KUALA LUMPUR: For the six bowlers competing in the Professional Bowlers' Association (PBA) World Series in the United States, reaching the top 16 match play stage is good enough for national coach Holloway Cheah.
Holloway believes the five-tournament series, which will feature 195 players, is very competitive and making the cut for the match play stage is already something to shout about.
Rafiq Ismail, Alex Liew, Adrian Ang, Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek and Timmy Tan along with Shalin Zulkifli are in Reno, Nevada for the 12-day competition that started on Tuesday, as part of their preparations for the World Championships later this month, also at the same venue.
They are currently competing in the Chameleon Championship and will later play in the Shark Championship, Cheetah Championship, Scorpion Championship and the PBA World Championship.
For the first four tournaments, the qualifying will be determined by a 10-game roll off, where only the top 16 will make it to the match play stage.
And for the PBA World Championship, the top 48 bowlers with the highest 40-game total will make the cut.
All match play rounds will be held on Nov 13-19.
"Having seen Siti (Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman) and (Sin Li) Jane do well at the PWBA Tour in June, I would certainly love to see the guys doing the same.
"However, I don't see them capable of winning just yet as most are playing in the tour for the first time except for Alex and Shalin.
"Besides the world class field, the oiling patterns are also trickier than most tournaments.
"The men's tour is also harder because only the top 16 from 195 bowlers make it to the next round as compared to the women's tour, where out of 100 players, the top 32 make the cut," said Holloway.