The PBA Tour continues its week after week grueling stretch with a stop in Arkansas this week for the PBA Jonesboro Open.

Once again, the players will face two different lane patterns in a bowling center that has a history of producing low scores. The competition begins Wednesday at 10 a.m. Central live on FloBowling.

Here are a few key points to get you ready for the Jonesboro Open:

Expect low scores this week

If you’re a fan of a lower scoring pace on the PBA Tour, you should be giddy with excitement over the players returning to Hijinx Family Entertainment Center in Jonesboro, Arkansas, this week.

Over the past three years, the scores have been tepid at best. In 2018, Andrew Anderson won and averaged 218.27. In 2017, Francois Lavoie won and averaged 207.75. In 2016, Tommy Jones won and averaged 215.17. See a trend?

Plus, each of those events took place on one pattern. This week, the field takes on two patterns – Shark on the left lane, Viper on the right lane – to make things even more challenging.

Last year, Anderson defeated Tom Daugherty, 264-224, in the championship match to win the event. He’ll be back again this year to defend his title, although it’s been a rough season so far for the 2018 PBA Player of the Year.

Anderson has cashed in just four of the eight events he has entered this season, and his best finish so far was 15^th at the PBA Lubbock Sports Open. He’ll look to get back on track in Jonesboro.

Belmonte takes the week off

The Jonesboro Open marks the end of a four-week stretch of consecutive events on the PBA Tour, and the top-ranked player on the PBA Tour, Jason Belmonte, has elected to take the week off.

After earning the top seed for the show the past three weeks, Belmonte is headed home to Australia to spend some time with his family before returning for the PBA World Series of Bowling X, which begins March 12.

Another player out in Jonesboro is Kyle Troup, who withdrew from the Indianapolis Open last week with a hand injury he suffered at the PBA Players Championship. Troup said he’s still nursing the injury and has decided to sit out again this week.

Even without Belmonte and Troup, there is still a tough field expected in Jonesboro with 17 of the top 20 in the FloBowling PBA Power Rankings competing in the event.

It is not, however, a full field. There are 96 spots available and 87 entries as of Monday morning. The pre-tournament qualifier (PTQ) was canceled with all entrants moved into the main field automatically.

The format and lane conditions

It’s another week of mixed patterns on the PBA Tour, which continues to create a unique and compelling challenge for the field.

This week in Jonesboro the players will face the 48-foot Shark pattern on the left lane and the 36-foot Viper pattern on the right lane throughout qualifying, match play and the stepladder finals.

The format this week is a little different than the past three weeks. Instead of all players competing on one squad, they are split into two squads. As a result, there are fewer games in qualifying and match play.

Qualifying will begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. Central with the first round consisting of seven games. The second round will take place Thursday with an additional seven games, and the top 16 players after 14 games will advance into match play.

The two rounds of match play will both take place Friday to determine the top five who advance to the stepladder finals.

How to watch

The live action on FloBowling gets underway Wednesday at 10 a.m. Central with the opening round of qualifying and continues through match play Friday.

FloBowling subscribers will be able to watch the FloZone channel with commentary or select a specific pair to watch their favorite players.

The stepladder finals of the Jonesboro Open will be broadcast Sunday live on FS1 at 5 p.m. Eastern for audiences in the United States. International viewers can watch live on FloBowling. An archive of the show will be available on FloBowling seven days after it airs live.

What the schedule looks like

Here’s the schedule for this week’s event, all times listed are Central:

Wednesday, Feb. 27
10 a.m. – Qualifying Round 1, Squad A (seven games)
5 p.m. – Qualifying Round 1, Squad B (seven games)

Thursday, Feb. 28
10 a.m. – Qualifying Round 2, Squad B (seven games)
5 p.m. – Qualifying Round 2, Squad A (seven games)

Friday, March 1
9 a.m. – Round Robin Match Play Round 1 (Top 16, eight games)
2:30 p.m. – Round Robin Match Play Round 2 (eight games)

Sunday, March 3
4 p.m. – Stepladder Finals* (Top five)

* - FloBowling broadcast only for audiences outside the United States. The archive of the finals will be available for all audiences seven days after it airs live.