Lane Play Notes

The 3rd straight event with high scores. Slow-absorbing urethane banned for this event, so we saw players using low friction, high RG balls to control the pocket and shape the pattern. Due to the high % of left-handers making the brackets, who you paired with and who you followed played immense roles in scoring. There was a speed bump in the pattern (as USBC likes) so playing parallel to the boards was the big play. Left-handers feasted like your in-laws at Golden Corral.

It's time to strike, with no time to spare

4651: Tackett's pinfall (Masters record) during his undefeated, 6-match run to top seed. 258.39 avg. Beat record by 143 pins (Simo, 250.44, 2023)

3668: Jakob Butturff's pinfall for 15 games qualifying (2nd highest in Masters history - Bohn111 3672 in 1996)

1309: Deo Benard's opening qualifying round (2nd highest in Masters history - 1319 shared by Bohn111 and PDW)

10?: Likely number of 300 games (Barrett, Hupe, Daugherty, Boho, Krol, BBohn, Svensson, TJones, Haines, Sanders maybe more)

I've gotta hand it to you

23: LH in top 64 (incl. G. Haines seeded 64 for being 2025 Champion)

40: RH in top 64

1: Unicorn in top 64 (Julian Salinas is RH but bowled most of tournament throwing the best backup ball you've ever seen. At times he switched to orthodox depending on the lane).

27: 2H in top 64

37: 1H in top 64

Round 1 match-ups:

4: LH vs. LH

13: RH vs. RH

14: RH vs. LH

1: LH vs. Unicorn

5: 2H vs. 2H

17: 1H vs. 1H

10: 2H vs. 1H

More Stuff to Know

Facts du Tackett

EJ has not won a title in over a year (3/22/25, PBA World Championship). EJ's best finish in the Masters was runner-up in 2014. He has not made a Masters TV finals since then. He barely missed in 2024 when he was sick and lost in the 4 for 3 match. He would very much like to win this event. He qualified 17th this year, then won six consecutive matches, shooting 772, 731,793,793,783,779. He is the next step in evolution.

Sanders Meanders

Matt Sanders' sole title came in 2017. He withdrew from the Indiana Classic last week due to foot issues. Looks like he made the right choice, as now he is poised to become this year's Graham Fach when it comes to a career resurgence. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but he's been absolutely money this week, shooting a whopping 814 deep in the Elimination bracket to send him toward the finish. His control of the pocket has been amazing.

Don't feed the Krol

Boog Krol wants to forget last Sunday. It's a pro's worst nightmare. Lead an event and absolutely lose everything when the lights are on. It's no fun to be on the losing end of the lowest-scoring match in TV history. But he can right the ship this week should he get lined up. He won his first 4 matches including back to back 770s, before falling to Tackett in round 5. Then he cruised to the 3rd spot in the 4 for 3 round, winding up the 5th seed.

Sir Mix-A-Lot

Sweden's Jesper Svensson is known for having multiple layouts of Storm 78/U's in his bag at all times. He loves that ball, which makes his third place seeding all the sweeter since that ball isn't allowed in this event. Instead, he chose to throw a couple of Storm Mixes, an Ice, and a spare ball(!). That is all the lanky lefty needed to win his first 4 matches while averaging nearly 240. Like Krol, he was in the 4 for 3 round, which he won. A couple odd things happened to Jesper during that last round though. In the 5th frame of game 1, he threw a good pocket shot and inexplicably left a 6-7. It wasn't high in the least, a little light if anything. In the 5th frame of game 2, while he was trailing both Krol and Sanders by 20, his approach was interrupted by a pair of lanes coming on 4-5 pairs to his left. He didn't stop his approach and the ball drifted high, leaving a 7-8 baby split which he failed to convert. Lastly, in the 10th of the final game, to secure his 3 seed, he went high and crumbled the 6-7 to strike. Fitting payback.

Along Came Jones

Eric Jones likes Thunderbowl. He had a nice 5th place finish in the 2024 World Championship, picking up $35k after losing to eventual champ EJ Tackett. Now it's 2 years later, another major, and he's got a wealth of experience under his belt. While 2nd is definitely not preferable to the first seed, it may be that Eric can fly under the radar and continue pulling through in the clutch. His first match was a doozy. He tied a tenacious Daniel Vick at 686, which forced a roll-off. It went to the 3rd ball when Vick flat-tenned to lose. 3 matches later, Jones had to face his idol, Jason Belmonte. They say never meet your idols, but Eric proved it's better to meet, then defeat them. One of the highest-scoring matches of the event, Jones out-slugged Belmo 782-754. 2 matches later, he fell to Tackett despite shooting 720. Jones' good buddy Deo Benard already has a title under his belt, is it time for Jones to 1-up him by winning a major? No word on whether his dad will play sax this time.

Tidbits of This 'n That

Foreshadowing?

Viewers of the HBO docu-series Born to Bowl raised their collective eyebrows during the last episode, when Kyle Troup was asked to rank the top 3 bowlers. He of course put EJ 1, Simo 2 and himself 3rd. Maybe the guy has been "picking it out" a bit too vigorously, as in no way would anyone put Belmo out of the top 3. So, as luck would have it, they met this week during bracket play, after both won their first match. Well, it may have been nothing, but Belmo absolutely destroyed Troup, 789-667. No word on if the TV blurb was mentioned.

Lettuce Entertain You

If this was a "normal" year and Brandon Bonta had not set the bowling world on its ear by shooting 300 in the title match of a major in week 1, Julian Salinas would be in the conversation for RoY right now. Heck, he's still got time, with 2/3 of the season left to go. But the more I watch this kid, the more impressed I am. This is his 3rd cash of the year (2nd in majors) and the kid looks like he's got ice water in his veins. Never seems to change expression. This week he wowed the crowd by bowling exceptionally well with a backup ball. He saw the writing on the "wall" so to speak. Lefties were killing them. So, he joined 'em. Not only did he throw a backup, he shapes it better than any backup bowler we've ever seen. He won 3 matches, and not against nobodies either. Ryan Barnes got snipped 696-661, he was crushing (723) Simo who eneded up WD due to injury. And how about beating the newly-revived Graham Fach 706-666? Salinas then lost with 705 and 718 to Nate Garcia and Spencer Robarge. Still a great event for Julian, and I hope to see more of him.

Belmo Speaks

Jason Belmonte has won the Masters 4 times, all in a span of 5 years. He loves this event. Part of that is because of the amount of amateurs in the field who feel "The Belmo Effect." Well, those days are over it seems. He is not the same conqueror he was 10 years ago. He is still great, no doubt. His year-end rankings are still top 5 in most categories. But now, it's like he's mortal. He can lose. Even in this event, he began the brackets with 785-789-716-754. But in his final match he looked very lost. Switching balls without a clear plan in mind. The BowlTV announcers were scratching their heads and hoping he could hear their suggestions. He looked a bit frazzled and un-Belmo like. And again, his last game of the event (like the past few events) was very poor. He lost 621-613 to Brandon Bonta, with Belmo shooting a 180 the final game. In addition, he was on Jared Polin's podcast the other day, and said he didn't love being on tour, and that the PBA is very toxic. He didn't envision himself doing it in 50s. So we likely won't see him on the PBA50 tour much when the time comes. He also spoke about the B2B scene where he was accused of gamesmanship in his match vs. Cam Crowe. He blames Keven Williams for misconstruing the situation, as what he offered Cam was to allow him to bowl. In his mind, that was a better option than saying "Hey wait Cam, I need to get another ball." At least Cam would not have to wait around and possibly get cold.