February 5, 2025 Nolan Hughes

In his first tournament as a PBA Hall of Fame-electee, Bill O’Neill led the PBA Owen’s Illinois Classic field into elimination match play at Bowlero Vernon Hills in Vernon Hills, Ill.

O’Neill averaged more than 237 for his 18 games of qualifying to earn the top seed and a one-round bye into the Round of 16.

O’Neill’s ranked 25th after the first round, but said he figured out the 42-foot Salvino pattern during the second round on Tuesday evening.

“I moved further right, got my hand in a good spot and that gave me great ball reaction,” O’Neill said. “The last two blocks were some of the best I’ve bowled in a long, long time.”

Graham Fach, Santtu Tahvanainen, Matt Ogle, Kris Prather, Ryan Barnes, Shawn Maldonado and Nate Stubler also earned byes into the Round of 16.

During the Round of 24, Chris Via, Jason Belmonte, Sean Rash, Boog Krol, Eric Jones, Tim Foy Jr., Tommy Jones and Hayden Stippich won their respective matches to advance.

The Round of 16 will begin at 11 a.m. local/Central (noon Eastern) on Thursday.

O’Neill and Belmonte also led PBA Roth/Holman Doubles Championship qualifying, which takes the individuals’ combined qualifying scores from the PBA Owen’s Illinois Classic. The duo won the event in 2018 and finished runners-up a year ago.

Additional former doubles champions in the match play field include Matt Ogle and Sean Rash, defending champs Kris Prather and Andrew Anderson, Kyle Troup and Jesper Svensson, and Packy Hanrahan and Mitch Hupé.

But the story on Wednesday afternoon was not one, but two father-son tandems advancing to match play.

Chris Barnes and Ryan Barnes have been competing all season and maintained a top-10 position throughout qualifying. Their presence in match play could have been anticipated.

The emergence of Wes Malott and Jordan Malott, however, required the stars to align before they could put the strikes together.

Jordan is a junior at Indiana Tech University, where he plays first base for the baseball team. The team’s first game of the season is Feb. 15, but the coaching staff allowed Jordan to compete this week in the PBA tournaments.

“This is surreal right now. I can’t believe this is happening,” Jordan told BowlTV. “It’s an honor to bowl with this guy (Wes). He’s won two of these doubles titles, and I’m here bowling with him in the same tournament. And he did it with Norm Duke! I’m not Norm Duke. I’m so grateful for the opportunity he gave me here.”

The 21-year-old showed his age in the first round, averaging 195 to finish in 72nd place of 80 competitors. Then Jordan turned on the jets, averaging almost 240 for his final 12 games to help not only make the PBA Roth/Holman Doubles Championship cut with his dad, but make the PBA Owen’s Illinois Classic cut himself.

Oh, and Jordan beat Wes by six pins, too.

The Malotts’ run began in the second game of the third round, when Wes shot the first of back-to-back 300 games. Jordan kept pace with games of 254 and 256, then added the front-10 and 289 in the following game as well.

O’Neill, who bowled one pair to the left of the Malotts, had a front row seat to the festivities.

“The first game, Wes had a slow rolling messenger that didn’t knock the 10-pin over, and he said something like, ‘I don't got it no more,’” O’Neill said. “And then he threw 27 strikes in a row.”

“I’m a little bit of a sappy dad now,” O’Neill added. “I thought I was going to start crying. I’m in the middle of bowling and I started tearing up watching him bowl with Jordan. It was really, really cool and fun to watch.”

“It feels like the book is already written, and we're just acting the book out now,” Wes said.

The Malotts were dispatched in the Round of 24, but they will return to the lanes on Friday for PBA Roth/Holman Doubles Championship match play.

PBA Owen’s Illinois Classic continues on Thursday.

Both championship rounds will be held on Saturday.

Full standings for the PBA Owen’s Illinois Classic are available here.

Full standings for the PBA Roth/Holman Doubles Championship are available here.

Tournament Schedule

Bowlero Vernon Hills | Vernon Hills, IL

All times Central

Thursday, Feb. 6 | BowlTV
11 a.m. — Elimination Match Play - Round of 16 (best-of-seven games)
6 p.m. — Elimination Match Play - Round of 8 (best-of-seven games)

Friday, Feb. 7 | BowlTV
11 a.m. — Round Robin Match Play (eight games)
6 p.m. — Round Robin Match Play (eight games)

Saturday, Feb. 8 | FS1
3 p.m. — PBA Roth/Holman Doubles Championship stepladder finals (taped) 
7 p.m. — PBA Owen’s Illinois Classic stepladder finals (live)

More information on the PBA Owen’s Illinois Classic is available here.

More information on the PBA Roth/Holman Doubles Championship is available here.