Daejeon International Bowling Tournament is underway in Korea

    08/18/11

    South Korea

    Daejeon World Cup Stadium Bowling Center in Daejeon, Korea (Aug. 8-26, 2011)

    2011DeajeonOpenLogo2.jpg The Daejeon International Bowling Tournament, the sixth stop of the inaugural World Bowling Tour, is underway at Daejeon World Cup Stadium Bowling Center in Daejeon, Korea.

    Daejeon, located in the center of the country, is South Korea's fifth largest metropolis with a population of over 1.5 million in 2010. The Stadium was constructed in preparation for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

    The tournament organized by the Korea Professional Bowling Association (KPBA) offers total prize money of 200 million South Korean Won (KW) or approximately 186.720 U.S. Dollar. 30 million Won will be distributed in the preliminaries and the remaining 170 million are the payout for the main event.

    The winner will walk away with the 50 million KW top prize or approx. $46.680. The first runner-up receives 25 million with 12 million going to the third-place finisher, while fourth and fifth place are worth 9 and 7 million won, resp.

    After ten days of qualifying for local bowlers, a total of 70 three-game qualifying squads have been played.

    Park Geun-Woo leads the field of 297 Korean bowlers with 2388 nine-game total and an average of 265.33. Park had high series of 800 and two 794 including two 300 games. Multiple Asian Games, World and Asian champion Choi Jin-A is the best woman in the field in second place with 2344 (253.44 scratch).

    Jo Yung-Sik currently holds the 125th and last spot to advance with 2086 or an average of 231.78.

    Qualifying for the international participants starts on Thursday, Aug. 18, at noon with Squad 71 and ends on Saturday with Squad 91 scheduled to start at 10.30 p.m. local time.

    All players must complete at least three qualifying blocks of three games for a total of nine games. Unlimited re-entries are allowed. Only the three highest blocks count. Women receive seven pins handicap per game. The top 125 players with the highest nine-game totals will qualify for main event, which will be played from Aug. 21-26 on a 44 feet lane pattern.

    Click here to view the oil pattern (pdf file) for the main event.

    Those 225 players will bowl three blocks of six games over three days on a 44 feet oil pattern to cut to the top 48 who will advance to semifinal round to bowl another six game block with the previous pinfall total being carried forward.

    The top 12 after 24 games advance to twelve games round robin match play to determine the top six players who will make the TV stepladder finals.

    The No. 4, 5 and 6 seed will square off in the opening shoot-out match. The winner takes on the No. 3 seed; the winner of that match bowls the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the tournament leader for the title.

    The top 50 men and the top 50 women will also earn points for the World Bowling Tour ranking (current standings).

     


    Qualifying Standings as of August 17


    Players with position, country, highest three 3-game blocks and 9-game total. Women including seven pins handicap each game. The top 125 will advance to the main event. Courtesy of Asian Bowling Federation.

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