Coming soon – 14th Columbia 300 Vienna Open

25 August, 2016

European Bowling Tour

2027

Ads

The 14th Columbia 300 Vienna Open is the 13th tournament on the 2016 European Bowling Tour and the last EBT “gold” event this season, the second-highest of the four EBT tournament categories.

The VO 2016 will be held from September 24 through October 2 at Plus Bowling, a 32-laner in Vienna, Austria. Players will compete for total prize fund of 73.180 Euro – 62.950 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles.

For the 14th consecutive year, Bowlingdigital.com will provide onsite coverage of the Vienna Open commencing Thursday, Sept. 29, all the way through to the stepladder finals on Sunday, Oct. 2.

The singles champion will walk away with the 7.000 € top prize, the first runner-up earns 5.000 € and the third and fourth-place finishers get 3.500 € and 2.500 €, respectively. 56 players will cash in Singles, which has a last-to-cash payout of 600 €. The doubles tournament will pay a 1.600 € first prize and a 20-place prize list (300 € last-to-cash).

Tournament sponsor Columbia 300 has announced that for the first perfect game bowled in the tournament with a Columbia 300 bowling ball, the athlete will be awarded a 300 U.S. Dollar bonus. The athlete must also have the Columbia 300 logo on his shirt. There will be no additional prizes for other 300 games.

The winning doubles of each of squads 5-10 conducted on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 2 and 6 p.m. Central European Summer Time (CEST) will be awarded two bowling balls, one for each athlete. Athletes can chose a ball from the official set of tournament balls, which will be either only from Columbia 300 or other balls from the EBI family. The official tournament ball set will be announced prior to the tournament.

The VO 2016 offers 20 qualifying squads – two each from Saturday, Sept. 24, through Thursday, Sept. 29, and four each on Friday and Saturday – with 60 individual spots or 30 doubles spots, respectively, available in each squad.

Please note: There are always individual spots available even in fully booked squads as players may not have found a doubles partner yet. Players looking for an empty spot as well as players looking for a doubles partner must show up 90 minutes prior to a squad at the registration desk or contact tournament director Thomas Gross at [email protected].

The VO 2016 offers three “Special Packages” for players who intend to bowl more than one entry, the Monday/Tuesday “Squad & Ball Special” (two entries plus official tournament ball for 300 €), the Thursday/Friday/Saturday “Once a Day Special” (three entries, one per day, and two meals for 400 €) and the Friday/Saturday “Early & Late Special” (three entries and two meals for 380 €).

For more information on the 14th Columbia 300 Vienna Open, including bulletin, online registration, hotel, oil pattern, schedule and prize fund, and more, click here.

Qualifying is traditionally organized as a doubles tournament offering dedicated prize money. Each duo must register to roll at least one six-game block. Unlimited re-entries – with the same partner or with different partners – are allowed. However, each player can cash only once with the SAME partner.

Qualifying will kick off Saturday, Sept. 24, and runs through Saturday, Oct. 1, with the final Squad 20 slated for 8 p.m. CEST. Qualifying concludes with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad scheduled for 11.30 p.m.

Women receive eight pins handicap each game (maximum is 300), an equality handicap provided to women in all EBT events.

Total 56 players will qualify for the Vienna Open finals on Sunday, Oct. 2:

the top 44 players from the overall qualifying standings (squads 1-20)
the highest-positioned player from each of the first eight squads, who is not among the top 44 (total 8 players)
and the top 4 players of the Desperado Squad.

The top 8 qualifying leaders receive a first-round bye. The other 48 players bowl six games scratch. The top 22 join the top 8 qualifiers in Round Two.

Those 30 players bowl another six games scratch after which the field is trimmed to the top 18, who carry the pinfall forward into Round Three. After another six-game block the top 4 players with the highest 12-game total advance to the stepladder finals.

The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 in the opening match and the winner takes on the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the top seed for the title, the 7.000 Euro top prize and 150 European Bowling Tour ranking points (men and women in separate rankings).

The 2016 European Bowling Tour currently consists of 16 tournaments in 11 countries featuring three “Platinum” events, three “Gold”, four “Silver” and six “Satellite” events. All tournaments together offer total prize fund of roughly 850.000 Euro.

The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. Those points will be tabulated throughout the season to determine the top 12 men and top 12 women, who will be eligible to compete in the 10th EBT Masters May 29, 2017, at Lovvang Bowling Center in Aalborg, Denmark.

Jesper Svensson wins his fifth career EBT title in 2015 Columbia 300 Vienna Open
2016 EBT Point Rankings by Bowlingdigital – Men and Women
2016 European Bowling Tour Schedule, Champions and Money-breakdown

Herbert Bickel