The opening round of the PBA Players Championship is in the books at JAX 60 in Jackson, Mich.
Ohio’s Patrick Dombrowski paced the 172-player field with a total pinfall of 1,929 (+329) for his eight games on the 37-foot Don Carter oil pattern.
Ethan Fiore, Arturo Quintero, Sam DeWitt III and Benjy Martinez round out the top five after the first round of qualifying.
All qualifying rounds and match play rounds through Friday will be livestreamed on BowlTV. Squad listings and lane pairings can be found here.
The two-part championship round includes the prelims Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern time on FS1 and the finals Sunday at noon ET on FOX.
ROUND 1 LEADERS
Dombrowski averaged more than 241 to lead B-squad on Tuesday evening. He said he didn’t have a good look in Monday’s practice session, and he committed to a little more surface and staying right as long as possible during qualifying today.
“I tried to stay right as much as I could, and then make shots and stay ahead of the transition,” Dombrowski said. “(I need to) keep doing what I’m doing, posting shots and not looking at scores, and we’ll see what happens.”
Fiore (+309), who burst onto the national scene during the PBA Mike Aulby Nevada Classic and a historic roll-off against EJ Tackett, led A-squad. Despite averaging more than 238, Fiore rated his performance a six out of 10.
“It’s definitely a confidence booster, knowing that I could have had more, and I’m leading (my squad),” Fiore said after A-squad finished early Tuesday afternoon. “It’s a realization that even if I don’t bowl good, I’m still going to be competitive. I did not throw it the greatest and missed so many spares. I can probably find 100 pins that I threw out, but I got them all back with breaks on bad shots. When the scores are this low, you’ve got to take advantage of the breaks you get, because eventually it’s going to turn tables, and it’s going to be you getting all the bad breaks and you throwing bad shots.”
EJ Tackett (+6), the front-runner for this season’s PBA Player of the Year honor, sits in 105th place and 33 pins outside the cut, currently occupied by Dick Allen (+39) in 86th place.
WHAT’S NEXT
B-squad takes the lanes at 10 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, followed by A-squad at 5 p.m.
The field will be trimmed in half following Wednesday’s second qualifying round, then again after an eight-game advancer round on Thursday morning.
The top 16 players after Thursday evening’s casher round, also eight games, will qualify for round-robin match play.
Nine players will qualify for the two-part championship round. The prelims round, a stepladder featuring the fifth through ninth qualifiers, will air live Saturday, April 12 at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.
The winner will meet the top four qualifiers in Sunday’s championship round, airing live on FOX at noon ET.
Tickets to watch the PBA Players Championship are $15 for a daily pass, $40 for a weekly pass (all rounds through Friday) and $75 for both televised rounds. Contact JAX 60 for more information.
Round 1 Leaders | 8 Games
- Patrick Dombrowski, 1,929 (+329)
- Ethan Fiore, 1,905 (+309)
- Arturo Quintero, 1,881 (+281)
- Sam DeWitt III, 1,870 (+270)
- Benjy Martinez, 1,842 (+242)
- Alec Keplinger, 1,828 (+228)
- Thomas Larsen, 1,823 (+223)
- Dean Vargo, 1,821 (+221)
- Anthony Simonsen, 1,802 (+202)
- Dallas Leong, 1,785 (+185)
Tournament Schedule
JAX 60 | Jackson, Mich.
All times Eastern/local
Wednesday, April 9 | BowlTV
10 a.m. — B-squad Qualifying Round 2 (eight games)
5 p.m. — A-squad Qualifying Round 2 (eight games)
Top half of field advances
Thursday, April 10 | BowlTV
10 a.m. — Advancers Round (eight games)
Top half of field advances
6 p.m. — Cashers Round (eight games)
Top 16 players advance
Friday, April 11 | BowlTV
11 a.m. — Match Play Round 1 (eight games)
6 p.m. — Match Play Round 2 (eight games)
5th-9th qualifiers players advance to prelims; 1st-4th qualifiers advance to finals
Saturday, April 12 | FS1
7 p.m. — Prelims (stepladder finals)
Winner advances to finals
Sunday, April 13 | FOX
12 p.m. — Finals (stepladder finals)
More information on the PBA Players Championship is available here.
