Stepladder Finals Set at Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship
Top 16 doubles teams advance to round-robin match play
The stepladder finals of the 2024 Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship, the first title event of the PBA World Series of Bowling XV, is set.
The five baker doubles teams advancing to the finals, in order of seeding, are Andrew Anderson and Kris Prather, Jason Belmonte and Bill O’Neill, Dom Barrett and Anthony Simonsen, Jesper Svensson and Kyle Troup, and defending champions Packy Hanrahan and Mitch Hupé.
The 10 finalists own a combined 103 PBA Tour titles, 32 major titles and 11 Roth/Holman PBA Doubles victories.
Teams bowled 10 individual games on Thursday — five on the 38-foot Holman pattern and five on the 42-foot Roth pattern — before 16 games of round-robin, dual-pattern baker match play on Friday.
Anderson and Prather seized the No. 1 seed by surpassing Belmonte and O’Neill in the position round. The 2021 champions of this event started the tournament in 46th place after Game 1 and steadily rose all the way to the top seed.
“It was a very nervous start,” Anderson said. “We both want this. We talk about it all the time. I mean literally all the time, especially me. We already have a win. We have multiple shows. We know what it's like to do this, and so even after Game 1, there was nothing that was stopping us.”
“To get to bowl for a title in Michigan (45 minutes from his hometown of Holly), it’s going to be pretty special,” Anderson added. “I would be lying if I said I haven't been thinking about this every day for a while. I've been close, man. I've been so close. It’s been a rough ride the last couple of years. The irony is the last time we won the doubles, it was in his home state and now we’re in mine, so maybe we’re going to turn it around.”
Prather has gone through similar struggles over the past couple seasons, finishing 16th in 2023 season points and sitting 36th through seven events this season. He said he spent a few hours working with Mike Jasnau after the USBC Masters last week and a simple suggestion to his footwork has paid immediate dividends.
“I've been throwing it physically better than I have in a long time,” Prather said. “After dealing with the (forearm) injury last year, I finally feel like I'm back to 100%. I'm so excited to be bowling on TV again.”
Belmonte and O’Neill, who won the event in 2018, led from Game 31-35 before the position round. The most-accomplished team in the finals takes a less-is-more approach when it comes to communication.
“It’s about letting Bill do what Bill does, and Bill lets me do what I do,” Belmonte said. “I don't think there's too many opinions flying around. We talk about what we see, but we really just stay out of each other's way and let our natural games glide into it. When he’s as great as he is, I really don't need to say too many things.”
O’Neill said he struggled during qualifying, but Belmonte threw enough strikes to get the team through until he worked out his physical game issues. Once O’Neill corrected his body position and straightened his swing on Friday, he said, he was able to get himself dialed in.
Four of the five teams have previously won the event; Simonsen and Barrett are the only team who hasn’t.
“It’s our turn now,” Barrett said.
However, Simonsen won his first career title at the 2016 Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship with Connor Pickford, which makes Barrett the lone player to have not won the event. Barrett said he struggled on Friday morning, but Simonsen kept the team going.
“Simo managed that left lane better than most people who bowled for sure,” Barrett said. “I managed to strike a decent amount on the right lane to keep up. It was one of the things where we sort of just bowled, looked up and we’re third.”
Qualifying and match play were held in the main bay of Thunderbowl Lanes, which contains lanes 21-74. The finals will be held in the newly-renamed “Strobl Arena” on lanes 11-12.
Tom Strobl, who helped launch the inaugural World Series of Bowling in 2009, passed away last April. PBA Commissioner Tom Clark announced the renaming of the arena during the PBA SKILL Ball Challenge last summer.
“I’ve bowled over there most recently out of everybody,” said Simonsen, who won the 2023 USBC Masters in the arena. “I think we've got a pretty good understanding. I think it'll just be a matter of coming out and getting comfortable very quickly since it's half as many (practice) shots as you normally get, and then see what happens from there.”
Troup and Svensson lost their position round match with Simonsen and Barrett, but tied Hupé and Hanrahan for the final berths on the show. Troup beat Hanrahan in a one-ball roll-off with a strike to the lefty’s eight-count to earn the No. 4 seed and advance to their fourth doubles show.
“It's one of the tournaments that we look forward to the most,” Svensson said. “In a team environment, if you're not really comfortable with who you're bowling with, it's going to be tough. We definitely enjoy bowling together and make each other comfortable and always bounce off of each other. It shows. Maybe we didn't have the absolute best ball reaction in the building, but we definitely fought our way here.”
“Our friendship is what makes us so good,” Troup said. “We have the same energy. I'm starting to find that killer mentality that Jesper has had for years and we just enjoy bowling together.”
The tournament bears the name of PBA Hall of Famers Mark Roth and Marshall Holman, who won three doubles titles together on the PBA Tour.
Troup and Svensson, two-time doubles champions, said their goal is to get the tournament renamed after themselves before they retire.
“We’re probably going to need more than three titles,” Troup said. “I don’t think anybody wanted us to make the show, so I think that’s how confident we feel.”
In the opening match of the finals — which will be taped Saturday, April 6 at 6 p.m. ET and air Sunday, April 14 at noon ET on FS1 — Svensson and Troup will meet Hanrahan and Hupé, who won last year’s Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship in Middletown, Del.
While the duo cruised to the No. 1 seed a year ago, they were never in the top five until the final shot thrown on Friday.
Hanrahan and Hupé entered the position round in eighth place and 80 pins behind fifth place. After starting with a spare, they threw 10 consecutive strikes to shoot 289 and jump all the way into a tie for fourth place.
“Packy is always so positive. He just said, ‘Let's throw a good game and you never know,’” Hupé said. “We threw five good shots each. We got lucky at the end, a few breaks went our way and unfortunately for the other team it didn't go their way, and here we are.”
Jason Sterner and Tom Smallwood, who were in sixth place and won the position round over fifth-placed Mathias Ankerdal and Tim Stampe 220-200, finished 10 pins out of the show. Smallwood left a 2-8-10 split in the 10th frame of the final game.
Hanrahan and Hupé, who won last year’s event on BowlTV, said they are excited about the opportunity to defend their title on national television.
“It's cool that we get to try and defend the title,” Hanrahan said. “Whatever happens, happens. It's so hard to win, so you don't come in expecting to win this tournament.”
The Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship finals will be taped Saturday, April 6 at 6 p.m. ET and air Sunday, April 14 at noon ET on FS1.
Tickets for the show taping, which includes entry to the 1:30 p.m. ET PBA Elite League matches, are available here.
Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship Leaders
- Andrew Anderson and Kris Prather, 8,665 (+1,465)
- Jason Belmonte and Bill O’Neill, 8,644 (+1,444)
- Dom Barrett and Anthony Simonsen, 8,595 +1,395)
- Jesper Svensson and Kyle Troup, 8,551 (+1,351)
- Packy Hanrahan and Mitch Hupé, 8,551 (+1,351)
- Tom Smallwood and Jason Sterner, 8,541 (+1,341)
- Mathias Ankerdal and Tim Stampe, 8,512 (+1,312)
- Ethan Fiore and Pete Vergos, 8,453 (+1,253)
- Nathan Ruest-Lajoie and Zach Wilkins, 8,401 (+1,201)
- Patrick Dombrowski and Trevor Roberts, 8,369 (+1,169)
- JR Raymond and Cody Shoemaker, 8,326 (+1,126)
- Deo Benard and Eric Jones, 8,283 (+1,083)
- Justin Knowles and Zac Tackett, 8,276 (+1,076)
- Dick Allen and Zeke Bayt, 8,199 (+999)
- Tom Daugherty and BJ Moore, 8,188 (+988)
- François Lavoie and Stu Williams, 8,101 (+901)
Full standings are available here.
WSOB Schedule
Thunderbowl Lanes | Allen Park, Mich.
All times Eastern
Saturday, April 6
10am — WSOB Pre-tournament Qualifier (five games; short pattern)
1:30pm — PBA Elite League Round 12 (live on FS1)
- High Rollers vs. Lumberjacks; Wonders vs. Strikers
5pm — WSOB Pre-tournament Qualifier (five games; long pattern)
6pm — WSOB Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship finals taping (airs April 14 on FS1)
Sunday, April 7
Noon — PBA Elite League Round 12 (live on FS1)
- KingPins vs. L.A. X; Atom Splitters vs. Muscle
3pm — Official WSOB practice session
Monday, April 8
11am — Cheetah Championship Qualifying Round 1 (five games)
6pm — Cheetah Championship Qualifying Round 2 (five games)
Tuesday, April 9
11am — Cheetah Championship Qualifying Round 3 (five games)
- Top 16 players advance to elimination match play
6pm — Cheetah Championship Match Play Round of 16 (best of five games)
8:30pm — Cheetah Championship Match Play Round of 8 (best of five games)
- Four winners and highest-defeated qualifier in Round of 8 advance to Cheetah Championship stepladder finals, airing live April 15 at 7pm on FS1
Wednesday, April 10
11am — Scorpion Championship Qualifying Round 1 (five games)
6pm — Scorpion Championship Qualifying Round 2 (five games)
Thursday, April 11
11am — Scorpion Championship Qualifying Round 3 (five games)
- Top 16 players advance to elimination match play
6pm — Scorpion Championship Match Play Round of 16 (best of five games)
8:30pm — Scorpion Championship Match Play Round of 8 (best of five games)
- Four winners and highest-defeated qualifier in Round of 8 advance to Scorpion Championship stepladder finals, airing live April 16 at 7pm on FS1
Friday, April 12
11am — Shark Championship Qualifying Round 1 (five games)
6pm — Shark Championship Qualifying Round 2 (five games)
Saturday, April 13
11am — Shark Championship Qualifying Round 3 (five games)
- Top 16 players advance to elimination match play
- Top 16 players through 45 games of Cheetah, Scorpion and Shark Championship qualifying advance to World Championship round-robin match play
6pm — Shark Championship Match Play Round of 16 (best of five games)
8:30pm — Shark Championship Match Play Round of 8 (best of five games)
- Four winners and highest-defeated qualifier in Round of 8 advance to Shark Championship stepladder finals, airing live April 17 at 7pm on FS1
Sunday, April 14
Noon— Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship finals on FS1
1pm — Pro-am
Monday, April 15
7pm — PBA Cheetah Championship finals on FS1
Tuesday, April 16
7pm — PBA Scorpion Championship finals on FS1
Wednesday, April 17
7pm — PBA Shark Championship finals on FS1
Thursday, April 18
10am — World Championship Match Play Round 1 (eight games)
5pm — World Championship Match Play Round 2 (eight games)
- Top nine players advance to PBA World Championship stepladder finals
Saturday, April 20
7pm — PBA World Championship semifinals on FS1 (seeds 5-9)
Sunday, April 21
Noon — PBA World Championship finals on FOX