Riveting Regional Finals Set at PBA Players Championship
An assortment of Hall of Famers, rising stars and fresh faces advance to the telecasts across five regionals qualifiers.
The PBA adopted a regional format for the Player Championship last year, as it was the only way to host the tournament within CDC guidelines. But they may have stumbled across an ingenious way to get twenty additional athletes and five extra telecasts on national television. The regional format returned in 2022, with Richmond, Virginia; Tampa, Florida; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Garland, Texas; and Cerritos, California hosting qualifiers.
Sometimes, running it back blows up in your face — looking at you, 2022 Atlanta Hawks — but other times you get the 2015 Kansas City Royals. This was the latter.
After 28 games — 14 on 39’ Chameleon and 14 on 45’ Dragon — these are the advancers in each region and where/when to watch.
Whew, buddy — we’re in for some fun.
East Region — Sat. Jan 22 4:00pm on FS1
Graham Fach — 6,576
Brandon Runk — 6,496
Bill O’Neill — 6,295
Kyle Troup — 6,212
Patrick Dombrowski — 6,203
Paul Smith — 6,179
Tim Pfeifer — 6,169
Matthew Ogle — 6,167
Nathan Ruest-Lajoie — 6,146
Chris Via — 6,098
PBA Player of the Year Kyle Troup’s bid to repeat is alive, while Bill O’Neill’s resurgence over the last few years continues to be a welcome sight on tour. Graham Fach, who the 2016 Players Championship, paced the East region field. Brandon Runk, a lefty from William Paterson University, kept on Fach’s heels.
This is a solid top-five, though a bit uninspiring as Troup’s persona and résumé does most of the heavy lifting.
Headline: Short of Jason Belmonte, Troup is the main draw of any PBA telecast right now. A year ago, Troup had the benefit of the top seed, but he’ll have to crawl his way back onto the major show.
South Region — Sat. Jan 22 6:00pm on FS1
Tommy Jones — 6,541
Norm Duke — 6,248
David Stouffer — 6,142
Toby Sambueno — 6,117
DJ Archer — 6,103
Dick Allen — 6,098
Mike Moore — 6,043
Carlos Granados — 6,041
Tom Daugherty — 6,039
Thomas Larsen — 6,037
Tommy Jones obliterated the field on the Chameleon pattern, averaging 243 — 25 per game more than the next-best player. His performance is not worthy of being the footnote, but when 57-year-old, 40-time champ Norm Duke makes the show, everyone else takes a back seat. Pete Weber and Walter Ray Williams Jr. stepped away from the tour last season, but Duke keeps chugging along.
DJ Archer ran down Dick Allen, the eccentric personality who climbed the South regional ladder from the five-hole last year, in the final game to steal the fifth spot on the show. All due respect to Archer: That’s a loss from an entertainment perspective.
Headline: I mean, it’s Duke. But a close runner-up will be the highlights of Archer/Allen’s final frames on the show. Fry outs make fantastic television.
Midwest Region — Sun. Jan 23 4:00pm on FS1
Sean Rash — 6,405
AJ Johnson — 6,390
EJ Tackett — 6,252
Matt Russo — 6,227
Bailey Mavrick — 6,198
Tom Smallwood — 6,161
Mitch Hupé — 6,143
Kris Prather — 6,122
Zach Weidman — 6,121
Ronnie Russell — 6,093
The talent pool in the Midwest region is not indicative of the top-ten of a PBA regional — this is national tour stop star power. Rash and Tackett are former Player of the Years; Johnson, though without a title, has been a fixture on Team USA for a decade; and Russo is among the top 25-and-under players on the planet — and that’s just the top four.
Smallwood, Hupé, Prather, Weidman (last year’s darling of this event), and Russell all being in contention is the cherry on top.
Headline: I had never heard of Mavrick before this weekend, but only because I’m not from Big Ten country. If he runs down that gauntlet, it’ll be one of the more impressive accomplishments you’ll see on the lanes all year.
Southwest Region — Sun. Jan 23 6:00pm on FS1
Dom Barrett — 6,505
Arturo Quintero — 6,345
François Lavoie — 6,279
Brad Miller — 6,265
Kyle Sherman — 6,251
Keven Williams — 6,249
Patrick Hanrahan — 6,201
Richard Teece — 6,198
Dimitri Cruz — 6,184
Stu Williams — 6,170
The Boomers are gonna love this show: No lefties. No two-handers. No modern power players. Everyone is one-handed righty with a low to medium rev rate. (Although Keven Williams came this close to ruining the Boomer’s afternoon.) That means all five will be playing relatively close to one another, which means transition will be even more fascinating to watch than normal.
Dom Barrett is in the conversation for most underrated player on tour. I’m never surprised when that dude leads a tournament.
I’ll always love Arturo Quintero for striking on national television and yelling “Take that, Trump!” with a pair of shades on. It’s almost unfortunate we likely won’t see a sequel. Almost.
Headline: I was joking with a friend as the qualifying went on that I wanted Sherman to seize the one-seed to set up a Brad and Kyle title match. But as the tournament progressed and Sherman slipped a bit, it became clear that a guaranteed match-up between the vloggers in the first round is much more compelling. Now we get a week’s worth of content with the doubles partners knowing they’re bowling head-to-head on national television.
(Perhaps most importantly to me: Getting Brad vs. Kyle out of the way early allows me to divert my focus to Bills-Chiefs.)
West Region — Mon. Jan 24 7:00pm on FS1
Jakob Butturff — 6,316
Jake Peters — 5,981
Wesley Low Jr. — 5,972
Jason Belmonte — 5,913
Tyler Cortez Schenck — 5,873
Sam Cooley — 5,864
Anthony Simonsen — 5,804
Matt Zweig — 5,800
Deeronn Booker — 5,789
Marshall Kent — 5,753
I’m trying not to be hyperbolic, as there have been some incredible stepladder finals, especially at majors, but this might be the most intriguing top-five I’ve ever seen at a PBA tournament.
The only obvious/notable improvement to this group would have been if Mookie Betts made the show. And if I’m going to nit-pick, maybe Darren Tang or Marshall Kent over Jakob Butturff as well, but I’m not complaining about watching the best lefty in the world.
But getting to watch two of the best youth bowlers of my generation and the best bowler of my (arguably any) generation is one hell of a way to kick off a PBA telecast. Then we get to watch Peters, who’s immediate success in his triumphant return to the tour full-time is the single-best narrative in bowling right now.
Headline: Everything. Bowling does not get much better than the West region finals — and I assure you there will be nothing better to watch next Monday night.
Side note: Tang finished 11th — guess he is just a local standout after all.