Booker Wins USBC Masters for First Career Title

S. Samek

We have a new champion at the USBC Masters, and his name is DeeRonn Booker. Booker was the top seed for the stepladder finals on Sunday, so he only had to win one match to win the title.

Booker defeated Patrick Dombrowski 217-177 to win the title. Dombrowski was the second seed and defeated Jason Belmonte in the semifinal match to reach the championship.

Sam Cooley defeated Richie Teece 206-180 in the opening match of the stepladder. Cooley then dropped the next match 222-191 to Belmonte.

Dombrowski bested Belmonte in a close one 198-193 to keep him out of the finals and a shot at a fifth USCB Masters win.

While Dombrowski was looking for a bit of revenge for a loss to Booker in the seeding match for the show, he was unable to find it. The win gave Booker his first ever PBA Tour title and a major title. It also concluded a strong week that saw him run the bracket all the way to the top seed after qualifying in 58th out of 64th place for the bracket.

USBC Masters Stepladder Final Set

S. Samek

The field has been cut down to five at this weeks USBC Masters. Let’s take a look at who will qualified for the stepladder finals.

Our top seed is Deeronn Booker. Booker entered the bracket as the 58th seed, but he didn’t let that stop him. He went 6-0 including wins over Sam Cooely, EJ Tackett and Anthony Simonsen on his way to the top seed.

Patrick Dombrowski is the number two seed with his only loss in bracket play coming against Booker. Jason Belmonte, Sam Cooley and Richie Teece also made the stepladder finals.

Tackett cam up just short finishing sixth, as he missed out on making the stepladder for the sixth consecutive time.

The stepladder finals takes place at 1:30 PM on FOX.

USBC Masters Bracket Play Day One Recap

S. Samek

Day one of match play is in the books at the USBC Masters. 16 players are left in the winner’s bracket and 16 are left in the loser’s bracket heading into today.

The highest seed left on the winner’s side is second seed EJ Tackett. Tackett will go up against Jason Belmonte in the round of 16, in what many are calling the highlight match of the round.

Number three seed Sam Cooly is still alive on the winner’s side and will face off against 14th seed Keith Guerrero in the current round. No. 6 Cortez Schenck vs. No. 11 Chase Nadeau, No. 5 Carlos Granados vs. No. 53 Richie Teece, No. 20 Sean Lavery-Spahr vs. No. 29 Ryan Barnes, No. 10 Jake Peters vs. No. 58 DeeRonn Booker, No. 16 Patrick Dombrowski vs. No. 33 Zac Tackett and No. 9 Pete Vergos vs. No. 25 Matt Ogle make up the rest of the winner’s bracket round of 16.

Our tournament top seed Markus Jansson is in the loser’s bracket, but still alive. He draws No. 8 Nate Purches in this current round.

No. 7 Giorgio Clinaz vs. No. 52 Chris Barnes, No. 55 Mark Thomas vs. No. 61 AJ Chapman, No. 22 AJ Johnson vs. No. 64 Justin Bohn, No. 27 François Lavoie vs. No. Zach Weidman, No. 50 Quentin Deroo vs. No. 60 Chris Via, No. 12 Zach Wilkins vs. No. 31 Nickolas Freiberg and No. 30 David Stouffer vs. No. 38 Andrew Anderson make up the matches for the current round of the loser’s bracket. The winners move on while the losers are eliminated.

Who Will advance in the bracket and move closer to the stepladder finals? Keep tuning in to find out!

Jansson Retakes lead Heading into USBC Masters Bracket

S. Samek

Markus Jansson finished the 15 games of qualifying in first place at plus 508 averaging over 233 to earn the top seed for the bracket. EJ Tackett, Sam Cooley, Justin Veitch and Carlos Granados are the rest of the top five.

Cooley was the leader after round two. Tackett is looking to finish the grand slam with a win, as well as get his first title of the 2024 season. He is in second place in the bracket.

Anthony Simonsen qualified in 26th place as defending champion of the event. Chris Barnes finished tied for 51st place as he looks to win the masters and finish the grand slam. Jason Belmonte looking to add another masters title finished in 18th.

Dom Barrett finished in 181st place and won’t get a chance to win the masters title he needs to complete the grand slam.

Match play starts today, and the bracket is double elimination. Who will emerge victorious?

Cooley Takes control After round Two At USBC Masters

S.Samek

Sam Cooley shot a strong second round to put himself in first place after 10 games at the USCB Masters. Cooley shot a 1,298 block to take the lead. Which that mark was a run at Parker Bohn’s Masters scoring record for a block at 1,319. While he came up short of that mark he is still ahead of the field.

Markus Jansson, Giorgio Clinaz, Cortez Schenck and Robin Persson make up the remainder of the top five. Jansson feel from first place after the first round to second place. Clinaz and Schenck have both remained in the top five for the entire tournament.

Anthony Simonsen was struggling and sat outside the cut line; however, he has moved into 34th place after 10 games.

The cut for the final spot 64th place is Fujimura Takashi of Japan at +178.

Round three is today before the cut to the top 64 bracket.

Jansson Leads USBC Masters after Round One

S.Samek

The USBC Masters is underway with the completion of the first five game block of qualifying. The field is quite large at 465 players so the cut to make it to the top 64 is going to be challenging.

Markus Jansson from Sweden is the current leader after the first five games, he is plus 274 pins with 1,274. Justin Bohn, Justin Veitch, Giorgio Clinaz, Matt Ogle and Cortez Schenck make up the rest of the top five.

Defending champion Anthony Simonsen is struggling sitting in 154th place. However, even if he does finish outside of the top 64, he will get the 64th seed in the bracket as defending champion.

Riley Woodard, David Stouffer, Israel Hernandez, Jake Peters, Kaaron Salomaa and Carlos Granados at +112 is the current cut line for a spot in the top 64 bracket.

Qualifying Round two is today. Will Jansson keep up the pace and keep the lead, or will a new leader emerge? Will the six-way tie for the last spot resolve itself, or keep going on? Stay tuned to find out.

2024 USBC Masters Preview

S. Samek

Another PBA major tournament is upon us this week, the USBC Masters. Let’s preview the 2024 version of the event.

The PBA is back after a brief break for the all-star weekend and the last tournament was the Delaware Classic, which was won by David “Boog” Krol for first career title. Krol is looking to win his first major title and advance up the points lust where he is currently ranked sixth.

The defending champion in the event is actually a two-time defending champion in Anthony Simonsen, who looks to three peat for his fourth Masters title.

Jason Belmonte is another strong contender to win the Masters, as he has already done so four times. However, he hasn’t won this event sense 2017. A win this week would give him major title number 16.

EJ Tackett, Dom Barrett and Chris Barnes are looking to win the Master this week in order to complete the Grand Slam. Tacket has reached the championship finals of every event sense the US Open, but has come up title less, in his quest to repeat as PBA player of the year.

Qualifying for the event starts Monday March 25th, 2024, and runs until Wednesday March 27th, 2024. Afterwards the top 63 as well as Simonsen will be placed in a bracket for double elimination match play. The stepladder finals then take place on Sunday Match 31, 2024.