Tan leads after qualifying at the PWBA Greater Detroit Open

ALLEN PARK, Mich.- Cherie Tan out of Singapore averaged over 227 for 12 games at the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Greater Detroit Open to hold the lead heading into match play tomorrow morning at Thunderbowl Lanes.

Tan had a 12-game total of 2,726 to take the top spot after qualifying, looking for her second title of the season. She won the PWBA BowlTV Classic in June, part of the PWBA Classic Series- Nashville.

Joining Tan in match play are the following players: Crystal Elliott of Palm Bay, Florida (2,723); England’s Verity Crawley (2,699); Singapore’s New Hui Fen (2,653); Erin McCarthy of Elkhorn, Nebraska (2,649); Ashly Galante of Palm Harbor, Florida (2,649); Latvia’s Diana Zavjalova (2,620); Shannon Pluhowsky of Dayton, Ohio (2,614); Summer Jasmin of Beckley, West Virginia (2,605); Bryanna Coté of Tucson, Arizona (2,599); Julia Bond of Aurora, Illinois (2,596); and Maryssa Carey of Hobart, Indiana (2,592), who just beat out Canada’s Felicia Wong by 10 pins for the final match play spot.

Half of Tan’s 12 games were 230 or better as she jumped up to the lead during the day’s second six-game block and kept it, even as others like Elliott made her own run up the standings. Elliott went from 24th place after Round 1 of qualifying up to second with a six-game block of 1,463, the highest block of the day out of all competitors.

She made an adjustment after being behind the transition in the morning block.

“I wasn’t far enough left and I was behind the move the entire morning,” said Elliott. “I was wrapping a lot of 10 pins so we had to figure something out. During the second block, as soon as my ball burned up a little or I wrapped a 10, I immediately made a move just so I wouldn’t be in the same situation as the morning.” 


Round-robin match play begins at 9 a.m. Eastern with the first of two match play rounds. Round 2 is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Eastern, where the top five move on to the stepladder finals at 6:30 p.m. Eastern to determine who wins the first event of PWBA Tour Championship Week and the $10,000 top prize.

The second event of Tour Championship Week, the PWBA Pepsi Open, begins Friday with the same format as the Greater Detroit Open, with qualifying at 10 a.m. Eastern and the stepladder finals Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.