February 9, 2022 Nolan Hughes

The Players Championship set an impressive bar in terms of performance and entertainment, but the second major of the 2022 PBA season, the U.S. Open, exceeded all expectations. Here’s how the Kia PBA Playoffs race looks as the season settles into form:

1. Jason Belmonte - 10,950 points
It’s business as usual for Belmonte: two majors, two shows, one title. He brought the goods in the final game of the U.S. Open to snag the fifth seed for the telecast, and after defeating Jake Peters and AJ Johnson, he could taste No. 15. But the next player on this list had other plans.

2. Anthony Simonsen - 8,990
Simonsen once again delivered in the clutch against Belmonte on a major telecast, throwing all three strikes in the tenth frame of the semifinal to force Belmonte to strike out. The 25-year-old Simonsen went on to defeat EJ Tackett, who dominated qualifying, to become the youngest player in PBA history to win three major titles.

3. EJ Tackett - 6,645
Don’t let his loss to Simonsen overshadow the fact that Tackett obliterated the field in qualifying; on perhaps the most demanding lane conditions of the season, he led by 502 pins. His recent struggles on TV, if you can even call them that, are a result of variance in a small sample size. Tackett is probably the best one-hander on the planet; only Jakob Butturff (6) has made even half as many major telecasts as Tackett (11) among one-handed players since 2015.

4. Sean Rash - 6,285
The top four players in the points race are also the four most successful players on tour since 2008, at least in terms of championship-round appearances. (François Lavoie has three major titles during that span.) Despite the fact that Rash has just one major title since 2008, only Belmonte has made more major telecasts. Again, don’t fret too much over losses in single-elimination formats; crazy things can happen in 10-frame sample sizes.

5. AJ Johnson - 5,085
Though he has been defeated in each of his matches on television this season, Johnson is putting himself in a position to win each week. He made the show at the U.S. Open, the Midwest region of the Players Championship and finished fourth at Team USA Trials in early January. The strides in his mental game have been evident thus far in 2022.

6. Tommy Jones - 4,875
After entering the final block of match play 245 pins behind the U.S. Open show, Jones roared back into contention. He entered the position round just 30 pins back of Belmonte, but couldn’t quite close the gap. Still, a pair of top-six finishes at majors is an excellent start to 2022.

7. Jake Peters - 4,785
Peters is a throwback to another era, still rocking almost the same look from his title in 2013: a black/yellow jersey atop khaki pants, with spike-up hair. If he hadn’t changed ball sponsors, he probably would’ve worn that exact outfit. If he’s going to keep bowling like this—two shows in two tournaments—it’s hard to blame him.

8. François Lavoie - 4,020
With Lavoie’s expertise in high-quality shot repetition, it’s no surprise that he took home an 11th place finish at the U.S. Open. Following his fourth-place finish in the Southwest Region of the Players Championship, the stealthy assassin is firmly within playoff contention.

8. Patrick Dombrowski - 4,020
Raise your hand if you expected Dombroski to sit inside the top 10 of the playoff race at any point this season. No hands? Maybe one in the back? Really? Well, shame on you. The 43-year-old has discovered the fountain of youth this season. Following an impressive climb of the East Region stepladder, he rolled the first of three perfect games at the U.S. Open en route to a 13th place finish.

10. Wesley Low Jr. - 3,750
As one of the most accomplished youth bowlers of his generation, it felt like only a matter of time before Low Jr. found his footing at the professional level. After making the West Region show at the Players Championship in consecutive years, he was the only left-hander to reach the match-play stage at the U.S. Open. Keep your eye on this kid.

11. Arturo Quintero - 3,630
Quintero followed up his sensational performance at the Players Championship with a 62nd-place finish at the U.S. Open. A brutal second block on the 37’ flat pattern sunk his chances of advancing to the cashers round.

12. Tom Daugherty - 3,605
Daugherty spent the majority of the U.S. Open inside the top five, but slipped out of the show after averaging under 187 over his final six games, winning just a single match. TD’s now been in contention for back-to-back shows until the final games, proving his breakout 2021 season was no flash in the pan.

12. Sam Cooley - 3,605
After winning a title and shooting a televised 300 in 2021, Cooley has ceded his Aussie crown back to Belmonte. Although he’s been right on his mate’s heels, missing the West Region show at the Players Championship by just nine pins before finishing ninth at the U.S. Open. Cooley might disagree with Neil Everett’s signature catchphrase during SportCenter’s Top Ten Plays segment: “She’s a beauty, that number nine.”

14. Brad Miller - 3,330 and 15. Kyle Sherman - 3,270
These guys just can’t get enough of each other. The vloggers met on the Southwest Region finals of the Players Championship, an interminable match in which Sherman emerged victorious. However, Miller boasted an 18th place finish at the U.S. Open to reclaim the early points lead over Sherman, who took 22nd place. It sure feels like either both will make the PBA Playoffs or neither will, right?

16. Graham Fach - 3,158
Though Fach won his region at the Players, Fach ranks second in the Canadian bowling hierarchy to Lavoie thus far in 2022. A debilitating opening block at the US Open gashed his chances to make a second consecutive major cut. He sits just inside the cut for the PBA Playoffs through two events.

17. Wes Malott - 3,035
It’s fitting that the Texan-turned-Hoosier followed up a 14th-place finish in the Midwest Region at the Players Championship with a top-ten performance at the U.S. Open. Had Malott bowled in the Southwest Region qualifier, which was held in Texas, just three hours north of his hometown, surely he would have made the show! The newly named Hall of Famer seems to have tapped into what made him successful in the early 2010s.

18. Bill O'Neill - 2,970
O’Neill turned in a fourth-place finish in the East Region of the Players Championship, but spent the latter three days of the U.S. Open finding unique ways to pass the time as his travel mate contended for a 15th career major title. Though he missed the cut for match play at the US Open by 13 pins, the 40-year-old’s game looks as sharp as ever.

19. Brandon Novak - 2,955
The Buckeye finds himself just outside of the current PBA Playoffs cut after turning in an eighth-place showing at the U.S. Open. Mark your calendars for March 8 and 15 when Novak will bowl on the Scorpion oil pattern at the World Series of Bowling; he made the TV finals on that pattern in 2016 and 2017.

20. Norm Duke - 2,865
Who better to close out the second edition of the Path to the Playoffs than Stormin’ Norman himself? He backed himself out of the U.S. Open cut with a 120 game to start the final block and a 182-167 finish, but one sour finish won’t keep this 41-year PBA veteran down long. “Keep your head up and keep at it because your struggles are not permanent,” he wrote on Facebook.

These standings won’t hold long as the first non-major event, THE STORM CUP: David Small’s Best of the Best in Jackson, Michigan, is already underway.