March 6, 2023 Nolan Hughes

After a brief intermission, the 2023 Guaranteed Rate PBA Tour is back on track in Jackson, Mich. JAX 60 hosts the PBA Jackson Classic, the fifth event of the season.

In 2022, Jesper Svensson won the PBA David Small's Best of the Best Championship, which was also held at JAX 60. He led the tournament wire-to-wire before defeating fellow two-handed southpaw Packy Hanrahan in the title match.

The action begins on Tuesday morning and all rounds will be livestreamed on BowlTV. Here’s what you need to know:

Storylines

Two players have inarguably stood above the rest this season: EJ Tackett and Anthony Simonsen, who have taken home three of the four titles. Tackett ranks first in points, average and earnings, while Simonsen sits second in all three categories.

Their brilliance is of little surprise given their exploits over the past seven years, and the dichotomy in how Tackett and Simonsen have excelled this season is fascinating.

Tackett has two wins and two missed cuts; in fact, in the first round of qualifying following both of his wins, he sat in 64th and 63rd out of 64 competing players. The emotional hangover after a victory, especially one as momentous as Tackett’s U.S. Open title, is real.

Simonsen, meanwhile, has finished no lower than 10th and has yet to miss a match play round.

Overall, there have been 22 rounds of competition thus far in 2023. Simonsen has finished all of them within the top 20, including 18 top-10 finishes; Tackett has been in the lead after six of 22 rounds, but been among the top 20 players after less than half of rounds this season (10).

Today’s impossible-to-believe-but-I-promise-it’s-true stat: Simonsen concluded more rounds in the top five (11) than Tackett has in the top 20 (10).

In early March, these are just fun numbers. But come May and June, these are the stats that can swing the Player of the Year race.

Players to Watch

Dom Barrett, coming off consecutive runner-up finishes in Shawnee and Wichita, is among the sharpest players on tour right now. The 10-time titleist will be looking to throw his hat into the early Player of the Year conversation with a win this week in Michigan.

Barrett’s countryman Richie Teece took an extended hiatus following his fifth place U.S. Open finish — for good reason: he had to help plan his wedding! — but he’s back in the States in search of a second career title.

Rejuvenated by his Kansas homecoming and a ninth-place finish in Wichita, Chris Barnes will look to keep that momentum going. He won the PBA50 David Small’s Jax60 Open in 2022.

A trio of Michigan natives will seek titles in their home state: Saginaw’s Tom Smallwood, Holly’s Andrew Anderson and Okemos’s Justin Knowles. 

Classic Series Points Leaders

The field for July’s PBA Skill Ball Challenge is starting to take shape as this will be the fourth of five Classic Series events this season. The top eight point earners across the Classic Series earn spots to the tournament.

With top-10 finishes in each event and a win in Wichita, Simonsen sits atop the list heading into the PBA Jackson Classic.

  1. Anthony Simonsen, 7,800
  2. Dom Barrett, 6,510
  3. Sam Cooley, 6,310
  4. EJ Tackett, 5,850
  5. Jakob Butturff, 5,210
  6. Jason Belmonte, 3,510
  7. Sean Lavery-Spahr, 3,500
  8. Keven Williams, 3,450
  9. Bill O’Neill, 3,290
  10. Kris Prather, 3,030
  11. DJ Archer, 3,000
  12. Tommy Jones, 2,930
  13. Tom Daugherty, 2,740
  14. Santtu Tahvanainen, 2,740
  15. Anthony Lavery-Spahr, 2,570

Format

After competing on short, medium and long lane conditions in the first three Classic Series events, a dual pattern format awaits in Jackson. Players will compete on the 39-foot Chameleon pattern for the first round of qualifying, then the 44-foot Hardwick for the second round. After Tuesday, players will compete on both patterns for the duration of the tournament.

All players will bowl three six-game qualifying rounds between Tuesday and Wednesday, totaling 18 games of qualifying. The top 24 players will advance to a fourth six-game round on Wednesday evening, which will determine the 12 advancers to Thursday’s competition.

A final six-game block will determine the four finalists for the stepladder, livestreaming at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday evening.

Tournament Schedule

Tuesday, March 7
11 a.m. ET — Qualifying Round 1 (six games)
5 p.m. ET — Qualifying Round 2 (six games)

Wednesday, March 8
11 a.m. ET — Qualifying Round 3 (six games) — cut to top 24 players
5 p.m. ET — Top-24 Qualifying Round (six games) — cut to top 12 players

Thursday, March 9
12 p.m. ET — Top-12 Qualifying Round (six games) — cut to top four players
6:30 p.m. ET — Stepladder finals