World Bowling Tour

The World Bowling Tour, a major professional tour, unites bowlers from selected major professional and amateur organizations through a series of events organized by

The World Bowling Tour's marquee event, the WTBA World Championships, attracts bowlers from over 50 countries. World Bowling Tour events include all the PBA Tour major tournaments. As a stepladder tournament, the season-ending World Bowling Tour Finals features the top three men, and top three women in the World Bowling Tour points standings.^[2]

Tour Qualifications

To participate in the World Bowling Tour, bowlers must be a member of one of the federations of the World Tenpin Bowling Association. The federations of the WTBA include:

• Professional Bowlers Association, which include the PBA Tour, PBA50, and PBA international;
• Professional Women's Bowling Association.
• Thai Tenpin Bowling Association;
• Korea Professional Bowlers Association;
• Japan Professional Bowling Association;

The winner of a WBT tournament can also earn credit for a PBA Tour title, as long as the bowler registered for the tournament beforehand as a professional.^[3] International bowlers, bowlers who do not reside in the United States, can also join the PBA under its PBA International program. If a PBA International member wins a WBT tournament, he must upgrade to full membership of the PBA.^[4]

WBT Tournaments

The entry fee for a WBT tournament is $5,000 USD. Winners of World Bowling Tour events also qualify for the

2019 Schedule [5]

Tournaments listed in bold are considered majors by the World Bowling Tour.

Date	Event	Location	Tier
March 2–8, 2019	H.H. Emir Cup	Doha, Qatar	Tier 2
March 11–21, 2019	PBA World Series of Bowling	Detroit, MI	Tier 1
March 26 - April 4, 2019	USBC Masters	Las Vegas, NV	Tier 1
May 15–21, 2019	USBC Queens	Wichita, KS	Tier 1 - Women Only
June 16–23, 2019	US Women's Open	Las Vegas, NV	Tier 1 - Women Only
July 25–28, 2019	Storm PBA/PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer	Houston, TX	Tier 2
August 16–18, 2019	New Mexico Open	Rio Rancho, NM	Tier 3
August 22–30, 2019	World Women's Championships	Las Vegas, NV	Tier 2 - Women Only
August 24–31, 2019	FloBowling PBA Summer Swing	Aurora, IL	Tier 2
August 24 - September 8, 2019	Lucky Larsen Masters	Helsingborg, Sweden	Tier 2
September (TBD), 2019	Thailand Open	Bangkok, Thailand	Tier 2
October 23–30, 2019	U.S Open	Mooresville, NC	Tier 1
October 31 - November 6, 2019	Kuwait Open	Kuwait City, Kuwait	Tier 2

Major tournaments

In order for a tournament to qualify as a major, it must offer a minimum prize fund of $200,000 USD.^[2] The tournaments that are recognized as majors by the World Bowling Tour include:

• International Bowling Championship supported by DHC (JBC)
• USBC Masters (USBC)
• United States Open (USBC)
• PBA World Championship (PBA Tour)
• PBA Tournament of Champions
  (PBA Tour)
• United States Women's Open (USBC)
• WTBA World Championships (WTBA)

World Bowling scoring

The

Match play scoring is a 12-frame system that made its first national appearance in bowling at the 2014 World Bowling Tour finals. This system scores by counting frames won rather than counting total pinfall.[9] It resembles match play scoring in golf where players go even, plus one, or minus one as the match progresses. A frame is won if a bowler has a higher pinfall on the first roll of the frame than their opponent. The bowler that wins the most frames will win the match.^[9]

Previous World Bowling Tour Champions

Year	Male Winner	Male Runner-Up	Female Winner	Female Runner-Up
2012	Chris Barnes[10]	Mika Koivuniemi	Missy Parkin [11]	Liz Johnson
2014	Mika Koivuniemi[12]	Sean Rash	Kelly Kulick[13]	Liz Johnson
2015	Dom Barrett[14]	Mike Fagan	Danielle McEwan[15]	Kelly Kulick
2017	Jason Belmonte[16]	Marshall Kent	Diana Zavjalova [17]	Danielle McEwan
2018	E.J. Tackett[18]	Anthony Simonsen	Liz Johnson[19]	Danielle McEwan

References