Keenan, who is this year bowling with Moama in the Premier League of the Bendigo Campaspe Goldfields Association, will compete among the final 128 bowlers starting this morning, against Moonee Valley bowler Brayden Ellis.
The Rochester star won through his qualifying rounds at Strathmerton on Saturday and then followed up with a 21-19 win against Mulgrave’s Anthony Buckingham in the opening round of the finals.
A win against Ellis will allow Keenan to progress to tomorrow’s final qualifying rounds before the final eight are decided for a climax to the event at Shepparton Park on Friday, November 25.
The Victorian Open men’s and women’s singles championship will be played at 4.15pm the same day.
Keenan and his mixed pairs partner at the Victorian Open, Heathmont’s Olivia Slade, dropped out in the qualifying rounds of the competition.
They lost their opening round match, before following up with a win and a draw to finish third in their section.
In the men’s pairs Keenan and Queenscliff’s Ben Russell will play on Wednesday in round two of the finals.
In sectional play they won by a single shot, 13-12, against Kyabram’s Darryl Gade and Blackburn’s Matthew Brain to open the competition.
They then played Beaumaris pair John and Mark Bradley in the second round, where they won by two shots. In the final round they completed a sectional whitewash by beating Gavin Ford from Katandra West and Tallygaroopna’s Damien WIlliams.
A Keenan and Russell win will take them to the round of 32 on Wednesday.
Yesterday Keenan, Mathew Flapper from Ocean Grove and Yarrawonga’s Koby Cromie were involved in triples competition.
Keenan and his Moama Steamers teammates, who have started the rain-interrupted start to the season with three wins and a loss, will welcome world champion Alex Marshall into their ranks for Saturday’s match against Golden Square.
Marshall, a five-time Scottish Commonwealth Games medallist, is also competing in the Victorian Open.
He was tipped out of the tournament’s singles play in the opening finals round, but made it to the finals of the men’s pairs with Moama Steamers coach — and fellow Scottish international Kevin Anderson — before losing in the first round.
He is also contesting the mixed event with Anderson’s fiance, Emerging Jackeroo and Moama Steamers Premier League bowler Cass Millerick.
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