Still trying for his first PBA Tour title on U.S. soil, Larsen leads after the second round with a 3,619 16-game pinfall total. He bowled a 1,826 pinfall total in Tuesday’s first eight-game round on the 32-foot Wolf pattern lane condition and followed it up with 1,793 in Wednesday’s second round bowling games of  219, 226, 257, 193, 253, 194 and 217 and 234 on the 40-foot Bear lane condition pattern. 

“I was nervous about today,” Larsen said. “In practice on Monday on this lane condition, everything was good for the first 20 frames but then all of the sudden the lanes started hooking a ton.

“The (lane condition) transition was quick so I ended up using a few balls in the round and kept moving left. I was fortunate that I was able to keep up with the quick-changing lane conditions.”

Larsen owns two PBA Tour titles which came in PBA/World Bowling Tour events – the 2013 Abu Dhabi Open and 2014 Kuwait International Open. His best U.S. finishes have been third-place finishes in the 2015 and 2016 Chameleon Championships.

“I’ve done well in tournaments where you have to be versatile,” the 27-year-old Larsen added. “When you bowl all over the world you have to learn to bowl on everything.”

Larsen’s home country of Denmark is one of 16 nations represented in the Oklahoma Open.

Larsen holds a 57-pin lead over 18-time Tour winner Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, in second with a 3,562 pinfall. First-round co-leader three-time Tour winner Marshall Kent of Yakama, Wash., finished the day in third with 3,558.

Reigning PBA Player of the Year EJ Tackett of Huntington, Ind., moved from seventh in the first round to fourth with 3,516. Tackett won the FireLake PBA Tournament of Champions which was held in Shawnee in February. He won the inaugural Main Event PBA Tour Finals which aired on the CBS Sports Network  Tuesday evening to become the season’s first three-time winner.

Trey Ford III, a 16-year-old PBA member from Bartlesville, Okla., rounded out the top five with a 3,511 pinfall total. The high school sophomore, who is competing in a field of 90 of the best bowlers in the world bowled games of 226, 174, 231, 191, 233, 223, 266 before faltering in the final game with 133.

Ford, who has been a PBA member since age 13, has best finishes of sixth, seventh and ninth in PBA regional competition.

Malaysia’s Zulmazran Zulkifli, who held the first round lead with Kent, finished the day in sixth with a 3,504 pinfall total.

Qualifying continues Thursday with another eight-game round on PBA’s 52-foot Badger lane conditioning pattern. The top 33 players based on 24-game pinfall totals will advance to another eight-game qualifying round on the Oklahoma Open lane condition Friday which will determine nine players who will compete in the live ESPN stepladder finals at the Grand Casino Hotel Event Center Saturday and Sunday at noon CDT (1 p.m. ET).

Saturday’s stepladder round will feature players who qualified fifth through ninth with the winner advancing to the no. 5 qualifying position for Sunday’s stepladder finals.

All qualifying rounds are streamed live on PBA’s online bowling channel Xtra Frame.  For subscription and schedule information click on www.xtraframe.tv.

GRAND CASINO HOTEL & RESORT PBA OKLAHOMA OPEN

FireLake Bowling Center, Shawnee, Okla., Wednesday

Second Round (after 16 games)

1, Thomas Larsen, Denmark, 3,619.
2, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 3,562.
3, Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 3,558.
4, EJ Tackett, Huntington, Ind., 3,516.
5, Trey Ford III, Bartlesville, Okla., 3,511.
6, Zulmazran Zulkifli, Malaysia, 3,504.
7, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 3,479.
8, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 3,466.
9, Francois Lavoie, Canada, 3,458.
10, Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., 3,449.
11, Sam Cooley, Australia, 3,443.
12, Jason Sterner, Rockledge, Fla., 3,414.
13, Rhino Page, Orlando, Fla., 3,402.
14, (tie) Walter Ray Williams Jr., Oxford, Fla., and Jesper Svensson, Sweden, 3,383.
16, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 3,380.
17, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 3,374.
18, Dom Barrett, England, 3,373.
19, Nick Kruml, Downers Grove, Ill., 3,366.
20, Brandon Novak, Chillicothe, Ohio, 3,363.
21, Richie Teece, England, 3,347.
22, Ahmed Alawadhi, Bahrain, 3,344.
23, Brad Angelo, Lockport, N.Y., 3,342.
24, J.R. Raymond, Clinton Twp., Mich., 3,330.
25, (tie) John Szczerbinski, N. Tonawanda, N.Y., and Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 3,327.
27, Zeke Bayt, Westerville, Ohio, 3,323.
28, (tie) Stuart Williams, England, and Jason Belmonte, Australia, 3,321.
30, Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 3,319.
31, James Cantere, Oklahoma City, 3,311.
32, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 3,310.
33, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 3,304.
34, Kristopher Prather, Milton, Fla., 3,302.
35, (tie) Devin Bidwell, Wichita, Kan., and Kyle Sherman, O'Fallon, Mo., 3,297.
37, (tie) AJ Johnson, Oswego, Ill., and Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 3,289.
39, Dylan Burns, Lawrence, Kan., 3,274.
40, Jesse Buss, Belvidere, Ill., 3,268.
41, Jon Van Hees, Charlestown, R.I., 3,266.
42, (tie) DJ Archer, Friendswood, Texas, and Francois Louw, South Africa, 3,264.
44, Gary Faulkner Jr., Memphis, Tenn., 3,262.
45, Amleto Monacelli, Venezuela, 3,247.
46, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 3,246.
47, Anthony Simonsen, Austin, Texas, 3,243.
48, AJ Chapman, Wichita, Kan., 3,241.
49, Dick Allen, Columbia, S.C., 3,239.
50, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 3,233.
51, (tie) Jake Peters, Henderson, Nev., Gabriel Garcia, Port St. Lucie, Fla., and Craig Nidiffer, Trenton, Mich., 3,230.
54, Chris Via, Springfield, Ohio, 3,217.
55, (tie) Osama Hassan, Bahrain, and Kurt Pilon, Warren, Mich., 3,214.
57, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, 3,202.
58, Kim Bolleby, Thailand, 3,196.
59, Brian LeClair, Athens, NY, 3,185.
60, Patrick Allen, Elmwood Park, N.J., 3,183.
61, Sean Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 3,177.
62, (tie) Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz., and Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y., 3,173.
64, Christopher Sloan, Ireland, 3,171.
65, Isaac Russell, Malaysia, 3,162.
66, Darren Tang, San Francisco, 3,160.
67, Matthew Sanders, Evansville, Ind., 3,155.
68, Shota Kawazoe, Japan, 3,131.
69, Tom Sorce, Blasdell, N.Y., 3,128.
70, Andrew Anderson, Holly, Mich., 3,124.
71, Ramon Hilferink, Netherlands, 3,121.
72, Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 3,119.
73, Michael Houtz, Myerstown, Pa., 3,104.
74, Dylan Macon, Lubbock, Texas, 3,100.
75, Isaac Kim, Lebanon, Pa., 3,098.
76, Brad Miller, Maryland Heights, Mo., 3,093.
77, Paul Brewbaker, Midwest City, Okla., 3,092.
78, Dino Castillo, Highland Village, Texas, 3,084.
79, Graham Fach, Canada, 3,081.
80, Omar Rashid, Bahrain, 3,071.
81, Pontus Andersson, Sweden, 3,042.
82, Jeff Hatt, Oklahoma City, 2,988.
83, Kenneth Bland Jr., Jacksonville, Texas, 2,950.
84, Tom Hess, Urbandale, Iowa, 2,937.
85, Tyson Branagan, Fort Worth, Texas, 2,882.
86, Cody Shoemaker, Hanover, Pa., 2,824.
87, Armando Santacruz, Ecuador, 2,799.
88, Jose Rosero, Ecuador, 2,715.
89, William Tarpein, McDonough, Ga., 2,669.
90, Yebgueni Velez, Ecuador, 2,502.