Singaporean takes early lead
24th September, Bangkok: Remy Ong of Singapore got off to a cracking start to take the lead in the opening day of the overseas qualifying rounds at the PTT World Bowling Tour Thailand 2011 underway at Brinswick Blu-O Paragon Bowling Center on Saturday. Ong got off the mark with 225, 256 and 223 in his first attempt for a sizzling 704. The 32-year-old left-hander followed it up with 190, 236 and 266 in his second attempt for another superb 692. He started his third squad with 186 but stepped up his pace to fire 233 and 256 to end the round with 675 to give himself the early lead.
The Singaporean, who came from Busan in Korea after competing in the DSD Samho Korea Cup in which he made the Top 36 finals but ended in a disappoting 36th, will be hoping to put in a better performance here in Bangkok.
Asian Championship two silver medalist, Naif Oqab of UAE posted the highest 3-game series so far with 718 to add to his two other attempts of 675 and 595 for a 9-game aggregate of 1988 for second spot.
The southpaw can surely improve his lowest series of 595 in an effort to overtake Ong for top spot. Naif's fellow countrymen, Hareb Al-Mansoori did well to take up third spot with 1956. Hong Kong's Wu Siu Hong and local lad, Phumin Klandiba completed the top 5 with 1939 and 1898 respectively.
Bowlers will be ranked based on three 3-game series. Qualifiers ranked 1 to 8 will automatically advance to Round 4 finals. Qualifiers ranked 9 and 10 (reserved for local) and qualifiers ranked 11 to 24 will advance to Round 3 finals.
Qualifiers ranked 25 to 38, positioned 39 and 40 (resereved for local seeded) and qualifiers from the one-game desperado squad (ranked 41 and 42) will bowl six games in the Round 2 finals.
The top 10 will join qualifiers ranked 9 to 24 for another 6 games in Round 3 finals from scratch during which the top 12 will advance to Round 4 finals joined by qualifiers ranked 1 to 8 for another 6 games.
The top 8 will advance to the TV Final round in which players seeded 6, 7 and 8 will meet in first match over 1 game. Winner will bowl players seeded 4 and 5 over another 1 game in the secomd match.
The winner of the second match will meet player seeded 3 for the third match. The winner in the third match will meet player seeded 2 in the fourth match and finally the winner will meet the top seed in the title match on a best twice format.
The champion will walk away with the top prize of 1 million Thai baht (approx. US$32,250) from a total prize pool in excess of 4.5 million baht (approx. US$130,000).
The inaugural World Bowling Tour Thailand, the seventh leg of the WTBA World Bowling Tour, is sponsored by PTT (Petroleum Authority of Thailand), a major oil & gas company specializing in petrolchemical and oil refinery.
Detailed scores: Overall Standings | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Bangkok.