SHAWNEE, Okla. (Jan. 22, 2020) – Australia’s Sam Cooley, a sixth-year PBA member trying for his first title, averaged 239.1 Wednesday to take the first-round qualifying lead in the PBA Oklahoma Open at FireLake Bowling Center.

Cooley, 28, rolled games of 247, 255, 259, 194, 234 and 246 for a 1,435 pinfall total for the six-game round to take a 28-pin lead over Ryan Ciminelli of Lancaster, South Carolina. Kris Prather of Plainfield, Illinois, was third with 1,390 pins followed by last week’s PBA Hall of Fame Classics runner-up Darren Tang of Las Vegas with a 1,367 total and Kyle Sherman of O’Fallon, Missouri, with 1,362 pins.

Defending Oklahoma Open champion Jakob Butturff of Tempe, Arizona, was in 22nd place with a 1,321 total.

“I matched up pretty well on both lanes with my equipment and I minimized the damage on the bad pair I hit,” Cooley said. “Overall I just bowled pretty well. Last week I didn’t make it out of the PTQ (pre-tournament qualifier) so this is definitely a step in the right direction.”

Cooley, who has three third-place finishes in his first five years of PBA Tour competition, but he isn’t thinking about a title at this point.

“It’s only a matter of time, but I’m not looking that far ahead,” he said. “When you start doing that, you’re just giving yourself more chances for things to get in the way.”

The Oklahoma Open field, divided into two squads, will bowl its final six-game qualifying round at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Thursday. After 12 qualifying games, the top 16 players will advance to two eight-game head-to-head match play rounds at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Friday to decide the five stepladder finalists. The tournament will conclude with the stepladder finals airing live on FS1 on Sunday at 1 p.m. CST.

The tournament is being contested on a dual pattern scoring environment with 45-foot PBA Dragon 45 lane conditioning pattern applied to the left lane and the 32-foot Wolf 32 pattern applied to the right lane throughout the competition.

The Oklahoma Open is the second tournament of the 2020 Go Bowling PBA Tour season and a Tier 2 event in the PBA’s competition points structure. Points earned throughout the PBA World Series of Bowling XI in April will be used to qualify the 24 players who will compete in the PBA Playoffs in April and early May.

All qualifying and match play rounds are being livestreamed by FloBowling, the PBA’s online livestreaming partner. For subscription information, visit FloBowling.com. Game by game results also are available by clicking on the PBA.com Live Scoring link.

PBA OKLAHOMA OPEN

(A 2020 Go Bowling PBA Tour Tier 2 event)

FireLake Bowling Center, Shawnee, Okla.

First Round Qualifying Standings (after six games)

1, Sam Cooley, Australia, 1,435.
2, Ryan Ciminelli, Lancaster, S.C., 1,407.
3, Kristopher Prather, Plainfield, Ill., 1,390.
4, Darren Tang, Las Vegas, 1,367.
5, Kyle Sherman, O'Fallon, Mo., 1,362.
6, DJ Archer, Spring, Texas, 1,360.
7, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 1,359.
8, Greg Young, Viera, Fla., 1,352.
9, Nicholas Pate, Inver Grove Heights, Minn., 1,350.
10, Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 1,347.
11, Michael Tang, Johnstown, Ohio, 1,345.
12, Andrew Anderson, Holly, Mich., 1,343.
13, Jesper Svensson, Sweden, 1,342.
14, Brad Miller, Lees Summit, Mo., 1,341.
15, Patrick Girard, Canada, 1,334.
16, Matt Sanders, Evansville, Ind., 1,331.
17, Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., 1,329.
18 (tie), Jason Belmonte, Australia, and Osku Palermaa, Finland, 1,325.
20 (tie), AJ Chapman, Manchester, Iowa, and Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 1,324.
22, Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz., 1,321.
23, Francois Lavoie, Canada, 1,320.
24, Dino Castillo, Highland Village, Texas, 1,318.
25, Jaroslav Lorenc, Czech Republic, 1,313.
26 (tie), Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., and Mitch Hupe, Wichita, Kan., 1,310.
28 (tie), Patrick Hanrahan, Wichita, Kan., and Michael Martell, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1,309.
30, Dick Allen, Lexington, S.C., 1,300.
31, Greg Ostrander, Brick, N.J., 1,292.
32, Thomas Larsen, Denmark, 1,288.
33, Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 1,280.
34, Dom Barrett, England, 1,278.
35, Jim Pratt, Avondale, Ariz., 1,275.
36 (tie), Michael Davidson, Versailles, Ohio, and Keven Williams, Springfield, Mo.,, 1,274.
38, Mykel Holliman, Collierville, Tenn., 1,273.
39 (tie), Jake Peters, Henderson, Nev., and Stuart Williams, England, 1,262.
41, Nate Garcia, Port St. Lucie, Fla., 1,260.
42 (tie), Nick Kruml, Downers Grove, Ill., and Graham Fach, Urbana, Ohio, 1,259.
44, EJ Tackett, Bluffton, Ind., 1,256.
45 (tie), Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela; Russ Oviatt, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 1,255.
48, Wesley Low Jr., Palmdale, Calif., 1,254.
49, Tom Hess, Granger, Iowa, 1,253.
50, Zac Tackett, Huntington, Ind., 1,243.
51, Zeke Bayt, Westerville, Ohio, 1,238.
52, Anthony Simonsen, Little Elm, Texas, 1,234.
53, Kim Bolleby, Sweden, 1,233.
54, Richard Teece, England, 1,229.
55, Arturo Quintero, Mexico, 1,228.
56, Matt Russo, Fairview Heights, Ill., 1,227.
57, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,226.
58, Matthew Ogle, Louisville, Ky., 1,224.
59, Jason Sterner, Rochester, N.Y., 1,220.
60, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 1,219.
61, Mike Coffey, Melbourne, Fla., 1,217.
62, Sean Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,210.
63 (tie), Nathan Bohr, Austin, Texas, and David Krol, Nixa, Mo., 1,207.
65, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 1,206.
66, BJ Moore, Greensburg, Pa., 1,200.
67, Kyle Duster, Phoenix, Ariz., 1,199.
68, Pontus Andersson, Sweden, 1,195.
69, Connor Pickford, Charlotte, N.C., 1,191.
70, Andrew Suscreba, Clifton, N.J., 1,188.
71, Kamron Doyle, Brentwood, Tenn., 1,185.
72 (tie), Kenneth Ryan, Farmingdale, N.J., and Brandon Curtis, Manson, N.C., 1,181.
74, Brandon Novak, Chillicothe, Ohio, 1,177.
75, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 1,173.
76, Ryan Burks, Kansas City, Mo., 1,165.
77, Gary Faulkner Jr., Memphis, Tenn., 1,156.
78 (tie), Corey Umbrello, Westminster, Mass., and Walter Ray Williams Jr., Oxford, Fla., 1,154.
80 (tie), Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, and Christopher Sloan, Ireland, 1,146.
82, Chris Via, Springfield, Ohio, 1,139.
83, AJ Johnson, Oswego, Ill., 1,107.
84, Matt Kuba, Chicago Ridge, Ill., 1,095.
85, Zacharay Wilkins, Canada, 1,074.
86, Brian Robinson, Morgantown, W.Va., 1,067.
87, Deo Benard, Henderson, Nev., 1,046.
88, Justin Wyman, Fairport, N.Y., 975.