Event: World Series of Bowling
Tournament: PBA Bayer Viper Open
Where: South Point Bowling Center, Las Vegas
Eliminator Format: Four finalists will bowl a one-game match. The player with the lowest score will be eliminated. The three survivors will bowl another game, with the low man ousted. The two finalists will then bowl a final game for the title.
Television: ESPN (Sunday at 3 p.m. ET)
The Bayer Viper Open is the first of four PBA “animal pattern” championships conducted during the PBA World Series of Bowling.
Mike Fagan of Dallas, a two-time PBA Tour champion, will head the field of four for the eliminator-format finals of the Viper Open. Fagan averaged 242.36 for 14 qualifying games to advance to the finals. He’ll bowl against England’s Stuart Williams, Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill., and Ildemaro Ruiz of Venezuela for the Viper title.
Fagan, 31, is a nine-year PBA Tour veteran who won his last title in the 2010 One A Day Dick Weber Open, held at Fountain Bowl. Rash, 28, is a four-time PBA Tour winner who is seeking his first title since the 2007 USBC Masters. Williams and Ruiz are making their second PBA television appearances. Neither has won a PBA Tour title.
Last Season: Bill O’Neill of Southampton, Pa., won his third Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour title, eliminating four competitors to capture the Pepsi Viper Championship at South Point Bowling Center. O’Neill struck on six of his first seven shots in the title match to soundly defeat top qualifier Andres Gomez of Colombia, 237-203. To reach the championship contest, the No. 4 qualifier romped past PBA Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli of Venezuela, 244-159; Mike DeVaney of Murrieta, Calif., 242-209, and Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, S.C., 248-192.
PBA:39X60 Pre-game Show: (Free on PBA.com, PBA YouTube Channel) Tune into PBA.com’s Xtra Frame for interviews with the finalists as they give their insight into strategy and equipment selection. All World Championship preview shows on Xtra Frame will be available the Wednesday before each Sunday ESPN telecast for free.
PBA:39X60 Post-game Show: (Free on PBA.com, PBA YouTube Channel) Sunday 4:30 p.m. ET – Xtra Frame interviews the winning player and provides in-depth ball rep analysis of the winner’s equipment selection and ball preparation.
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