It's down to 15 in 9th Kuwait International Open

    03/19/12

    Kuwait

    Sean Rash leads Final Round 4 with 269 average; top 8 meet top seven qualifiers in Round Five on Monday; all women eliminated

    201112PBA03SeanRash2.jpg201112PBAMartinLarsen.jpgFour-time PBA champion Sean Rash (pictured left), United States led the top eight players of Final Round Four into the fifth round of the 9th Kuwait International Open Monday at Cozmo Bowling Center in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

    Rash had games of 270, 258, 278, 230, 299 and 279 for 1614 pinfall total, an average of 269. Swede Martin Larsen (right) used the second 300 game in Round 4 (Putty Armein, Indonesia, had the first) to land in second place with 1501.

    Armein and the other three remaining women were eliminated. Sayed Al-Hashemi, UAE, took the eighth and last place to advance with 1410 (235.00). Those eight will meet the top seven qualifiers in Round Five.

    The 9th Kuwait International Open drew 110 players, 99 men and 11 women, from 19 countries. All players - men and women in the same division - bowled 15 games of qualifying (three 3 blocks of 5 games) over three days. Women received 5 pins handicap each game.

    A total of 38 players advanced to the second round: The top 6 plus the best Kuwaiti (ranked 7th), the next 27 players in the overall standings plus the next four Kuwaitis (ranked 35 to 38).

    Places 1-7 earned three byes, places 8-14 got two byes and places 15-22 received one bye. The remaining 16 players (places 23-38) bowled six games scratch with the top 8 advancing to Round 3.

    Qualifiers 15-22 and the top 8 of Round 2 bowled another six games scratch to cut to the top 9, who met qualifiers 8-14 in Round 4. Those 16 bowled another six games scratch with the top 8 advancing to fifth Round.

    Those eight and the top six qualifiers plus the top Kuwaiti will bowl four games with the pinfall total being carried forward into a "Modified Match Play Round". Match play consists of seven games plus one game position round with three bowlers on each pair of lanes. The winner of each match on a pair of lanes will receive 20 bonus pins while the second place will receive 10 bonus pins.

    The top 5 after match play will advance to the stepladder finals. The No. 1 seed must be defeated twice to win the title. Since the PBA Tour's new alliance with the World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA) the winner of the 9th Kuwait International Open will be awarded the first PBA Tour international title, the $25,000 top prize and 50 points in the World Bowling Tour ranking.

    Women who compete in the Kuwait Open (or other WTBA events) on equal terms with men are eligible to win PBA Tour titles, but women who accept "handicap" pins which are commonly awarded to women in WTBA tournament are not eligible to win PBA titles.

     


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    Round Four


    The top 8 players advance to the fifth round.

     


    Round Three


    The top 9 players advance to the fourth round.

     


    Round Two


    The top 8 players advance to the third round.

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