In a title match between two two-handed Professional Bowlers Association champions, Kyle Troup defeated defending champion Jason Belmonte or Australia, 248-232, to capture his third PBA title and the 150.000 Swedish Kronor top prize or 16.530 U.S. Dollar.

Troup (featured photo and right) , seeded second, started the championship match against Belmonte, owns 18 PBA Tour titles, including nine major championships, and has won PBA Player of the Year honors in four of the past five years, with three strikes and spare to take a 25-pin lead as Belmonte failed to convert the 2-10 split in the fourth frame after starting with spare-strike-strike.

Both right-handed two-handers struck on their next four shots, but it was Troup who failed to strike in foundation frame nine, to open the door for the Aussie. Finishing first, Belmonte needed four more strikes to force Troup to double in the tenth.

When Belmonte left the 2-8 combination in the ninth, the match was practically over. He spared and closed with three strikes for 232. Needing eight pins on his first ball in the last frame, Troup struck to seal the victory. The win also counted as a European Bowling Tour and World Bowling Tour title, a first in Troup’s career.

Belmonte, who has won the inaugural Storm Lucky Larsen Masters for his second EBT title, led the tournament in qualifying to bypass the first two rounds of the finals, then led the third round to earn the no. 1 seed for the stepladder finals. He received 110.000 Swedish Kronor or roughly $12.125.

In the opening match, Christopher Sloan of Ireland, the third right-handed two-hander in the finale, was down by 19 pins in the seventh frame against nine-time PBA champion Bill O’Neill, United States. O’Neill spared in the next two frames, while Sloan, who was looking for his first EBT title, narrowed the gap with a double.

O’Neill (ledt) struck three times in the 10th frame to force Sloan to throw two more strikes and a nine to win by one pin. Sloan matched O’Neill’s three-straight to advance by 236-234.

In the first of two matches between two two-handers, Troup started the semi-final match with the front four to take a commanding lead after four frames. After a 7-pin spare and open after a 7-10 split, the 2018 USBC Team USA Trials winner rolled another turkey to put the match away and to earn the right to bowl Belmonte for the title, 235-187.

Sloan received 80.000 Swedish Kronor (approx. $8,800) for third place and O’Neill got 60.000 (approx. $6,600) for fourth place.

The European Bowling Tour commences with the EBT “satellite” Rome Open All4bowling, which already got underway September 8 and runs through September 16 at Brunswick Bowling in Rome, Italy.

The Storm Lucky Larsen Masters was the 9th stop of the World Bowling Tour 2018 and the 10th stop of the European Bowling Tour 2018. The tournament was a WBT “tier 2” event and second and last EBT “platinum” event this season, the highest of the five EBT categories (platinum, gold, silver, bronze and satellite).

The second Storm Lucky Larsen Masters was held from August 25 to September 9 at Baltiska Bowlinghallen, a 22-laner in Malmö, Sweden and offered an increased total prize fund of 1.038.000 Swedish Kronor (SEK), or approximately 98.600 Euro, with 150.000 SEK (€14.250) going to the winner, 110.000 SEK to the runner-up and 80.000 and 60.000 SEK to the third and fourth place finishers, respectively. Low to cash was 60th place worth 3.500 SEK or 333 Euro.

All rounds could be watched live on SolidSport, featuring four different cameras covering 16 lanes. For more information, click here.

Qualifying of the Storm Lucky Larsen Masters (six-game series, unlimited re-entries) ran from Aug. 25 through Sept. 8.

Women received 8 pins handicap each game throughout the entire tournament, an equality handicap provided to women in all EBT events. Maximum score is 300.

Total 60 players advanced to the finals on Sunday, September 9, including the top 46 qualifiers, top 7 from an “Early Bird” competition (squads 1-16), top 2 senior bowlers (born in 1968 or earlier), top 2 U21 bowlers (born in 1997 or later), all not among the top 46, plus one player each from Turbo 4, 5 and 6 ranking (highest scores in game, 4, 5 and 6 (no extra entry fee required).

The top 8 qualifiers received two byes for the finals, while qualifiers 9-33 got a first-round bye.

The other 27 players bowled four games from scratch before the field was cut to the top 11 who joined qualifiers 9-33 in the second round featuring another four-game block from scratch. The top 16 met qualifiers 1-8 in the third round to bowl eight games starting from scratch. The top 4 advanced to the stepladder finals.

The 2018 European Bowling Tour features 12 tournaments in 10 countries including two “platinum”, two “gold”, three “silver”, two “bronze” and three “satellite” events, which offer total prize fund of roughly 625.000 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 8 men and top 8 women, who will be eligible to compete in the 12th EBT Masters July 8, 2019 at Bowling Chamartín in Madrid, Spain.

The World Bowling Tour 2018 currently features also twelve stops, one each in Germany, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand and Hong Kong and seven stops on U.S. soil. More events may be added, at least 3 months’ notice provided.

The Storm Lucky Larsen Masters is the 9th stop of the WBT 2018 and one of the tier 2 events this season. WBT tier 2 events award bowlers with four times the number of base WBT Rankings points (tier 1 six times and tier 3 two times).

The World Bowling Tour is sanctioned by World Bowling, the governing body for the sport of bowling. The tour is the premier international bowling series that is hosted in numerous, unique cities around the globe.

Due to an agreement between World Bowling and the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), World Bowling Tour tournaments will award a PBA Tour title if the winner is a PBA member (who doesn’t accept handicap pins). However, when an event is U.S. based and not a PBA event (such as the New Mexico Open), no PBA title can be granted.

Men and women compete for points to earn places on the World Bowling Tour rankings. The points system is based on a continuous two-year cycle, where points include every event from the previous two year format.

The top three men and top three women in the annual points list will compete in the season-ending World Bowling Tour Finals (date and venue tba).

World Bowling provides governance to international bowling and is made up of 134 bowling international federations. For more information on the World Bowling Tour, click here.

The 10th stop of the 2018 World Bowling Tour season is the WBT/PBA World Bowling Tour Thailand, a tier 2 event, which will be held Sept. 22-28 at Blu–O Rhythm & Bowl Ratchayothin in Bangkok, Thailand.

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Storm Lucky Larsen Masters – Stepladder Results

Baltiska Bowlinghallen in Malmö, Sweden (Aug. 25 – Sept. 9, 2018)

Championship Round:
1. Kyle Troup, United States, 483 (2 games), 150.000 SEK
2. Jason Belmonte, Australia, 232 (2 games), 110.000 SEK
3. Christopher Sloan, Ireland, 423 (2 games), 80.000 SEK
4. Bill O’Neill, United States, 234 (1 game), 60.000 SEK

Playoff Results:
First Match: No. 4 Sloan def. No. 3 O’Neill, 236-234
Second Match: No. 2 Troup def. Sloan, 235-187
Championship: Troup def. No. 1 Belmonte, 248-232.