June 16, 2026 Nolan Hughes

The first round of qualifying is complete in The Magnum Ice Cream Company PBA Norm Duke Open, held at Lucky Strike Sinking Spring in Sinking Spring, Pa.

In the unique two-squad tournament, which divides the field until the championship match, Brandon Runk and EJ Tackett led their respective squad.

Runk averaged more than 225 to tally a 1,351 pinfall on A-squad, while Tackett’s 289 in his sixth game powered him to a 1,367 total. Complete standings are available here.

Tomas Käyhkö, Brandon Bonta, Zach Gentile, and Kyle Troup round out the top five on A-squad. Bill O’Neill, a Langhorne, Pennsylvania native, ranked sixth.

The Hall of Famer finished fourth in last week’s AMF PBA World Championship. He shot 144 in his stepladder finals appearance and said being close to home has helped him bounce back from the poor showing.

“I’m trying to mentally get over the World Championship show and refocus on this,” O’Neill said. “I didn't feel bad about the way I threw it physically on the show, (but) I played the lanes horrifically and used the wrong ball. I can take that with me, that I know physically I'm doing the right things. I just need to lock back in mentally.”

O’Neill, who bowled on the Dallas Strikers with tournament namesake Norm Duke for a decade, said Duke is “one of my heroes.”

"I watched him when I was a kid, and when I came out (on tour), he was a tremendous influence on me,” O’Neill said. “He’s always been really, really nice to me and always had a lot of complimentary things to say about me. It would be an honor to win a trophy that is him.”

Tackett, Ryan Burton, Chase Nadeau, Eric Jones, and Santtu Tahvanainen paced the field during B-squad on Tuesday evening.

High scores were hard to come by on the 39-foot Norm Duke oil pattern. The 32nd-place cut on each squad was 1,188 (-12) and 1,202 (+2), respectively.

“They were tough, really tricky,” Tackett said. “I used a ball that was a little bit slower to start, and really trapped my hand behind the ball to get off to a decent start. The last pair I was on was pretty walled up for me. I threw some good shots, but (the lanes were) very forgiving and I was able to put together a really good last game that vaulted me up the leaderboard. It's a great start. I didn’t average 240, but it’s a great start relatively.”

Last weekend, Tackett won the World Championship in dramatic fashion to become the first player in PBA history to four-peat an event.

While Tackett increased his dominant lead in points and earnings, the win marked his first of the 2026 campaign.

“Finally getting that win on Saturday really kind of lifted a weight off,” Tackett said. “Obviously, I hadn't won anything this year and it was coming down to the nitty gritty and the last major championship. Maybe that will be good momentum moving forward. It seems things went well today, so hopefully they go well again tomorrow and I can keep myself in a good position heading into the elimination rounds.”

Entering the Norm Duke Open, Tackett’s 229.5 average has him on pace to break the single-season average record of 229.39 held by Jason Belmonte.

He averaged 227.83 on Tuesday, leading the field with a sub-par scoring effort by his own standards.

Six more games on Wednesday will determine the 32 advancing and cashing players on each squad.

Three elimination rounds on Thursday and Friday will whittle each squad down to four players. Those four players will compete in a televised stepladder with each winner advancing to the championship match.

All televised rounds will take place Sunday, June 21 from 12-5 p.m. on CBS Sports Network, rounding out the televised portion of the 2026 PBA Tour powered by Go Bowling.

Additionally, the PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands presented by Beatbox season wraps up with four hours of CBS Sports Network coverage beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

The Tackett-led Motiv squad earned the top seed for the six-team stepladder finals and will bowl for the Commissioner’s Cup against either Hammer, Storm, 900 Global, Brunswick or Roto Grip. 

All televised rounds will be held at Steel City Bowl and Brews in Bethlehem, Pa.

Schedule

Wednesday, June 17
11 a.m. — B-Squad Qualifying Round 2 (six games)
6 p.m. — A-Squad Qualifying Round 2 (six games)

Top 32 players on each squad advance

Thursday, June 18
11 a.m. — Elimination Round 1 (six games)
Top 16 players on each squad advance

6 p.m. — Elimination Round 2 (six games)
Top eight players on each squad advance

Friday, June 19
11 a.m. — Elimination Round 3 (four games)
Top four players on each squad advance to group stepladder finals

Saturday, June 20
1 p.m. — PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands play-in stepladder
3 p.m. — PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands stepladder finals

Sunday, June 21
12 p.m. — A-Squad Stepladder
2 p.m. — B-Squad Stepladder
4 p.m. — Championship Match

Tournament Details: The Magnum Ice Cream Company PBA Norm Duke Open

Tournament Details: PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands presented by Beatbox