Couch, Rowe and Jurek Make PBA50 Monacelli Championship Finals
Bloomington, Minnesota – After 20 games of qualifying and two tournaments at the 2026 PBA50 World Series of Bowling IV, the same two players are at the top. In back-to-back days, Jason Couch and Bill Rowe have claimed the top two seeds in the Ballard Championship and the Monacelli Championship.
On Monday, Couch tied with fellow left-hander Michael Hartter after 10 games of qualifying. Since Hartter posted the highest five-game block Monday evening, he earned the top seed in the bracket match play best-of-five matches. The theme of the evening was back-and-forth battles.
Hartter went on to face No. 6 seed Jack Jurek. He took game one 214-199, while Jurek won the next two games 227-196 and 257-172. Jurek was leading halfway through game four, yet Hartter got the win 197-190. Jurek finished things off in game five 184-178 to advance.
Couch, as the second seed, drew a difficult match-up against No. 5 Chris Barnes. Barnes closed out qualifying shooting 279 and 266 while converting two big splits in his final two games to make the cut. Barnes stayed hot early taking game one, 277-208. Couch then evened things up winning, 222-207.
In game three, Barnes cruised to the win 263-150, while Couch made a key ball change and evened the match winning, 248-228.
“I kind of missed the transition. My ball reps Jeff (Johnson) and Tom (Carter) told me to change to the Hammer Axe on the fill ball when I bowled 150 and I bowled almost 250 the next game,” Couch said.
Couch kept the momentum going on the way to the 254-220 win and let out an emphatic victory scream. He admits that was more out of frustration from not staying down on shots and missing a 7-pin. With the win, Couch secured back-to-back No. 1 seeds.
“It just means that hard work pays off. It is awesome that I finally feel what I am supposed to feel with my timing. It has been really nice,” Couch said. “Chris has always been hard to beat. He is one of the best ever. I just felt very fortunate and trying to take advantage of every chance I can.”
The other match featured No. 3 seed Bill Rowe against No. 4 Tom Hess. Rowe came out firing 277-212. But Hess responded with a dominant win in game two, 299-212, followed by another win, 195-184. Rowe fought back, winning 248-227 then 251-205 to close it out.
“Tom had me and I had one choice left to do and I did it. Knowing how good Tom is and what you need to do to beat him, I just knew I had to go crazy,” Rowe said. “I went to a very old ball that is pretty clean, kind of predictable and not as crazy on the backend.”
Rowe also makes his second show at the World Series of Bowling IV as the No. 2 seed, while Jurek is the third seed for the PBA50 Monacelli Championship, which will air live at 3 p.m. Eastern May 10 on CBS Sports Network.
Next up is the Petraglia Championship on Tuesday. The field will bowl 10 games of qualifying starting at 10 a.m. ET then 5 p.m. After qualifying, the top six bowlers will move into bracket match play best-of-five matches to determine the top three for the live Petraglia Championship show scheduled to air at 6 p.m. ET May 11 on CBS Sports Network.
All qualifying round pinfall from the Ballard, Monacelli and Petraglia Championships will carry over to determine which bowlers will compete in the PBA50 World Championship. The top 40 will qualify for the Advancers Rounds. That will begin with six games at 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Currently, the top five are Couch, Rowe, Mika Koivuniemi, Dan Higgins Jr. and Michael Machuga. Mark Clark, the defending champion of the PBA50 World Championship, is in 40th place with a total pinfall of 4,229.
The field will then be cut to the top 16 for round-robin match play, scheduled to begin on Thursday. After 16 games of match play, that will determine the top three for the World Championship stepladder. The finals for that major championship show will begin at 6 p.m. ET on May 12, again on CBS Sports Network.
Overall, four PBA50 titles are available. You can watch the entire PBA50 WSOB IV only on BowlTV.
PBA50 Monacelli Championship Advancers:
- Jason Couch
- Bill Rowe
- Jack Jurek
Full standings - PBA50 Monacelli Championship
PBA50 World Championship top 10 (through 20 games of qualifying)
- Jason Couch, 4,672 (+672)
- Bill Rowe, 4,612 (+612)
- Mika Koivuniemi, 4,590 (+590)
- Dan Higgins Jr., 4,480 (+480)
- Michael Machuga, 4,453 (+453)
- Chris Barnes, 4,420 (+420)
- Brian Leclair, 4,419 (+419)
- Andy Neuer, 4,401 (+401)
- Parker Bohn III, 4,393 (+393)
- Tom Adcock, 4,387 (+387)
Full standings - PBA50 World Championship
More information on the WSOB IV is available here.