By Nolan Hughes– PBA Tour
Eight players remain in title contention in the USBC Masters, the third major championship of the 2025 PBA Tour.
Six players — Graham Fach, Justin Knowles, Bill O’Neill, Bailey Mavrick, Nate Stubler and Dom Barrett, will compete at 12 p.m. Eastern time Saturday on FS1 in the preliminary round.
Two advancers will meet Gary Haines and Anthony Simonsen in Sunday’s championship round, airing at 12 p.m. Eastern time on FOX.
Haines, a 36-year-old native of Babylon, N.Y., went 6-0 in match play to earn the top seed. He will need to be defeated twice in Sunday’s championship match, while only needing one win to claim his first career PBA Tour title.
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Haines defeated Simonsen in the final match of the winner’s bracket, relegating Simonsen, a three-time Masters champion, to the No. 2 seed.
Simonsen won the 2023 Masters, which was also held at Thunderbowl Lanes.
Graham Fach and Justin Knowles each won their first four matches before falling to Haines and Simonsen, respectively.
Fach will face the winner of Bill O’Neill and Bailey Mavrick, who will compete in the opening match on Saturday. The winner between Fach, O’Neill and Mavrick will advance to Sunday’s championship round.
EJ Tackett’s streak of six consecutive championship round appearances came to an end. He lost to O’Neill in the final non-televised match of the elimination bracket.
Justin Knowles, a native of nearby Okemos, Mich., said he has competed at Thunderbowl Lanes for more than 20 years. The two-handed lefty will receive another opportunity to do so — this time in the iconic Strobl Arena.
Knowles will face the winner of Dom Barrett and Nate Stubler with a berth in a major championship round on the line.
More information on the 2025 USBC Masters is available here.
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Preliminary Round
Match One: Bill O’Neill vs. Bailey Mavrick
Match Two: Nate Stubler vs. Dom Barrett
Match Three: Graham Fach vs. winner of Match One
Match Four: Justin Knowles vs. winner of Match Two
Championship Round
Match One: winner of Preliminary Round Match Three vs. winner of Preliminary Round Match Four
Match Two: Anthony Simonsen vs. winner of Match One
Championship: Gary Haines vs. winner of Match Two (Haines must be defeated twice)
USBC Masters Schedule
Thunderbowl Lanes | Allen Park, MI
All times Eastern
Saturday, March 39
12:00 p.m. (FS1) — Preliminary Round
Sunday, March 30
12:00 p.m. (FOX) — USBC Masters stepladder finals
More information on the 2025 USBC Masters is available here
