SHAWNEE, Okla. (Jan. 8, 2019) – Seven-time Go Bowling! Professional Bowlers Association Tour winner Jesper Svensson of Sweden averaged 259 for seven games to lead after the first round of the PBA Oklahoma Open Tuesday at the FireLake Bowling Center.

The two-handed left-hander bowled an 1,814 pinfall total with games of 237, 275, 299, 268, 228, 257 and 250 to hold a 70-pin lead over four-time tour winner Jakob Butturff of Tempe, Ariz., who finished the round in second with a 1,740 pinfall.

“That was crazy,” said the 23-year-old Svensson, who won the 2016 PBA Tournament of Champions in Shawnee. “I didn’t have a bad game and I really only had a few bad shots. Everything was working the way I wanted it to.”

Svensson won twice in 2017 but failed to win in 2018 with best tour finishes of second in the PBA Tournament of Champions and third in the PBA Tour Finals. He finished fourth in the PBA Hall of Fame Classic 2019 season opener last Sunday in Arlington, Texas.

“Since the second half of last year I’ve been struggling with my mental game,” Svensson added. “I’ve worked with a coach to help improve my focus and I feel like I’m in a good place with that now. The goal is to recognize when you’re in a good flow or rhythm and stay in that moment.”

Butturff, who finished second in the Hall of Fame Classic, had games of 216, 227, 258, 266, 256, 239 and 278 in the first round.

Qualifying continues Wednesday with the second seven-game qualifying round after which the field will be cut to the top 24 players for a casher’s round Thursday morning. The top 16 players after the cashers round will advance to the first match play round Thursday afternoon and the second match play round Friday morning that will determine the top five for the stepladder finals which will air live on FS1 Sunday at 11 a.m. ET (10 a.m. CT).

The qualifying rounds of the Oklahoma Open also determine the standings for the Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship. After Wednesday’s qualifying round, the top 12 doubles team will advance to two Baker format match play rounds on Friday and Saturday that will determine the top five doubles teams for the taped FS1 telecast at 1:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. CT) on Sunday. The Doubles Championship will air on FS1 Jan. 20 at 1 p.m. ET (noon CT).

Svensson and three-time tour winner Kyle Troup of Taylorsville, N.C., who teamed up to win the 2017 Roth-Holman Doubles Championship, lead after the first round with a 3,471 combined seven-game pinfall total holding a 117-pin lead over Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill. and Matt Ogle of Louisville, Ky., who finished with 3,354.

All preliminary rounds of the Oklahoma Open and Roth-Holman Doubles Championship are live-streamed on FloBowling.com.

PBA OKLAHOMA OPEN

FireLake Bowling Center, Shawnee, Okla., Tuesday

First Round Standings (after 7 games)

1, Jesper Svensson, Sweden, 1,814.
2, Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz., 1,740.
3, Christopher Sloan, Ireland, 1,739.
4, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 1,714.
5, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,713.
5, Jake Rollins, Glen Rock, N.J., 1,713.
7, Darren Tang, Las Vegas, Nev., 1,711.
8, Dom Barrett, England, 1,708.
9, Zacharay Wilkins, Canada, 1,697.
10, (tie) Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, and Nate Garcia, Port St. Lucie, Fla., 1,675.
12, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 1,660.
13, Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 1,657.
14, Kyle Sherman, O'Fallon, Mo., 1,655.
15, Brad Miller, Lees Summit, Mo., 1,647.
16, DJ Archer, Spring, Texas, 1,642.
17, Matthew Ogle, Louisville, Ky., 1,640.
18, Patrick Girard, Canada, 1,639.
19, Kristopher Prather, Plainfield, Ill., 1,635.
20, (tie) Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., and Jason Belmonte, Australia, 1,633.
22, Michael Tang, Johnstown, Ohio, 1,628.
23, Sam Cooley, Australia, 1,625.
24, Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., 1,622.
25, EJ Tackett, Bluffton, Ind., 1,617.
26, Zeke Bayt, Westerville, Ohio, 1,613.
27, Mitch Hupe, Canada, 1,609.
28, Nicholas Pate, Inver Grove Heights, Minn., 1,604.
29, Ryan Ciminelli, Clarence, N.Y., 1,599.
30, Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela, 1,594.
31, (tie) Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., and Dick Allen, Lexington, S.C., 1,593.
33, Greg Ostrander, Freehold, N.J., 1,592.
34, Tim Foy Jr., Seaford, Del., 1,591.
35, Andrew Anderson, Holly, Mich., 1,582.
36, Andres Gomez, Colombia, 1,579.
37, AJ Johnson, Oswego, Ill., 1,574.
38, Patrick Hanrahan, Wichita, Kan., 1,572.
39, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, 1,569.
40, (tie) Martin Larsen, Sweden, and Graham Fach, Urbana, Ohio, 1,566.
42, Francois Lavoie, Canada, 1,562.
43, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 1,559.
44, (tie) Dino Castillo, Highland Village, Texas, and Josh Blanchard, Mesa, Ariz., 1,558.
46, (tie) Mykel Holliman, Collierville, Tenn., Sean Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, Devin Bidwell, Wichita, Kan., and Liz Johnson, Palatine, Ill., 1,548.
50, Charlie Brown Jr., Grandville, Mich., 1,546.
51, Gary Faulkner Jr., Memphis, Tenn., 1,543.
51, Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 1,543.
53, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 1,530.
54, Connor Pickford, Charlotte, N.C., 1,529.
55, Brad Angelo, Lockport, N.Y., 1,525.
56, (tie) Kamron Doyle, Brentwood, Tenn., and Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 1,524.
58, Michael Haugen Jr., Phoenix, 1,522.
59, Richie Teece, England, 1,519.
60, AJ Chapman, Manchester, Iowa, 1,518.
61, Michael Davidson, Versailles, Ohio, 1,513.
62, (tie) Keven Williams, Springfield, Mo., Chris Via, Springfield, Ohio, and Anthony Pepe, East Elmhurst, N.Y., 1,511.
65, (tie) Arturo Quintero, Mexico, and Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 1,508.
67, Matt O'Grady, Rahway, N.J., 1,506.
68, Rhino Page, Orlando, 1,505.
69, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 1,504.
70, Stuart Williams, England, 1,501.
71, Thomas Larsen, Denmark, 1,500.
72, (tie) Pontus Andersson, Sweden, and Jason Sterner, Fayetteville, Ga., 1,498.
74, Jake Peters, Henderson, Nev., 1,496.
75, Stephen Pavlinko, Sewell, N.J., 1,494.
76, Austin Boulds, Creal Springs, Ill., 1,491.
77, (tie) Blake Demore, Springfield, Mo., and Nick Kruml, Downers Grove, Ill., 1,490.
79, Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 1,485.
80, Greg Young, Viera, Fla., 1,479.
81, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Oxford, Fla., 1,466.
82, (tie) Allan Smith, Killeen, Texas, and David Krol, Nixa, Mo., 1,461.
84, Paul Brewbaker, Taylor, Mich., 1,446.
85, A.J. Rice, Salem, Ala., 1,444.
86, Anthony Simonsen, Little Elm, Texas, 1,442.
87, Andrew Suscreba, Clifton, N.J., 1,432.
88, Cristian Azcona, Puerto Rico, 1,430.
89, Justin Wyman, Fairport, N.Y., 1,399.
90, Justin Knowles, Okemos, Mich., 1,388.
91, Matt Sanders, Indianapolis, 1,386.
92, Trey Ford, Bartlesville, Okla., 1,379.
93, Eduardo Astiazaran, Tucson, Ariz.., 1,373.
94, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., 1,347.
95, Kenneth Bland Jr., San Antonio, Texas, 1,330.
96, Matt Kuba, Chicago Ridge, Ill., 1,317.

MARK ROTH-MARSHALL HOLMAN PBA DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP

First Round Standings (combined pinfall totals after 7 games)

1, Jesper Svensson, Sweden/Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 3,471.
2, Matthew Ogle, Louisville, Ky./Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 3,354.
3, Darren Tang, Las Vegas, Nev./Michael Tang, Johnstown, Ohio, 3,339.
4, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas/Sam Cooley, Australia, 3,338.
5, Patrick Girard, Canada/Zacharay Wilkins, Canada, 3,336.
6, Brad Miller, Lees Summit, Mo./Kyle Sherman, O'Fallon, Mo., 3,302.
7, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla./Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 3,268.
8, Dom Barrett, England/Osku Palermaa, Finland, 3,267.
9, Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz./Michael Haugen Jr., Phoenix, 3,262.
10, Christopher Sloan, Ireland/Pontus Andersson, Sweden, 3,237.
11, Gary Faulkner Jr., Memphis, Tenn./Nate Garcia, Port St. Lucie, Fla., 3,218.
12, Dick Allen, Lexington, S.C./Zeke Bayt, Westerville, Ohio, 3,206.
13, Dino Castillo, Highland Village, Texas/Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., 3,180.
14, Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa./Jason Belmonte, Australia, 3,176.
15, AJ Johnson, Oswego, Ill./Greg Ostrander, Freehold, N.J., 3,166.
16, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas/Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 3,164.
17, Kristopher Prather, Plainfield, Ill./Richie Teece, England, 3,154.
18, Andrew Suscreba, Clifton, N.J./Jake Rollins, Glen Rock, N.J., 3,145.
19, EJ Tackett, Bluffton, Ind./Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 3,141.
20, (tie) Charlie Brown Jr, Grandville, Mich./Tim Foy Jr., Seaford, Del., and Andres Gomez, Colombia/Josh Blanchard, Mesa, Ariz., 3,137.
22, (tie) AJ Chapman, Manchester, Iowa/Mitch Hupe, Canada, and DJ Archer, Spring, Texas/Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 3,127.
24, Devin Bidwell, Wichita, Kan./Martin Larsen, Sweden, 3,114.
25, Rhino Page, Orlando/Ryan Ciminelli, Clarence, N.Y., 3,104.
26, Arturo Quintero, Mexico/Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela, 3,102.
27, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich./Walter Ray Williams Jr., Oxford, Fla., 3,099.
28, Nicholas Pate, Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Nick Kruml, Downers Grove, Ill., 3,094.
29, Keven Williams, Springfield, Mo.,/Patrick Hanrahan, Wichita, Kan., 3,083.
30, (tie) Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio/Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., and Chris Via, Springfield, Ohio/Graham Fach, Urbana, Ohio, 3,077.
32, Francois Lavoie, Canada/Stuart Williams, England, 3,063.
33, Anthony Pepe, East Elmhurst, N.Y./Liz Johnson, Palatine, Ill., 3,059.
34, Austin Boulds, Creal Springs, Ill./Sean Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 3,039.
35, Brad Angelo, Lockport, N.Y./Thomas Larsen, Denmark, 3,025.
36, Greg Young, Viera, Fla./Kamron Doyle, Brentwood, Tenn., 3,003.
37, Matt O'Grady, Rahway, N.J./Stephen Pavlinko Jr., Sewell, N.J., 3,000.
38, A.J. Rice, Salem, Ala./Mykel Holliman, Collierville, Tenn., 2,992.
39, Anthony Simonsen, Little Elm, Texas/Connor Pickford, Charlotte, N.C., 2,971.
40, Andrew Anderson, Holly, Mich./Matt Sanders, Indianapolis, 2,968.
41, Jason Sterner, Fayetteville, Ga./Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., 2,845.
42, Matt Kuba, Chicago Ridge, Ill./Michael Davidson, Versailles, Ohio, 2,830.
43, Allan Smith, Killeen, Texas/Kenneth Bland Jr., San Antonio, Texas, 2,791.

300 games - Nicholas Pate, Darren Tang, Christopher Sloan, Zachery Wilkins