After extraordinarily high scores in qualifying, the scoring pace came down just a pinch in the first and second rounds of the finals at the World Bowling Tour/PBA 13^th Kuwait International Open.

On Tuesday, 24 players were eliminated in the first round and eight players were knocked out in the second round to narrow the field down to 16 remaining bowlers who have a shot at the $50,000 first-place prize.

All eight advancing players from Round 2 should be familiar faces to bowling fans as Brad Miller led the way with a five-game block of 1,326, a 265.20 average. Miller had games of 245, 257, 267, 289 and 268

Tommy Jones made it through the second round in second place with 1,320, while Mitch Hupe was third with 1,310. Martin Larsen, who recently recovered from being hit by a car, was fourth with 1,297.

Also advancing was Dom Barrett, Ildemaro Ruiz, AJ Johnson and Osku Palermaa, who got the last spot with a 253 average.

Among those players who did not advance in the second round were Sean Rash, Greg Young, Maria Jose Rodriguez, Kamron Doyle, Mika Koivuniemi and Liz Johnson. Among the 24 players eliminated in Round 1 were AJ Chapman, Francois Lavoie, Tom Daugherty, Kyle Sherman and Shawn Maldonado.

The eight remaining players from Tuesday’s competition will now be joined in Round 3 by the eight players who had two-round byes. All pins are dropped every round.

Sam Cooley, who put up an incredible 281.50 average to lead qualifying, was joined by Arnar Jonsson, Michael Mak, Thomas Larsen, Stuart Williams, Nick Pate, Danielle McEwan, Mostafa Almousawi as the players earning byes into Round 3 based on their qualifying totals.

The top five players in the five-game third round, which takes place Wednesday morning, will advance to the stepladder finals. If the winner of the event is a current PBA member, they will earn a PBA title for the victory.

Scores in the event have been sky high thanks in part to a combination of factors but mainly due to the scoring system being used. The tournament is using the World Bowling current frame scoring system which awards 30 pins for a strike, while a spare equals 10 pins plus the pinfall of the first shot and an open equals the pinfall for the frame.

There have been numerous 300 games in the event, including one by Barrett in the second round, thanks in part to only needing 10 strikes for a perfect game instead of 12 under a traditional scoring system.

Round 2

Results courtesy ABF-Online.org

Round 1

Results courtesy ABF-Online.org