February 18, 2026 Nolan Hughes

Qualifying is complete in the 2026 PBA Players Championship, and a familiar name sits atop the leaderboard at Bowlero Euless outside of Arlington, Texas.

EJ Tackett led the 96-player major championship field across 24 games of qualifying. Tackett averaged more than 231, totaling a 5,545 (+745) total pinfall.

“I’m tired,” Tackett said moments after rolling his last ball of the night. “We practice a bunch leading into tournaments like this, but it’s a lot of games in a short amount of time. I’m glad we have the morning off so I can get a little bit of rest, but I’ll be looking forward to getting back into competition tomorrow night.

“The No. 1 position is where you want to be,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of games left to go, but we’ve got a good start going into match play.”

 

Players competed on two oil patterns across the four rounds. The first and third rounds were contested on the 37-foot Viper pattern, then the 50-foot Badger pattern for the second and fourth rounds.

All remaining rounds will feature dual oil patterns with Badger on the left lane and Viper on the right lane.

Shawn Maldonado, who led Tuesday’s competition, Andrew Anderson, CJ Petrin and Nate Garcia round out the top five.

Tom Daugherty snagged the 32nd and final berth inside the cut with a total pinfall of 5,203, a 216.79 average.

Petrin leads a talented rookie class in fourth place overall, while former Wichita State teammates Spencer Robarge (10th) and Brandon Bonta (22nd) also advanced.

“It was a little nerve wracking coming into this because it was the first event of the full tour season for me,” Petrin, the 23-year-old Tennessean, said. “I'm bowling against all the guys that I’ve seen on TV. I just had a goal in mind to stay patient, make my spares and try not to watch scores as much as I normally do.”

In terms of results, Petrin said his goal for the week was to make the cut. But after such a strong performance during qualifying, he can see a path towards achieving his ultimate goal for the season.

“(Making the show) would be a dream come true. My goal was to make a TV show this year, and if it comes in the first event of the year, it's already a successful season,” Petrin said. “I made the show during my freshman year in college for the (Intercollegiate Singles Championships), but that's nowhere near as big as what this could entail. We’ve got hopefully 22 more games to go, and I'm hoping to be in the top five by the end of those.”

The major championship continues Thursday evening with the advancing 32 players bowling six games at 7 p.m. ET. The top 16 players will then advance to round-robin match play on Friday.

Following Friday’s match play rounds, the top five players will advance to the stepladder finals. The first PBA Championship Sunday on CW will be Sunday, Feb. 22 at 4 p.m. ET.

All qualifying rounds are available to watch on BowlTV.

Qualifying Leaders
  1. EJ Tackett, 5,545 total pinfall, 231.04 average
  2. Shawn Maldonado, 5,479, 228.29
  3. Andrew Anderson, 5,441, 226.71
  4. CJ Petrin, 5,405, 225.21
  5. Nate Garcia, 5,403, 225.13
  6. Graham Fach, 5,366, 223.58
  7. Tim Foy Jr., 5,349, 222.88
  8. Matt Ogle, 5,342, 222.58
  9. Jesper Svensson, 5,329, 222.04
  10. Spencer Robarge, 5,312, 221.33

Full standings are available here.

PBA Players Championship Schedule

Thursday, Feb. 19 — BowlTV
7 p.m. — Advancers (six games; dual Viper and Badger oil patterns)

Friday, Feb. 20 — BowlTV
12 p.m. — Match Play Round 1 (eight games; dual Viper and Badger oil patterns)
7 p.m. — Match Play Round 2 (eight games; dual Viper and Badger oil patterns)

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