BubbaRay
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Joined: 05 Sep 2008
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 Quest for PBA World Championship Begins Sunday
LAS VEGAS – Two-time Professional Bowlers Association titlist Jack Jurek of Lackawanna, N.Y., will take on three international bowlers in the Don Carter Division finals of the PBA World Championship Sunday at 1 p.m. ET in high-definition on ESPN.
The Don Carter Division is the first of four eliminator rounds that will trim the PBA World Championship field of 16 finalists down to four for a Sunday, Jan. 15, battle for the $50,000 first prize, the Earl Anthony Trophy and the PBA Tour’s first major title of the 2011-12 season.
All World Championship competition will be conducted on a pair of lanes specially installed in an exhibit hall at South Point Hotel and Casino.
Jurek, a 48-year-old 25-year veteran of PBA Tour competition, will take on England’s Stuart Williams and Dom Barrett, and two-handed Finnish star Osku Palermaa, in the first divisional final, named in honor of legendary PBA star and former World Champion Don Carter. None of the four have won a PBA major title. Both British players are trying for their first PBA Tour titles. Palermaa won his only PBA Tour title in the 2010 Shark Championship.
No international player has ever won the PBA World Championship.
In Sunday’s eliminator round, all four players 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, with the survivor advancing to the PBA World Championship finals.
Williams is the leading qualifier in the Don Carter group after posting a 40-game total of 9,023 pins during the PBA’s third annual World Series of Bowling at South Point Bowling Center, averaging 225.58 over five rounds of qualifying on five different lane conditions. As top qualifier, Williams earned the right to select the lane condition for Sunday’s ESPN telecast, and he selected the Viper pattern. Among the 16 World Championship finalists, Williams qualified fourth, Palermaa fifth, Barrett 12th and Jurek 13th.
The other three World Championship divisional finals are also named for PBA superstars who excelled in the event during their careers – Billy Hardwick, Johnny Petraglia and Mike Aulby – and the championship trophy is named in honor of Anthony, the only player ever to win the event six times.
A special preview of the Carter Division finals will be webcast on pba.com’s Xtra Frame beginning Wednesday, and a post-game show will be presented on Xtra Frame Sunday immediately following the ESPN finals.
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