The U.S. Open is one of the four major tournaments in the Professional Bowlers Association. Despite its status as a PBA Tour major, the tournament is open to qualifying amateurs as well as PBA members. The U.S. Open is considered one of the most difficult tournaments to bowl in today, due to its long format and demanding oil pattern, which differs from most oil patterns the PBA employs.
Tournament history
With the exception of 1997 and 2014, the U.S. Open has been held in some form every year since 1942. Prior to 1971, this event was known as the BPAA All-Star. BPAA All-Star winners in the PBA era were initially not credited with PBA titles for their victories. A rule change in 2008, however, retroactively awarded titles to the winners if they were PBA members at the time of their victories. The first modern-day U.S. Open tournament in the PBA took place in 1971 and was won by Mike Limongello. With five wins, Pete Weber holds the most U.S. Open trophies of all time, one more than his father, Dick Weber, and Don Carter. The last player to successfully defend a U.S. Open was Dave Husted, who won the event in 1995 and 1996. The, sponsored by SeagramWine Coolers, offered a then-record total purse of $500,000, and was the first PBA tournament to award a $100,000 winner's share. Unable to find viable sponsorship, the U.S. Open was canceled for 2014, amid speculation that the tournament may not return at all. However, the USBC and BPAA later reached a three-year agreement that brought the tournament back for 2015, 2016 and 2017. The USBC and BPAA secured Bowlmor AMF, the largest operator of bowling centers in the world, as the title sponsor for 2015. The 2015 tournament took place November 2–8 in Garland, Texas. Beginning in 2017 with the U.S. Open held at Flamingo Bowl in Liverpool, New York, the tournament instituted a partial invitational field for the first time. Among those invited are top money leaders among PBA members, top performers from a variety of USBC events, members of Team USA and Junior Team USA, winners of the past ten U.S. Opens, the last three winners from each of the PBA's other major championships, and winners of the current year PBA Regional Tour U.S. Open qualifier tournaments. The "open" portion of the tournament is actually a pre-tournament qualifier with a maximum of 80 entries. Top finishers from the eight-game PTQ then join all those who accepted invitations to round out the starting field of 144 players. The 2018 event had 116 invitational entries and only 28 open spots available via the PTQ. In 2019, only 91 invitees entered the tournament, so 53 open spots were filled from the PTQ.
Format
In 2020, the starting field is only 108 players. After the starting field is determined, players bowl 24 qualifying games in three 8-game blocks on three different lane conditions. The top 36 in pinfall advance to the cashers round for 8 more games. The top 24 players after the cashers round then bowl 24 round-robin, head-to-head match play games, all on the same 41-foot pattern. In the match play round, players are awarded actual pinfall plus 30 bonus pins for every match won. The top five after the match play round advance to the televised championship finals, which is on the same oil pattern as match play.
Current champion
2020 Event
The 2020 U.S. Open was held at Sun Valley Lanes in Lincoln, Nebraska on February 17-22, with a pre-tournament qualifier on February 16. The tournament had a starting field of 108 players and a total prize fund of $170,650. A five-player stepladder finals format was used. Jason Belmonte won from the #2 seed position, topping #1 seed Anthony Simonsen in the final match. This was Belmonte's 23rd PBA Tour title and upped his record in major tournament wins to 12, while making him just the second bowler to win the career "super slam" comprising wins in all five major tournaments.
The U.S. Open featured what PBA.com describes as "the toughest lane oil design in all of bowling." The pattern is considered "flat," meaning equal amounts of oil are applied to every lane board. Many claim the oil pattern was responsible for the lack of left-handed winners in this tournament, because there isn't enough ball traffic on the left side to create a "track area." When Mike Scroggins won the 2009 event in North Brunswick, New Jersey, he became the first left-hander in 20 years to earn a U.S. Open title. Aulby's win was on an oil pattern where oil was applied more heavily on the outer boards, to the point where the outer parts of the lanes were effectively unplayable. In all, left-handers accounted for six victories and nine runner-up finishes at the U.S. Open since 1971. It was also the only major title that left-hander and 43-time titlist Earl Anthony never won in his career, though he did finish runner-up three times. In recent years, lefties Ryan Ciminelli and Rhino Page have won U.S. Opens.
