January 27, 2025 Nolan Hughes

A green jacket and the season’s first major championship are up for grabs in Indianapolis

The 2025 season is underway with Graham Fach returning to the winner’s circle in Delaware.

This week, players embark on a quest for the season’s first major championship at Indianapolis’ Royal Pin Woodland, the only venue to have hosted all five majors.

Qualifying for the U.S. Open presented by Go Bowling begins at 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday and continues through Thursday. Match play begins on Friday, leading to the weekend’s two-part stepladder finals on FS1 and FOX.

All qualifying and match play rounds will be livestreamed on BowlTV.

Players to Watch

The stars shone bright in last year’s U.S. Open as Kyle Troup, Anthony Simonsen, Jason Belmonte, EJ Tackett and Bill O’Neill, who own a combined 96 career titles and 30 career major championship wins, all reached the championship round.

No player has won back-to-back U.S. Open titles since Dave Husted in 1995 and 1996. Although Troup has come close, finishing second two years ago before winning last year.

Simonsen and Tackett, the 2022 and 2023 respective champions, have made the U.S. Open finals each of the past three seasons.

Belmonte, who won the 2020 event, could further add to his G.O.A.T. case with a second U.S. Open title this week. 

Only Belmonte and Mike Aulby has won all five majors once, a feat known as the Super Slam. Belmonte sits one U.S. Open title away from winning all five majors twice — oh, and he has won the other majors at least three times each, too.

Kris Prather, who won the 2020 PBA Tournament of Champions and 2022 PBA World Championship, would complete the Triple Crown with a U.S. Open title.

Storylines

Brunswick, largely on the back of Fach’s win, leads the PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands after the first event. The cellar is occupied by all Storm teams, so they’ll look to bounce back in Indy.

Each team will soon submit their roster for the second event of the season, and the triple-point could shake up the standings in a hurry.

The much-anticipated rookie class started off hot in Delaware as all three first-year PBA members advanced to match play. Ryan Barnes finished tied-sixth, losing to Jakob Butturff to miss the show, while Cam Crowe bowed out in the Round of 16 and Hayden Stippich fell in the Round of 24.

The three youngsters proved they can strike on the high-scoring Cheetah pattern. The U.S. Open should prove to be a much stiffer test.

Format

All players will bowl 24 games of qualifying across three different oil patterns. After three rounds of qualifying, the top 24 players will advance to round robin match play.

A fourth oil pattern will be used for the remainder of the event, including match play and the stepladder finals. After 24 games of match play, in which players earn 30 bonus pins for each match victory, the top nine players will advance to the stepladder finals.

The preliminary round of the stepladder finals will air live on FS1 at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, featuring the No. 5-9 seeds. The winner of that round will advance to Sunday’s finals.

The U.S. Open championship round will air live Sunday, Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. ET on FOX.

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

Tournament Schedule

Royal Pin Woodland | Indianapolis, IN

All times Eastern

Tuesday, Jan. 28
8 a.m. — A-squad Qualifying Round 1 (eight games)
1 p.m. — B-squad Qualifying Round 1 (eight games)
6 p.m. — C-squad Qualifying Round 1 (eight games)

Wednesday, Jan. 29
8 a.m. — B-squad Qualifying Round 2 (eight games)
1 p.m. — C-squad Qualifying Round 2 (eight games)
6 p.m. — A-squad Qualifying Round 2 (eight games)

Thursday, Jan. 30
8 a.m. — C-squad Qualifying Round 3 (eight games)
1 p.m. — A-squad Qualifying Round 3 (eight games)
6 p.m. — B-squad Qualifying Round 3 (eight games)

Top 24 players advance to round robin match play

Friday, Jan. 31
10 a.m. — Match Play Round 1 (eight games)
5 p.m. — Match Play Round 2 (eight games)

Saturday, Feb. 1
9 a.m. — Match Play Round 3 (eight games)
4 p.m. — Preliminary Stepladder finals (seeds No. 5-9, winner advances to championship round)
Live on FS1

Sunday, Feb. 2
4 p.m. — Championship Round
Live on FOX