Tackett Earns Top Seed, Two Rookies Advance to Finals of PBA Players Championship
The 2026 PBA Tour powered by Go Bowling begins with the players who commenced, concluded and defined the 2025 season.
EJ Tackett, the three-time reigning PBA Player of the Year, dominated the major championship field by nearly 300 pins to earn the No. 1 overall seed for the stepladder finals, airing Sunday, Feb. 22 at 4 p.m. ET (3 p.m. CT) on The CW.
Tackett will be joined by No. 2 seed Graham Fach, who won the 2025 season-opening tournament in Delaware, and No. 3 seed Jesper Svensson, who won two of the season’s final events including the PBA Tournament of Champions and PBA Playoffs (a win over Tackett).
The final two qualifiers were rookies Brandon Bonta and Spencer Robarge, who were four-year teammates at Wichita State University.
Bonta was a three-time National College Bowling Coaches Association All-American, while Robarge earned four such nominations. Both players earned priority status exemptions for the 2026 PBA Tour based on their collegiate résumés.
The duo helped the Shockers to the 2023 Intercollegiate Team Championships title, as did PBA Players Championship finalists from 2025: Ryan Barnes and Alec Keplinger.
Forty-six games of qualifying and match play were completed at Bowlero Euless from this week. Players competed on two oil patterns during the event, with all advanced and match play rounds contested with the 50-foot Badger oil pattern on the left lane and the 37-foot Viper oil pattern on the right lane.
Tackett seized the lead during the fourth qualifying round and never relinquished it even for a single game. The game’s current top star owns 27 career PBA Tour titles with seven major championships, but the PBA Players Championship has eluded him thus far in his career.
Tackett has led the event twice, falling in the 2020 title match to Bill O’Neill and the 2023 televised bracket quarterfinals to eventual champion Kevin McCune.
A win on Sunday would put Tackett in a way-too-early pole position for a record-setting fourth consecutive Player of the Year honor, as well as place him a USBC Masters title shy of the Super Slam.
Fach has developed a knack for starting the year in mid-season form, but he hasn’t discovered an offseason regimen that guarantees early-season success, or at least one that he is willing to share.
"There's no secret. I just try and be ready the best I can,” Fach said.
Fach’s 2025 PBA Delaware Classic title featured record-setting scoring pace. The strike rate was noticeably lower in this week’s dual-oil-pattern major championship.
“I like challenges,” Fach said. “They're fun and they really showcase what we can do out here. I seem to do well in them, so no complaints from me.”
Svensson won last season’s final major, the PBA Tournament of Champions, as well as another $100,000 top prize in the PBA Playoffs.
“That was probably the best two months of my career,” Svensson said of his close to the 2025 season. “It’s hard to say that it really carried into this year. I'm normally slow at the beginning (of the season), and I wasn't this time, so that feels pretty good. I feel like I was battling some physical game stuff early this week, and I’ve really been trying to lock it in on the physical game and not worry too much about results.
“I know I have a couple of tournaments without urethane coming up, so I need some good weeks before that,” Svensson said with a laugh.
Robarge would need to win his first match to face Svensson, but a Svensson-Robarge major championship round duel would be a match five years in the making.
When Robarge won the inaugural PBA Junior Boys National Championship in 2021 — a title that began with a regional qualifier held at Bowlero Euless, no less — he also competed in a PBA/PBA Junior doubles match with Svensson on the show.
Weeks later, as an 18-year-old amateur, Robarage qualified for the USBC Masters finals, which featured Svensson as the top seed. Thomas Larsen defeated both two-handed lefties to win the title.
Before any thoughts of a two-handed southpaw battle, Robarge will have to go through a player with whom he has shared the lanes with perhaps more than anyone else in Bonta.
“We bowled against each other so many times, not just in college,” Robarge said. “Growing up, he lived in Kansas and I lived in Missouri, so we bowled a lot of the same tournaments. He won his share; I won my share. Obviously in college, we bowled a lot of team games together, trying to try to help Wichita State as much as we could. This is awesome. I'm so excited for him and for myself as well. It's the kind of stuff you write in a storybook.”
Bonta echoed Robarge’s sentiments and elaborated on how special it is to make the show in his first career professional tournament.
“It's everything I think you could dream of in your first time being here as a professional bowler on the national tour,” Bonta said. “Making a show, I think it's everyone's dream start to their career. I'm extremely excited for Sunday.”
Bonta, a 23-year-old Wichita, Kansas native, and Tackett are the only two right-handed players to qualify for the championship round.
“I think it shows that I can compete with the best in the world,” Bonta said. “I’m extremely grateful to be a part of the show, and hopefully (Tackett) and I can break the right side of the lanes down real well.”
Another 2025 breakout, Tim Foy Jr., was the first player to finish outside the show. He finished 91 pins behind Robarge.
Rounding out the top 10 were Brad Miller, Matt Ogle, Andrew Anderson and BJ Moore.
Two-time PBA Players Championship winner Bill O’Neil finished in 11th place.
Another rookie, CJ Petrin, finished 14th.
The first PBA Championship Sunday on The CW begins Sunday, Feb. 22 at 4 p.m. ET (3 p.m. CT).
Standings after 46 games
- EJ Tackett, 10,882 total pinfall (including bonus pins), 229.39 average
- Graham Fach, 10,583, 224.85
- Jesper Svensson, 10,571, 223.93
- Brandon Bonta, 10,566, 222.52
- Spencer Robarge, 10,559, 224.98
- Tim Foy Jr., 10,468, 222.02
- Brad Miller, 10,432, 220.91
- Matt Ogle, 10,369, 219.54
- Andrew Anderson, 10,330, 219.67
- BJ Moore, 10,283, 217.02
- Bill O'Neill, 10,275, 217.17
- Sam Cooley, 10,257, 219.07
- Mitch Hupé, 10,238, 217.35
- CJ Petrin, 10,204, 219.22
- Shawn Maldonado, 9,971, 213.83
- Nick Pate, 9,895, 211.20
Full standings are available here.
PBA Players Championship Schedule
Saturday, Feb. 21 — BowlTV
6 p.m. — PBA Hall of Fame and 2025 Season Awards Ceremony
Sunday, Feb. 22 — The CW
4 p.m. — PBA Players Championship finals