PBA Players Championship
Bowling tournament
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The PBA Players Championship is one of five major tournaments on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. It is one of three PBA Tour major events that are open only to PBA members, although Commissioner exemptions in recent years have allowed a handful of collegiate players to participate. (The U.S. Open and USBC Masters allow qualifying amateurs to enter.)
Tournament history
The tournament began as the PBA Touring Players Championship in 1983 and ran every PBA Tour season through 2000. PBA Hall of Famer Steve Cook won the inaugural event. There were no Players Championship events under any name from 2001 to 2010. After the tournament returned to major status in the 2016 season, the PBA voted to retroactively award major titles to the winners of the three previous Players Championship events that decade (2011, 2013, 2015), stating the tournament "is a members-only event, and includes all of the elements of a major."[1]
When Graham Fach won the 2016 PBA Players Championship, he became the first Canadian player to win a major, as well as the first Canadian to win PBA Tour title of any kind.[2]
Through 2020, the tournament included a maximum starting field of 92 PBA players. The top PBA members in earnings from the previous season had entry priority over the general membership, and could fill up to 82 spots. The remaining 10 spots in the starting field were filled from a ten-game pre-tournament qualifier (PTQ). The tournament format has changed over the years. The format through 2020 included 42 games of qualifying: three rounds of six games each to determine the top 24 for match play, followed by three match play rounds of eight games each. All pins from the initial 18 games carry over into the match play round, with the match play rounds adding 30 bonus pins per victory to the total pinfall in the round. The field was then cut to the top five for the televised stepladder finals.[3]
There is no set oil pattern. The 2018 Players Championship used the 44-foot Carmen Salvino oil pattern,[4] while the 2019 event used the 45-foot Dragon pattern.[5] The 2020 event featured the 38-foot Wayne Webb oil pattern, named after the PBA Hall of Famer whose bowling center in Columbus, Ohio hosted this tournament from 2016 through 2020.[6] The 2023 event featured a dual oil pattern, with the 45-foot Dick Weber pattern on the left lane and the 39-foot Don Carter pattern on the right lane.
Revamp in 2021
The PBA announced a revamped Players Championship for the 2021 season that opened up the event to the broader PBA membership. Five Regional events were hosted first. After 28 qualifying games (7 games on each of four oil patterns), each Region held its own stepladder finals broadcast. The five Regional winners then competed in the televised tournament finals.[7] The five finals participants bowled a three-game set the day before the broadcast to determine seeding for the stepladder.
The Regional concept was introduced, in part, due to travel restrictions that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, and allowed most PBA professionals to compete in safe events closer to home.
The 2021 PBA Players Championship featured a $1 million prize fund, with a PBA record-tying $250,000 first place prize.[7]
The regional qualifying/national finals format was retained for the 2022 season.
Format changes
In 2023, the tournament returned to a one-site format, taking place in North Brunswick, New Jersey. This season's event had 48 games of qualifying, with the top 12 qualifiers earning spots in the bracketed match play. The 5 through 12 seeds competed in head-to-head, single-game elimination matches (5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, etc.) on May 6, while the 1 through 4 seeds earned byes into the quarterfinal round. The quarterfinals on May 7 featured head-to-head, double-elimination matches in a "race to two points" format. In this format, any player winning both games advances to the semifinals; if the games are split one win each, a ninth-tenth frame roll-off determines who advances.[8]
The semifinals on May 13 also used the race to two points format, while the final head-to-head match on May 14 was a best-three-of-five format. The Players Championship was the only 2023 PBA major that did not use a stepladder final round.
The standard stepladder finals returned for the 2024 and 2025 PBA Players Championships.
In 2026, 96 players (after PTQ participants added) bowled 24 games of qualifying (12 games each on the Viper 37 and Badger 50 oil patterns) to determine the cut to the 32-player Advancer's Round, where they bowled 6 more games on a dual pattern (Badger left lane, Viper right lane) to determine the cut to the 16-player Match Play Round. 16 more round-robin match play games on the dual pattern determined the top 5 for the televised finals.[9]
PBA Players Championship winners
2026 Event
The 2026 PBA Players Championship was held February 17-22 at Bowlero Euless in Euless, Texas (qualifying & match play), with the live televised finals held at the International Training & Research Center in Arlington, Texas. The tournament had a starting field of 96 players (after February 16 PTQ qualifiers were added) and a total prize fund of $400,000 (1:3 cash), with a $100,000 top prize.[10] A five-player stepladder round was used for the televised finals. Fourth-seeded Brandon Bonta, a PBA rookie, defeated top seed E. J. Tackett in the championship match to earn his first PBA Tour title and first major title. Bonta rolled the 36th PBA Tour perfect game in the final match, making him just the second player in PBA history to have a championship game 300 in his TV debut, following Bob Benoit (1988).[11]
| Match #1 | Match #2 | Match #3 | Title match | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | E. J. Tackett | 238 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Graham Fach | 226 | 4 | Brandon Bonta | 300 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Jesper Svensson | 216 | 4 | Brandon Bonta | 247 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Brandon Bonta | 227 | 4 | Brandon Bonta | 253 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | Spencer Robarge | 173 | ||||||||||||||||
Prize Pool:
- 1. Brandon Bonta (Wichita, Kansas) – $100,000
- 2. E. J. Tackett (Ossian, Indiana) – $50,000
- 3. Graham Fach (Urbana, Ohio) – $35,000
- 4. Jesper Svensson (Sweden) – $25,000
- 5. Spencer Robarge (Springfield, Missouri) – $20,000
Past Champions
Listing of all champions, runner-ups, and the scores from the title matches, dating back to the inaugural 1983 Touring Players Championship.
| Year | Winner | Runner-up | Championship Title match |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 |  Steve Cook | Steve Wunderlich | 255–230 |
| 1984 | Mark Roth | Marshall Holman | 194–177 |
| 1985 | Dave Husted | Mark Baker | 268–238 |
| 1986 | Mark Williams (2) | Billy Young | 246–214 |
| 1987 | Tom Crites | Marshall Holman | 221–205 |
| 1988 | Dave Ferraro | Walter Ray Williams Jr. | 212–195 |
| 1989 |  Amleto Monacelli | Brian Voss | 235–209 |
| 1990 | Duane Fisher | Jess Stayrook | 210–190 |
| 1991 | Dave Ferraro (2) | Roger Bowker | 226–203 |
| 1992 | Pete Weber | Harry Sullins | 219–192 |
| 1993 | Jason Couch | Parker Bohn III | 238–214 |
| 1994 | Walter Ray Williams Jr. | Butch Soper | 228–213 |
| 1995 | Ernie Schlegel | Randy Pedersen | 237–236 |
| 1996 | Mike Aulby | Parker Bohn III (2) | 266–259 |
| 1997 | Steve Hoskins | Danny Wiseman | 233–184 |
| 1998 | Dennis Horan, Jr. | Parker Bohn III (3) | 245–202 |
| 1999 | Steve Hoskins (2) | Parker Bohn III (4) | 246–183 |
| 2000 | Dennis Horan, Jr. (2) | Pete Weber | 266–189 |
| 2001 | Tournament not held in 2001 | ||
| 2002 | Tournament not held in 2002 | ||
| 2003 | Tournament not held in 2003 | ||
| 2004 | Tournament not held in 2004 | ||
| 2005 | Tournament not held in 2005 | ||
| 2006 | Tournament not held in 2006 | ||
| 2007 | Tournament not held in 2007 | ||
| 2008 | Tournament not held in 2008 | ||
| 2009 | Tournament not held in 2009 | ||
| 2010 | Tournament not held in 2010 | ||
| 2011 |  Jason Belmonte | Mike Devaney | 255–238 |
| 2012 | Tournament not held in 2012 | ||
| 2013 | Scott Norton | Sean Rash | 219–191 |
| 2014 | Tournament not held in 2014 | ||
| 2015 | Parker Bohn III | Ronnie Russell | 237–237 (20–19 roll-off) |
| 2016 |  Graham Fach | Ryan Ciminelli | 279–244 |
| 2017 | Jason Belmonte (2) | Anthony Simonsen | 221–204 |
| 2018 | Tom Smallwood | Jason Belmonte | 259–239 |
| 2019 | Anthony Simonsen | Jason Belmonte (2) | 225–196 |
| 2020 | Bill O'Neill | E. J. Tackett | 233–232 |
| 2021 | Kyle Troup | Dick Allen | 257–212 |
| 2022 | Jason Belmonte (3) | Sean Rash (2) | 210–202 |
| 2023 | Kevin McCune | Jakob Butturff | 206–188 |
| 2024 | Bill O'Neill (2) | Tom Smallwood | 209–178 |
| 2025 | Ethan Fiore | Ryan Barnes | 232–179 |
| 2026 | Brandon Bonta | E. J. Tackett (2) | 300–238 |
Tournament highlights
- 1991: PBA Hall of Famer Dave Ferraro becomes the first bowler with multiple Players Championship victories, having also won this event in 1988.
- 2016: Graham Fach of Guelph, Ontario becomes the first Canadian player to win a title on the PBA Tour.
- 2022: Australian Jason Belmonte becomes the first player to win this event three times, having also won in 2011 and 2017.
- 2023: Kevin McCune makes the McCune family the only one with three generations of PBA Tour titlists. Kevin's father Eugene McCune won three PBA Tour titles, while grandfather Don McCune won eight.