Striking Spotlight

EJ Tackett leads PBA Guaranteed Rate World Championship into cashers round

Tampa, Fla.—With a 220 average over 10 games, two-time PBA Tour champion Tom Daugherty led PBA Scorpion Championship qualifying and will own the top seed in next week’s best-of-five match play. Daugherty will face PBA Hall of Famer Pete Weber in the opening round.

Weber, who bowled 229 in the final game to earn the 16^th seed, is one of two Hall of Famers to qualify for Scorpion Championship match play, joining No. 8 seed Walter Ray Williams Jr.

Daugherty, the 2012-13 Scorpion Champion, also moved into second place in the PBA Guaranteed Rate World Championship, trailing leader EJ Tackett after 30 games. Tackett, averaging 229, is the only player to qualify for match play in all three animal-pattern events and holds a 97-pin advantage over Daugherty in the World Championship.

Notably missing the cut to the World Championship cashers round are Anthony Simonsen and François Lavoie, who finished 31^st and T-32^nd, respectively. Both players made it to the stepladder finals of each of the first two majors this season, with Lavoie defeating Simonsen to win the Tournament of Champions.

Jason Belmonte, the three-time defending World Champion, also fell short of the top 30, finishing 35^th.

The top 30 players in the World Championship begin cashers round tomorrow at noon ET on FloBowling. After 10 more games, the field will be cut to 16 for match play on Thursday, Mar. 11. To subscribe, visit FloBowling.com.

PBA Scorpion Championship Match Play Qualifiers

AMF University Lanes – Tampa, Fla.

Tom Daugherty +203

Jakob Butturff +169

EJ Tackett +168

Nick Kruml +149

Matt Ogle +145

Kris Prather +138

Zach Weidman +131

Walter Ray Williams Jr. +131

Packy Hanrahan +125

Kyle Troup +120

Jake Peters +114

Michael Tang +107

Andres Gomez +97

Jason Belmonte +97

Dom Barrett +95

Pete Weber +94

Ties were broken by the highest evening block.

Best-of-five Scorpion Championship match play begins Wednesday, Mar. 17 at noon ET on FloBowling. The Scorpion Championship finals air live Mar. 17 at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.

Full PBA Scorpion Championship standings: www.pba.com/node/120356

PBA Guaranteed Rate World Championship Top 11 Through 30 Games

AMF University Lanes – Tampa, Fla.

EJ Tackett +878

Tom Daugherty +781

Bill O’Neill +655

Kyle Troup +566

Marshall Kent +523

Jakob Butturff +508

Sean Rash +494

Tommy Jones +490

Kris Prather +478

Chris Via +475

Michael Tang +475

World Championship cashers round begins tomorrow at noon ET on FloBowling. The stepladder finals air live on FOX Broadcast Channel Saturday, Mar. 13 at 2 p.m. ET.

Full PBA Guaranteed Rate World Championship standings: www.pba.com/node/118416

About the PBA

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the world’s preeminent organization dedicated to the sport of bowling and its professional competition, with thousands of members and millions of fans throughout the world. The PBA plays host to bowling’s biggest tournaments from the PBA Tour, PBA Regional Tour, and PBA50 Tour. In 2020, the PBA launched PBA Jr., a club for elite youth bowlers under the age of 17 and the PBA Pinsiders, a membership for fans of the sport. For more information, please visit PBA.com. 

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