By BILL SNIER
FAIRLAWN — Two-time defending PBA Player of the Year EJ Tackett had a simple response to how he finished his 18 qualifying games Wednesday.
“I guess, that’s the best way to finish,” said Tackett, who already has clinched the PBA points title for 2025 and is well on his way to a three-peat in the player of the year race.
After sitting in 34th place after the opening six games of qualifying Tuesday and averaging just 217 at AMF Riviera Lanes, Tackett took off from there during the PBA Tournament of Champions.
The 32-year-old Bluffton, Ind., right-hander, who owns seven career major titles including the 2017 TOC in Edmond, Okla., finished his third round of qualifying with the tourney’s sixth 300 game to finish with 4,348 total pinfall — 37 pins ahead of fellow Indiana right-hander Kevin McCune. McCune led the tourney through two qualifying rounds.
“I felt like I bowled pretty well in the first round, but I just got some unfortunate breaks,” Tackett said. “I didn’t bowl 150 or 160 over, but it was a good enough start.
“But I drilled up a couple of balls and was able to see the lane a little better. The rest is kind of history after that. As we bowled, I kept throwing it better and better.”
Tackett rose from 34th to sixth after the second qualifying round, finishing with 278. He then completed his run to the top by shooting 825 over his final three qualifying games.
It comes after Tackett missed the cut for match play during the Players Championship last week in Michigan.
“It was a struggle last week, but I was able to work through a couple of things back home,” Tackett said. “I think some of my timing got off a little bit. In the first round here, I felt I bowled well, but the ball wasn’t cohesive yet.
“Drilling the new balls and seeing the lane differently …. everything sort of melted together and the last 12 games have been pretty special.”
Tackett averaged 241.56 in his quest to set the PBA’s all-time average record for a season. He entered this week at 229.42 overall. Australian two-handed righty Jason Belmonte owns the mark of 229.39, set in 2017.
Although Tackett has a TOC title, he has never won at AMF Riviera Lanes, although he has made the stepladder finals three times, including being the runner-up a year ago.
“It would be really special because this is a very special building to bowling and professional bowling. It’s where it all started,” Tackett said. “Any sort of win in this building would be special. The Tournament of Champions just makes it more cool.”
LAVOIE MAKES RUN
Canadian right-hander Francois Lavoie also made a big run during the third round of qualifying. The 2021 TOC winner in Jupiter, Fla., was sitting on the cut line after Round 1 and in 23rd after two rounds.
But urethane equipment proved to be the answer for Lavoie on Wednesday.
“I really didn’t have a number in mind, but I felt if I got to around 450 I would be around the cut, but it was less than that,” Lavoie said. “I didn’t think it would be double my score.”
Lavoie was able to shoot 1,050 over his first four games in the final qualifying round to surge into the top 10, ending up sixth with 4,189.
“I just found something with urethane the first couple of games and I was able to stay with it,” said Lavoie, who admitted he only threw urethane equipment for about “a game and a half” during each of the first two rounds.
“When everyone else changed balls and went out of urethane (Wednesday), I was able to stay in it for four games,” Lavoie said. “The fifth game, I had to go to reactive and made a pretty big jump to the left to open the lanes up a little more.
“But the first four games were pretty stress free and understandable.”
He hopes his use of urethane can continue as match play begins.
“Match play has been a little tricky for me in this building. In the evening, they tend to hook more and you have to think about angles,” Lavoie said. “I have a few options, but it definitely is not my ‘A’ game.
“This morning, I was not forced to get out of (urethane). I just upped my speed and kept it on line. That didn’t really work earlier.”
THE CUT
Pre-tournament qualifier Bailey Mavrick earned the final cut spot, going 245 and 234 over his final two games to finish with 4,024. PTQ winner Nicholas Pate went 235 back-to-back his final two games, but fell 19 pins short (4,055).
Also missing the cut was 2024 TOC winner Marshall Kent, who had three games under 200 during the final qualifying session and finished with 4,001 — missing by 23 pins.
Belmonte, a four-time TOC winner including 2023 at AMF Riviera, made some critical shots down the stretch — running off five strikes in a row at the end — to shoot 218 his final game and get to 22nd place to make the cut by just 22 pins.
NOTEBOOK: Today’s first round of match play begins at 6 p.m. with eight games for the top 24. Two more match-play rounds follow at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Thursday to determine the top nine for the stepladder finals. The first stepladder finals — for seeds nine through 5 — is set for 5 p.m. Saturday. The winner of that grouping will be the No. 5 seed for Sunday’s 3 p.m. championship stepladder. Saturday will be televised on FS1; Sunday’s finals are on FOX. … Two senior players — Tom Daugherty (4,167) and Mika Koivuniemi (4,084) — also made the cut in seventh and 17th place, respectively. … Three bowlers from the PTQ — Mavrick, Matt Sanders (ninth, 4,133) and runner-up Matt Zweig (18th, 4,075) also advanced. … Players champion Ethan Fiore, who also shot 300 during the second round, finished 23rd to make the cut despite shooting just 180 his final game. The 20-year-old two-hander finished with 4,027. … Also shooting 300 during the final qualifying round was left-hander Jacob Butterf in Game 15. He finished fourth overall. … Fairport Harbor’s Casey Cohagan shot 268 his final game and finished 57th overall in the 64-player field with 3,703, an average of 205.72.