Anthony Simonsen Advances to Fourth Straight U.S. Open Finals

Five players remain in the fight for the coveted green jacket, awarded to the U.S. Open presented by Go Bowling champion.

Four of them — EJ Tackett, Chris Via, François Lavoie and Anthony Simonsen — already have one in their closet. The other, Andrew Anderson, earned the top seed as the tournament leader.

Anderson, Tackett, Via and Lavoie secured their berth in the finals by finishing in the top four after 48 games of qualifying and match play.

Simonsen defeated Tom Daugherty in the final match of Saturday’s preliminary stepladder, featuring the fifth through ninth qualifiers, to join the star-studded quartet on Sunday.

Daugherty knocked off the surging Kris Prather, who defeated 18-year-old Landin Jordan and Graham Fach in the opening matches.

Sunday’s finals will mark the fourth consecutive U.S. Open with both Tackett and Simonsen in the championship round.

Simonsen defeated Tackett in the 2022 title match, then Tackett prevailed in the 2023 championship over Kyle Troup. Troup got the best of both superstars in 2024 en route to claiming his own U.S. Open crown.

“For one person to do it is kind of unbelievable,” Tackett said. “But for two guys to do it at the exact same time, in the exact same building, in the exact same tournament, I don't know what word to use for that. Special, maybe? I love this place. I know Simo does, too. He's got a lot of great memories in this building, as do I, and hopefully I can create a new one tomorrow.”

Simonsen’s history of success at Royal Pin Woodland dates back to 2016, when he won his first career major and became the youngest ever major champion. But to reach this year’s finals, he channeled back even further.

“While I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking about what Norm Duke would have done on this pattern back in 1985,” Simonsen said to USBC media. “I think that he would stand as close to the dry as he could and kind of knuckle the ball. For a couple games this morning, I tried to do my version of it. I'll probably just do that again tomorrow and see if we can get a couple games under our belt and have an understanding of what the pair is doing and go from there.”

In order to reach Tackett in the semifinals, Simonsen will have to get past two-time U.S. Open champion François Lavoie, who rose from ninth place to fourth during Saturday’s final round of match play, and the 2021 event champion Chris Via.

At the top of the stepladder will be Andrew Anderson, who led the event nearly wire-to-wire.

The championship round begins at 4 p.m. ET live on FOX.

More information on the U.S. Open presented by Go Bowling is available here.

Preliminary Stepladder Results

No. 8 Kris Prather def. No. 9 Graham Fach, 244-190
No. 8 Kris Prather def. No. 7 Landin Jordan, 218-170
No. 6 Tom Daugherty def. No. 8 Kris Prather, 214-177
No. 5 Anthony Simonsen def. No. 6 Tom Daugherty, 233-211

Championship Round

No. 4 François Lavoie vs. No. 5 Anthony Simonsen
Winner vs. No. 3 Chris Via
Winner vs. No. 2 EJ Tackett
Winner vs. No. 1 Andrew Anderson

Tournament Schedule

Royal Pin Woodland | Indianapolis, IN

Sunday, Feb. 2 | FOX
4 p.m. ET — Championship Round