citrus Heights, Calif., 1,505
176, (tie) Jason Miller, Portland, Ore., and Jimmy Smith, Puyallup, Wash., 1,499
178, Mathias Ã…rup, Sweden, 1,493
179, Mark Fennell, Seattle, 1,492
180, Glen Nakagawa, Highland Village, Texas, 1,485
181, Toni Palermaa, Finland, 1,477
182, Brett Spangler, Niles, Ohio, 1,476
183, Chuck Galaviz, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1,475
184, Adam James, Redmond, Wash., 1,473
185, Dwight Tincher, Perris, Calif., 1,461
186, Darrell Gilbert Jr., Valparaiso, Ind., 1,452
187, Travis Thomas, Lumberton, N.C., 1,450
188, Robert McBride, Plano, Texas, 1,436
189, Chris Helton, Fountain, Colo., 1,427
190, Rickey Smith, Gulf Breeze, Fla., 1,426
191, Jim Horan, Oakley, Calif., 1,418
192, Kevin Prior, Allen, Texas, 1,407
193, Will Wells, New Zealand, 1,403
194, Courtney Miller, Charleston, S.C., 1,402
195, Frank Boyer, Lebanon, Pa, 1,401
196, Hameed Taqi, Bahrain, 1,381
197, Sam Grihm, Portland, Ore., 1,379
198, Mathew Tabor, Cooperstown, N.Y., 1,369
199, David Meadows, Houston, 1,362
200, Miroslaw Pajak, Poland, 1,356
201, Don Mathey, Turlock, Calif., 1,323
202, Jorge Tello, Colombia, 1,304
203, Rachel Vaughn, Port St. Lucie, Fla., 1,294
204, Tyler Johnson, Surprise, Ariz., 1,206