INDIANAPOLIS – The 108 competitors for the U.S. Women’s Open have been determined after Tuesday’s pre-tournament qualifier, where 24 moved on to the tournament proper and a chance for a major championship at Royal Pin Woodland in Indianapolis.
Malaysia’s Esther Cheah led the field on a tough 41-foot pattern with an eight-game total of 1,707, good for just over a 213 average.
“It feels awesome, I completed my objective of making it into the tournament,” said Cheah. “I was focusing on my push away and timing, not worrying about scores.”
Tandess O’Neal of Greenfield, Indiana; Marcia Kloempken of Pleasant View, Utah; Crystal Elliott of Palm Bay, Florida and Brittany Smith of Van Meter, Iowa, round out the top five in the PTQ.
Sixth through 10th belonged to Colombia’s Juliana Franco; Megan Duff of Dayton, Ohio, Maranda Pattison of Redwood Valley, California; Macy Jones of Shobonier, Illinois and Kylee Trexler of Arcadia, Indiana, respectively.
The final spot into the main tournament went to Mexico’s Illiana Lomeli, who bounced back from a 139 in Game 7 with a 203 in the final game to sneak her way in and chase a major title.
For Cheah, the gameplan for the rest of the week will be formulated during Wednesday’s practice sessions.
“We’ll know after practice and talking with the ball reps what the plan is for the rest of the week.”
The practice session on Wednesday will be all day, as each pattern used in competition this week will be laid out for competitors. Patterns one through three will be for each qualifying round, while the fourth and final pattern will be the only one used starting with the fourth qualifying round and up until the TV finals.
Thursday through Saturday will be qualifying rounds, each day starting at 8 a.m. for eight games each round for all three squads that bowl. 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. are the start times for the other two squads of each day, and all squads will bowl eight games.
After the third qualifying round, a cut will be made to the top third of the field, who will return Sunday for the fourth and final qualifying round at 10 a.m., again being eight games.
The top 24 after qualifying will begin the first of three rounds of round-robin match play later at 5 p.m. The final two rounds will be Monday at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., and the top five after match play will bowl in the live TV stepladder finals show Tuesday June 18 at 6 p.m., only on CBS Sports Network.
The No. 4 and No. 5 seeds will begin the stepladder and each match will be one game head-to-head, with the winner moving up until the title match against the No. 1 seed.
All rounds of qualifying and match play leading up to the TV finals will be streamed live on BowlTV.
