October 5, 2026 Jill Winters

More wild comebacks played out in the final game at both PBA ELITE Regional Tour events in back-to-back weekends. On Sunday at Central Regional 1, Michael Davidson needed to defeat standard division leader EJ Tackett by just over 70 pins in game 19 to earn the win. He came out firing on a pair he had just shot 258 on and rolled 245 to Tackett’s 164 to become the region’s first-ever PBA ELITE champion.

Davidson started his day shooting 915 for four games in the advancers round followed by 237, 269, 169, 224, 235 and 220 before closing with 258 and 245. He had the best match play record of 7-1. Davidson, who in a June Facebook post, described his 2026 PBA Tour season as “a year of being close” comes away with a hard-fought win.

“That was a crazy finish. Obviously, bowling against EJ down 72 going into it, you had to hope for a big game and hope everything goes your way and that is exactly what happened,” Davidson said. “I had a light swisher; that was a good shot. Then it was, ‘Alright, stay focused, keep doing what you have been doing all day, throw good shots’ and fortunately, it fell my way.”

His wife, Erika and son, Tucker were inside EZ Bowl through about game five. When she asked him if he thought he could come back from being down 150-pins he told her a lot of things had to go right, which is clearly did.

With the win, Davidson collected $9,000. Based on their finishes, Brett Lloyd, Hayden Hale, Steve Novak, Jacob Balser and William Hibbard earned their spots in the Regional Players Invitational in December.

Koivuniemi was the wire-to-wire winner in the senior division. After shooting 930 over four games in the advancers round, Koivuniemi used his 5-3 match play record to stay out in front by 282 pins. Behind him was Jason Lundquist in second and Dan Higgins Jr. in third. They each earned their spots in the RPI, as well. Dave Wodka was fourth and Ron Hurt finished in fifth place.

 

“I tried to keep my game pretty simple. Control the pocket and try to stay clean. I knew the scoring pace wouldn’t be that high,” Koivuniemi said. “I used loft and my release to be able to keep a straight line and not try to open up my angles too much. That is all a part of my game plan.”

Koivuniemi, who won $3,500, will be in contention starting on Saturday at David Small’s JAX 60 in the Central Regional 2. Here are the overall final standings.

WEST

Two bowlers earned some sweet redemption at the West Regional 2. After finishing second at the Northwest Regional 1 then sixth in the West Regional 1, Nick Freiberg fought his way to a victory over Jake Peters in the last game at Black Oak Lanes.

With Peters in the lead by only seven pins it came down to a winner take all match. Peters was looking to improve on a third and 14th place finish in two previous PBA ELITE Regionals.

However, Freiberg, who is only 23 years old, came up clutch for the win.

“I just got off that pair and I shot 266. I was pretty comfortable on that pair,” said Freiberg, who won $7,000. “I was almost standing in the same spot doing that same thing I was doing.”

The two-handed righty posted a 5-3 match play record. This is the third regional title in the last 11 months for the Sparks, NV resident, who is also leading the region in points. He is feeling extremely confident in his game and about his future.

“Honestly, this is the best one yet because it’s an ELITE Regional,” he said of this latest victory. “Hopefully, I can work my way on the national tour through these events.”  

In the senior division, Michael Haugen Jr. followed up his second place finish last week in Ventura, CA with a first place win this time around. This was the third time in Haugen Jr.’s career that he has won a tournament at the bowling center in Tuolumne, CA but it definitely wasn’t easy on the 48-foot oil pattern.

“Patience was really the key. They were absolutely brutal in match play. After shooting 177 my third game of match play, I knew I wasn’t going to win the tournament doing what I was doing. I needed to do something else,” Haugen Jr. said. “I switched to throwing my plastic spare ball for strikes. On a couple of tighter pairs I started throwing my Concept, as well. My 30 years of experience on Tour was monumental. To have enough guts to do it, to stick with it and then it works was unbelievably satisfying.”

His focus was on doing whatever was necessary in his mind to keep the ball in play and out of trouble to limit any mistakes. Once he realized he could strike with his new game plan while everyone else was struggling, he said winning the tournament started becoming part of the equation.

“This building has treated me well and treated me well this week. This is my 30th career regional win between the regional and the senior regional and I had not won in a while,” he said, after three second place finishes this year. “It’s pretty cool this ELITE Tour. The fact that we have something to bowl and that they have made it even more enticing with more money made it elite. It’s nice to get a piece of that.”

Haugen Jr. collected $4,200 for first and Jim Pratt finished in second. Haugen Jr. looks forward to competing in the RPI, but before that, he plans on bowling the West Regional 3 next month at South Point in Las Vegas. Yet, he might look into the final two Northwest Regionals as well. Here are the final standings from the West Regional 2.

The top 5 non-PBA Tour priority finishers in every PBA ELITE Regional Tour event earn an automatic berth into the PBA Regional Players Invitational in December. At that prestigious tournament, three priority status positions on the 2027 PBA Tour will be rewarded.

Coming up next for the PBA ELITE Regional Tour is the Southwest Regional 2, East Regional 2 and Central Regional 2 Oct. 10 & 11 in Houston, TX., Binghamton, NY and Jackson, MI. For more details on this tour, click here.