Nolan Hughes
After closing the first swing of the 2025 PBA Tour by honoring Pete Weber, the second swing starts with the celebration of another.
The PBA Mike Aulby Nevada Classic presented by Pilgrim’s begins this week at Coconut Bowl at Wild Island in Reno, Nev.
The action gets underway on Tuesday, Feb. 25 with the pre-tournament qualifier and practice. Qualifying begins on Wednesday, Feb. 26. All qualifying rounds will be livestreamed on BowlTV.
The championship round will air live Saturday, March 15 at 6 p.m. Eastern on FS1 at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno. Tickets for the championship round are free.
Storylines
If the PBA Playoffs started today, Kyle Troup, Jason Belmonte, AJ Johnson, Bill O’Neill, Sean Rash and Anthony Simonsen would all fail to qualify. None of the superstars rank among the top 12 in points through four events this season.
With four majors and the World Series of Bowling left to play, nobody is pressing the panic button… yet.
But a few players who may have inquired about the panic button’s location are Marshall Kent (58th in points), Jesper Svensson (59th), Packy Hanrahan (61st) and Matt Russo (69th), who each qualified for last season’s playoffs.
Motiv, largely on the backs of point-leader EJ Tackett, has opened up a sizable lead in the PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands.
Motiv ranks first with 27,488 points, followed by Brunswick and Storm.
Hammer sits sixth and leads the league with more than 6,000 points left on the bench, nearly double that of any other team
Players to Watch
In 1996, Mike Aulby became the first player to win all five majors; only Jason Belmonte has since joined the Super Slam club. Belmonte, who did not bowl the PBA Pete Weber Missouri Classic, is back in the field this week.
The list of players who have made four straight championship rounds is short, much shorter than the list of PBA Tour champions. Tim Foy Jr. would love to add his name to both.
After starting the season with three straight top-10 finishes, Graham Fach finished 74th in Missouri. The Canadian-born lefty will look to get back on track this week.
Dom Barrett found his stride during match play in Springfield, climbing all the way from the 23rd qualifier to the title match. The Triple Crown winner looks to carry that momentum across the country this week.
When EJ Tackett is on his game, he has been almost unbeatable. Through four events this season, Tackett has finished 14th, first, 29th and first.
Tackett notched his 25th career title in the PBA Pete Weber Missouri Classic, a trophy that Tackett said he will cherish for the rest of his life.
A 26th career title would tie Tackett with Don Johnson for 10th all time. The chance to achieve that feat in the PBA Mike Aulby Nevada Classic, named after a fellow Indiana legend, is undoubtedly on Tackett’s mind.
Format
All players will bowl 18 games of qualifying on the eponymous 39-foot Mike Aulby oil pattern, beginning on Wednesday morning.
Instead of the elimination match play format used in Delaware, Illinois and Missouri, this event will feature the eliminator qualifying rounds.
The top 32 players after 18 games of qualifying will bowl an additional six games on Thursday evening.
The top 16 players after that round will compete in the second elimination round, in which six more games will determine the five players advancing to the championship round.
The PBA Mike Aulby Nevada Classic stepladder finals will air live Saturday, March 15 at 6 p.m. ET (3 p.m. local time) on FS1.
